Hi all:

Just like the title suggests I am wandering whether I should install a pci slot exhaust fan above or below my video card. I googled it and some forums said above and others said it didn't matter. The ones who said you shouldn't put it below the card said that most of the hot air goes to the top of the card and the cooler air is on the bottom and it would just be pulling cooler air out and it would most likely run hotter.

My card doesn't get that hot when playing most games, but when i play witcher 2 it goes up to 85 with the highest specs and when I turn off ubersampling and lower the shadows it stays around 81 or 82.

Any suggestions?

I'm no expert but that will surely depend on which graphics card are you using and how the blower works.

If your card is a reference one (gets the air from below and exhausts it out of the case from behind), and you put another object, the blower or another kind of pci card, under it you can limit the amount of air that can go inside the graphics card making it run hotter. If, on top of that, the blower faces upward fighting with the gpu card for the same air, then your graphics card will get little to no air and you will get in trouble.

Now if you use a non reference card like those that don't exhaust heat out of the case but into it, then a blower under your gpu facing upward makes sense as it will collect the hot air that leaves your graphics card and take it out of the case.

The last scenario would be if the blower gets the air from below. In that case I suppose it would be better to put it on above your gpu too cool the backplate.

It's just a crap idea to put an additional fan near the graphics card. In the best case, you won't disturb the "natural airflow" inside a well built PC so you just wasted $ for nothing, In the worst case you generate noise when the various fans start to work against each other and temperatures in other parts inside the PC will actually rise. If you have space at the front bottom of the case, mount a large fan there that silently sucks in some cold air.

I have a reference video card and a large fan in the front of the case (as well as intakes on the side and two on the top). I won't get the pci blower. Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.