zeke, i'm guessing you're using a card somewhere in the 6 series? if so, then you really don't have to worry about overheating and not noticing it. i say this because, if it DOES overheat, it is absolutely sure to let you know about it, in the manner of dropping your colors down to 4 bit, and VERY low resolution, which will result in an extremely crappy looking game if that is what you're doing when it does get too hot. Trust me.... it happened to me already playing Star Wars: Republic Commando. nearly shiz myself when it happened cause i thought my card fried or something on it fried.... but then i realized if that DID happen, i would have lost all video. just turned it off, let the card cool down, turned it back on and everything is now back to being just peachy.
Thank NVidia for auto-underclocking overheat protection. 🙂