i like to see coolers and heatsinks from that era
because i think they had no idea of what they were doing back then in terms of airflow and pressure
to be honest, its incredible that a 9800 pro with stock cooler survived after so many years. Not only because of cooler and heatsink, also they used to glue the heatsink to the dye, so its common that when you open it you will find some kind of yellow glued and hard thing on the dye.
same goes with the 6600GT models, such crappy coolers with only 2 fittings. Its even impossible to find a replacement aftermarket cooler for those designs. better mod a PC intel or amd cooler and drill some holes.