lilylarceny wrote on 2025-11-10, 04:07:

is there any way to adjust the fan profile on winxp or bring the temps down in any other way? i think most of the software for this card is for later versions of windows.

Try older versions of MSI Afterburner. You might be able to adjust the fan curve manually from there.

By the way, a GTX 980 Ti hitting thermal limits while running WinXP titles isn't exactly normal. Are you playing without V-Sync by any chance? That's a bad idea, since physics in many WinXP era games break above 60 FPS. Alternatively, the thermal paste on that GPU might need replacing.

Whens the last time the goo was replaced?
10 years ago in the factory?

You also have founders edition, those run a bit hotter. Replace thermal paste, use v-sync and set up fan profile in MSI afterburner.

Unfortunately GTX 580 is the last GPU supported by NiBiTor where you can set fan profile in BIOS.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-10, 07:16:

Are you playing without V-Sync by any chance? That's a bad idea, since physics in many WinXP era games break above 60 FPS. Alternatively, the thermal paste on that GPU might need replacing.

V-Sync was the ticket, brought it down to ~70c

the paste is no more than a year old.