kony wrote:
I don't understand your question though, you're asking IF
you needed to replace it. Is there impending doom? Unless
it has a fan that fails and the card bakes itself to death,
the card might outlive the motherboard.

The card has a heatsink/fan that has once previously failed. It was
still in warranty, so I got it replaced. It's starting to act up again,
so I'm considering what I'll do if it fails this time, out of warranty.

Given all the criteria I would think about a 8500GT, which
is sometimes discounted, with a rebate bringing it down to
around $30 to 40 after rebate. For example,
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=333037
but I don't know anything about how noisey the fan is and
believe there are some passively cooled (at higher price of
course unless you happened upon a rebate for one of those).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nd&Order=PRICE

Given that on my current card, the fan has failed in a most annoyingly
noisy manner, a quiet card is attractive. Thanks for your suggestions.