Can one graphics API cause more heat than another?

[KB]

That is, does Direct3D cause your GPU to use more voltage to do more calculations, thus heating it up hotter than OpenGL would? The reason why I think it does is because of the trouble I am having today. I found out that the heatsink fan on my GeForce2 Pro is slowing down (dieing). I figured this out because I was getting SEVERE graphics errors in Direct3D games like emulators and Half-Life and thought heat might be an issue. Just to make sure it was heat I updated my drivers and re-installed DirectX. This did not fix the problem. When I put a card cooler near my video card, some of the graphics errors did clear up, but not all. All this while, DirectDraw and OpenGL still worked just fine.

Any ideas on the problem. Is it really heat ( I have several fans and motherboard monitor says my case temp is 82F)? If so are there any guides for removing the heatsink from a LeadTek GeForce 2 Pro? Or did the card die on me and should I just go and get a new one?

 

[Hapless]

it does sound like heat is causing your problem, and luckily changing the heatsink/fan on geforce 2's is very easy. remove the current heatsink (assuming its glued on with thermal epoxy and isnt using any sort of mounting mechanism) by freezing the area between the heatsink and the gpu with compressed air, inserting a plastic card like a credit card inbetween the two, and then using a small flathead screwdriver pry off the heatsink. clean off the thermal epoxy off of the gpu using something like rubbing alcohol, and put a blue orb chipset cooler made by thermaltake on the card (they cost about ~$10-15).