Is there something wrong with my card?

[xXDynamosXx]

I own a rig with HIS radeon X1950XT with IceQ3 cooler, with a AMD athlon 64 X2 5600+ (2.8ghz) 2Gb of corsair XMS2 DDR2800 ram, lately i've been seeing real performance problems with my gfx card while playing FEAR. the card should be able to play the game with maximum graphics and maximum cpu settings no problem. however when i let my card cool down to about 41c by setting the clocks to about 180core 190memory and lowering voltage and turning the fan up high. then start the game it kicks into stock 3D 621/900 with fan at 100% i do a benchmark and i get a great FPS as seen i nthe first screenshot, however after doing the benchmark a few times (not changing anything else just doing it over and over) as the card heats up to about 55c or higher (not sure the exact temp but its at about 55c after i quit the game) the FPS drop drastically and im wondering is this normal.. or is there something wrong with my card? 55c shouldn't be TOO hot for the card generally i dont worry till it hits 70c+ which it rarely does if ever... so im wondering is there something wrong with my card or cooling system? or is this just how the card is..

note these images are using the SAME settings with nothing changed..

 

[AddSub]

Hello there. Did you have this issue with FEAR before, and/or does this issue manifest itself only with FEAR? What about other benchmarks, like various 3DMarks, GLExcess, and others?

 

[DaMulta]

70c is normal for those cards.

 

[xXDynamosXx]

yea, i know 70c is understandable and im not sure its been like this for a while tho. if i leave my pc off then boot it up and go right into FEAR and do a benchmark with maxeverything and 1280x1024 reso i can get pretty much 100% above 40FPS with average of about 100fps but give it some 3-5mins under load and it drops down to total crap and it doesnt matter if i close fear and restart it or just run another test right away it doesnt change the low FPS after the card is under load for a while so im not thinking its fear thats doing it

 

[Ripper3]

Checkout what applications you've got on your startup list, start eliminating anything non-essential, and see what processes are running, and how much memory they're taking up, try to close them before playing a game.
If you've got Steam, best close it while playing a non-Steam game, not like it's essential anyway, stuff like Steam take up too much memory, considering their limited usefulness while you're gaming.

That's the only thing I can think of at the moment.

 

[panchoman]

i have a 1950pro running at stock, idk what the heck the temps or the speed of anything. i never had a problem with it and im not really motivated to oc it..