The 'jay needs hardware' threadFollow

Never thought I'd be asking for advice about computer hardware, but here I am.
99% of my computer gaming is on WoW. I occasionally play some Total War or Call of Duty, but other than that, it's all WoW.
That said, I'd like to get as much input from the WoW people, and as little input from the other people as possible.

Here's the dilemma:
I have a rig running an old Nvidia 9500GT. It was bought in a budget pinch, so I knew it would be a stepping stone card.
What I did NOT expect was for the card to start heating up the way it does. I'm 2 years into owning the card, and I'm seeing 112*c temperatures all of a sudden. Upgraded my drivers and suddenly WoW's been cooking my card. Reverted drivers, and it's still happening, so either something in the driver cooked me, or the card just plain got tired. When it heats up, it doesn't SHUT down, it just lags terribly.

Here's what I need:
I need a good, relatively cheap card.
It needs to be PCI-Ex16.
It needs to be faster than my 9500 (tough to do, I know *rollseyes*)
It needs to fit in a midsize case.
It needs to be an Nvidia (I don't want opinions, I've bought Nvidia cards since they were 3DFX VooDoo cards, and I'm not changing).
I'd like it to be between 100-200 USD.
I went to a few sites to price cards, and realised that it's been so damn long since I bought a top end card I have no clue exactly which one I need.
I've been looking at some GTS450s, they're all so very very similar. I can't afford a fancy new 5xx, hell, I can't even afford the card I'm getting, but I don't want to bomb the little expendable money I have on a card that's going to be slower than, or last less time than, my current card.

MAJOR edit: It needs to run on a 520w power supply.

Edited, Feb 3rd 2011 4:03pm by jaysgsl

Oh, I know that the fan isn't fried, it's running at 3200 RPM. Something went screwy with the internals of the card. I've done clean driver installs, loaded it up on a hard drive with XP on it, it's the card. It's an off brand, Zotac, so that's why likely.
As for the 9800, it's as expensive as 450 GTS's, so I see no reason to go with the older gen card.

I'll admit the raw electrical business is my weakest bit of knowledge about computers, so I'll admit I'm not sure.
It's a 585w power supply, it was only $30, and the rating numbers are unreadable. If I linked you to the newegg page it's on, would someone be able to help me out there?
I'll note that I've used this card for 2 years without issue whatsoever.

Edit: Hardware monitor claims my +12 is running at 12.03, my -12 is at -7.74, is this relevant?

Edited, Feb 3rd 2011 8:18pm by jaysgsl

Already done basic maintenance such as cleaning. I did not reapply the thermal paste, there's still a good amount of 'uncooked' on there.
I've already also done a clean install of the drivers as well as testing it on an older version of Windows. I'm pretty sure it's not a driver issue, as the XP is 32 bit, and the 7 is 64 bit.

Get an iMac, bro.

(LOL... You knew that was coming)

Sorry, I'm on a budget and I'd like it to 'just work' for EVERYTHING, not 'just emulate' everything.

Thanks for the links, but $190 is just a LITTLE much for me. I mean, I could, but, damn, that's dinner for a couple days. Great looking cards though. Hmmm.

Go here, ask Kao for advice.

First off, lots of advice, thanks.
As for the 9800 only using 4xx watts, really? The Nvidia forum I was linked to claimed the 9800 used like 550.
I was wrong, my PSU is 585, I only have a low consumption AMD x64, a Sound Card from the Clinton Administration, a single hard drive, and around 5 USB devices to run, so that 4 series card should suit me ok I think. $150 is RIGHT in the sweet spot.

You spend $95/day on dinner?

No wonder you can't afford a $200 graphics card... lol