Is it worth it to upgrade my GPU?

Well, I know something HAS to be done, but it's a matter of what. Ok, so I have a Dell Inspiron 9400/E1705 with the following specs:

7800 Go
Core Duo T2400 (1.83Ghz)
2x 512mb DDR 533

So yeah, my current GPU runs hot...REAL hot. I8kFanGUI has it idling around 70C and the Nvidia driver has it at 80C (it always remains 10C different, but both are really hot) and the CPU is idling pretty high (around 50C), but I think that's because of the heat from the GPU. Whenever I play games or run 3Dmark, I notice it slows down because it's overheating, which is making the driver lower the core speeds.

In fact, while typing this, I had to go get a board to put on my lap because it's killing me.

Also, I have to state that I'm outside my warranty period, and since Dell never did a recall on it, I think I'm out of options with them.

So I'm not in a position to do all that much right now, but I'm making preparations for when I am able to do something about it.

I think the first logical step would be to apply some thermal paste, to see if that clears up the matter. But I have heard that these cards are allegedly defective, so maybe it won't. That leaves me with two options.

a. buy a laptop cooler
b. upgrade to a 7900GS

Now I'm sure your first instinct would be to say just upgrade, but please know that I work and live in China and my monthly salary of a bit more than $400 is pretty high to begin with. I could afford to do it, but I'm just saying that it's not as simple. The going rate on ebay seems to be $100ish.

So, is it worth the extra money to upgrade my GPU? I'm not sure if my system would bottleneck it or if a cooler would help enough to save me the cash. I sort of think just doing the upgrade to the 7900GS is probably the best option, but I was looking around for other opinions (especially if you've dealt with these 7800s before).

Thanks for the input guys.

I've been toying around with my comp a bit more and getting somewhat satisfactory results. If I turn on the fans to max while running 3Dmark and prop up the back a bit, I score 4100 in 3DMark05. Before I realized the problem of heat, I was getting around 2100! So it's a big step up for me.

Also, by doing this, I think I found the real culprit for all the heat- the CPU. After turning on the fans/propping it up, the GPU never hits its max temperature (before it the drivers lower the clock speed) but the CPU can easily get to 90C! I've been reading on the net that laptop manufacturers often don't use good quality/proper amounts of thermal pastes on CPUs, so I think getting AS5 and applying it will definately do me some good.

I'm not a serious PC gamer, so if the AS5 can solve the CPU heat problem, I think I'll be set for a while. Sure, I'd like the increase in performance, but not at the current costs.

Again, thanks for your suggestions.

Well, according to this website, http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...00.2137.0.html
it should be scoring around 3800. Now, the site doesn't mention other specs, so I consider getting 300 points higher to be satisfactory. Strangely enough, it lists the 6800 as being faster (based off their tests).

Regardless, yes, the CPU heat is concerning to me. I don't seem to be in much of a position now to fix it though, since I have no way of obtaining AS5 nor would I really even know what to look for to check. I'm sure a dual core probably runs a bit hotter than a single core, but those numbers seem to be extremely high.