Radeon X1950 Pro AGP VRM issues. NOT A NECRO!

[Hi-Fi Man]

So I have this old VisionTek Radeon X1950 Pro AGP card that I'm trying to use in my retro build but the problem is it's artifacting on me.

Retro nVIDIA build of oldness...

Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (undervolted to 1.2v)
4x1GB DDR400
MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum (nForce 3 250)
Antec earthwatts 380D
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic (replaced op amp)
Ageia PhysX PCI card
samsung 3.5" floppy drive
LG PATA DVD writer
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 500GB
Cooler Master Elite 334 nVIDIA edition

Pretty cool stuff...

Anyways, it seems these Radeon X1950 Pros are notorious for overheating MOSFETs due to lack of direct cooling on these cards. Indeed my VisionTek only has some of the MOSFETs covered by a backplate.

My conclusion is that these overheating MOSFETs are the cause especially considering it gets worse the more it's running/under load. I was thinking of heatsinking them properly to fix this but I'm not sure what heatsinks to get (preferably something cheap). Any recommendations?

Side note: These ATI cards of yore seem to have had a lower build quality than the opposing nVIDIA cards. My GeForce 7800 GS and 6800 GT both have low Rds(on) MOSFETs and low ESR caps on them...

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Isn't artifacting usually a memory problem?

You could test if it's heat by aiming a high power fan at it I guess.

 

[Leyawiin]

Isn't artifacting usually a memory problem?

You could test if it's heat by aiming a high power fan at it I guess.

Makes the most sense. If it still artifacts with a fan a few inches from it there's no reason to take it apart to put heatsinks on it.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

So I finally got it. The reason I thought it might have been the MOSFETs is because after awhile of no use it would be fine. But now it's artifacting all day long no matter what. What a shame.

That's what I get for using an ATI card with all this NV stuff...

 

[Leyawiin]

That has nothing to do with it. My X850 XT AGP was quite happy sitting in an nForce 3 250 motherboard for eight years.

 

[soccerballtux]

necro build, inaccurate title