So I upgraded from a 9600GT to this evga gtx 550 ti. I greatly enjoyed the improvements, I can now play all my games at max (Even Entropia Universe) but the big problem I have is the temperature, This is a standard card, no overclock but im reaching 65c idl and 82 during heavy games!!!! This is very high from what I have seen from what people talk about being a high temperature, I went from 42 idl 62 max on my 9600 to this? My case has 2 extra side fans and a large rare fan, the cooling should be fine but this card is getting way to hot!. Do I need to worry about this? The fan idles at 34%, I have tried setting it to max, gets the temp down by about 7 on idle but sounds like a jet. Any ideas? Thanks

my apoligies, it seems to be a superclocked model

do you have good cable management??
waht about your case model and fan set up?? how many fans?
you should proly set tehm like this:

or like this (same just different picture):

 
front and bottom fans as intake fans and rear and top fans as exhaust fans.
if you have fans on your window they should also be set up as intake fans for the cpu and your video card.
do you raise fan speed when you play your games??
download and run evga precision or MSI afterburner and raise fan speed or create a custom fan profile for gaming (when you play your games).
but 62c for idle seems a little high.
 

62 at idle isn't just a little high thats almost double than what it should be lol
 
Mine is the FPB model and i overclocked it to over a 1000 core and 2200 memory stable and it idles at 34.

The Rudster

So I upgraded from a 9600GT to this evga gtx 550 ti. I greatly enjoyed the improvements, I can now play all my games at max (Even Entropia Universe) but the big problem I have is the temperature, This is a standard card, no overclock but im reaching 65c idl and 82 during heavy games!!!! This is very high from what I have seen from what people talk about being a high temperature, I went from 42 idl 62 max on my 9600 to this? My case has 2 extra side fans and a large rare fan, the cooling should be fine but this card is getting way to hot!. Do I need to worry about this? The fan idles at 34%, I have tried setting it to max, gets the temp down by about 7 on idle but sounds like a jet. Any ideas? Thanks

Your load temps aren't anywhere near "extreme". If your card was getting to 100C then you'd have a problem. The GF118 in the GTX550 Ti is rated to 97C before it throttles down. It sound to me like you have poor air circulation in your case. Try downloading a program like MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision and set a higher fan speed.

I have the same problem as The Rudster, cept mine cuts out and crashes my games at high temp cut out. I have EVGA Precision installed and set the fan to max for gaming, have even try'd turning the clock and memory down to low but still cuts out. I running the EVGA GeForce 550 ti 2 gig card that came super clocked. all in all I don't feel that this card is worth the money I paid for it. EVGA recommends using a 1050 watt psu as the card pulls 400 watts by its self. I have awesome air flow with 5x140 mm fans, 2 intake and 3 exhaust, Exhaust fans are turned down by 1/3 speed to achieve positive air flow. but yet this still doesn't make a difference in the truly high temps of this gpu. Load temps of the gpu run around 120 to 131 degrees F, high temp cut out is at 131 F which seems very low for a gpu like this. 
My advice to you The Rudster try changing your psu to at least a 1000 watt psu. as you can see the people that are not having these excessive heat problems are running 1000 watt or higher psu's. personally i would rather opt for a different gpu like the msi gtx 1660 where you wont have these problems......
 

Urban420
I have the same problem as The Rudster, cept mine cuts out and crashes my games at high temp cut out. I have EVGA Precision installed and set the fan to max for gaming, have even try'd turning the clock and memory down to low but still cuts out. I running the EVGA GeForce 550 ti 2 gig card that came super clocked. all in all I don't feel that this card is worth the money I paid for it. EVGA recommends using a 1050 watt psu as the card pulls 400 watts by its self. I have awesome air flow with 5x140 mm fans, 2 intake and 3 exhaust, Exhaust fans are turned down by 1/3 speed to achieve positive air flow. but yet this still doesn't make a difference in the truly high temps of this gpu. Load temps of the gpu run around 120 to 131 degrees F, high temp cut out is at 131 F which seems very low for a gpu like this. 
My advice to you The Rudster try changing your psu to at least a 1000 watt psu. as you can see the people that are not having these excessive heat problems are running 1000 watt or higher psu's. personally i would rather opt for a different gpu like the msi gtx 1660 where you wont have these problems......
 

Its suppose to throttle down at high temps, which on that series was at 72c, i believe, and if it made it to 90 it may shutdown. Thats good that you dropped the ram and gpu speed but you need to drop your in game textures,shadows,anti-aliasing etc... to match those lower physical card settings or it will indeed crash even faster. The card doesnt pull 400 watts by itself, it has a 6 pin plug on the rear, so between the pci-e slot and the 6 pin the most it could pull by itself would be 150 watts. They usually recommend a 500 watt psu with this size card, which is to run your WHOLE PC and is def capable to do that at 500 watts. Will the psu be efficient and last a long time? Probably not but if its a really well made unit and you dont run the pc real hard everyday, have it on 24/7 you may get a different result. You would also be better served with 3 intake and 2 exhaust, that way you have more cool air running over all and is probably why its not helping. PSU's arent used for heat reduction, theyre for power, but they can contribute.