What is an efficient way to find out if a video card is overheating?

[Nocturnal]

My friend said often times while he's playing games, his unit will revert to like 16bit color and then say something is wrong with the graphics device. Is this safe to assume that the video card is overheating? Is there a universal program that can tell any video card's temp?

 

[Kromis]

ATITool! But it doesn't show the temps of older cards...

 

[BlacKJesuS]

Universal Program....put your finger on it

 

[clickynext]

Yeah, put your finger on it. But be careful, if it's really overheating it could burn...

 

[Sc4freak]

Originally posted by: Kromis
ATITool! But it doesn't show the temps of older cards...

It does, but your card has to have an onboard temperature chip.

If it doesn't, the only way to find the temperature is to measure it with your finger or shove a thermometer under the heatsink.