I decided to buy this aftermarket cooler.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186063&cm_re=arctic-_-35-186-063-_-Product Heres my review on newegg.
Pros: I am pretty impressed with the way the Arctic Accelero Mono plus VGA cooler kept my video card cool. All things considered it really wasn't that expensive and if you can live with the cons this is an ideal option for someone who had a fan die or just wants to replace the poorly designed stock cooler. This cooler is so confusing to install because it has a very large array of cards that it can fit on. I personally followed a Youtube video of an installation that was in another language that I didn't understand because it was easier than following the directions. Here's the but...
Cons: Its ugly. Very big on the video card and its a bit heavy and makes my video card sag a bit in the slot. Make sure your case has enough room for this to fit. The directions were difficult. But its only because there are many parts that help with the install on a large variety of video cards. That being said.. None of that matters when you consider its performance.
Other Thoughts: I installed the cooler on a GTX760 4gb card. The stock cooler used heat sinks and 1 single cooler to bring the hot air out of the card. Never actually blew air onto the card. I will NEVER buy a card designed with such a bad cooler ever again. My video card looked HUGE until I got it taken apart. The fan took up half the size of the card. I'm actually a bit embarrassed I bought the card in the first place.
Stock cooler sat idle at 50C and under load would reach temps in the 70's! This cooler brought my temp down to 30 at idle and 45C when playing arma2. stress temps never go over 54. Its also allowed me to overclock the GTX760 and get an extra 100MHZ off the GPU. Im happy I bought it to extend the life of my card instead of buying a new one. I will hand this card down to the kids in a few months.
post edited by SpecterM - 2015/03/29 20:22:30