Gigabyte 6450 Running Hot?

[igot6strings]

I have this card in my HTPC, its got a tiny rinky dink fan on it. I don't say it does much anyway and the heat sink is almost non-existant. It runs over 50'c when just playing videos. I even tried replacing the thermal paste with noctua paste. I can't see any noticeable difference in temp with the noctua paste. Its been lagging a bit on the warmer days too. Videos will skip and what not.
Is this card supposed to be this hot? I know its a cheap card but I expected it to not melt with simple videos. I can't use the integrated gpu of the e350 because I want netflix in hd.
What would be a good alternative to the 6450 if I were to replace it? Low profile of course.

[BryceBooth]

Those temps don't seem overly terrible, but you should make sure that you have sufficient airflow through your chassis (intake, and exhaust fans). What chassis do you use? Is it in a media rack?

[igot6strings]

I have it in a matx htpc case. Its basically the size of one of those old school IBM desktops. Its sitting on top of my entertainment center. The CPU runs at 30'c on avg so theres no heat coming from there. It has a 80mm or so case fan as well as a 90mm "spot cool" fan pointing down at the cpu heatsink and slightly towards the back of the video card. Its the only place it would fit. Air flow seems good though, the case fan is exhausting well and the air that comes out isn't noticeably warm. The spot cool fan sucks air in thru the vents on the top of the case. There are also some small vents at the rear of the case but too small for anything bigger than a 40mm fan.

[Adzsask]

I made a few HTPC's and used silent nvidia GT210's, they all run cooler then your fan cooled GPU, and play 1080p smoothly.(46C when watching hours of HD movies)

[BryceBooth]

Ideally you will have more intake fans, than exhaust ( 2 intake, 1 exhaust) for positive air-pressure, or the same number of fans for both is fine also.
The temps are somewhat high, but nothing to be concerned about as HTPC's often tend to run a little warmer. May I ask what temperature monitoring program you are using?
Also, make sure to tidy up the wiring. It is common when there are cooling problems, that they will surface when it is warmer out, you are probably better off adding fans, or try moving it to another location.

[igot6strings]

No worries about the wiring. Its an Asus E35M1-M Pro board, everything is in the front and so are all my drives. Its actually one of the neatest setups I've ever had despite not having a modular power supply. All the extra wires tuck under the drive bays no trouble.
I really do think the card is bunk. It wasn't this bad when I bought it. I'm thinking I'm going to have to try a new card or go back to the integrated gpu and settle for non-HD netflix.
If I could rig up a bracket for my 6770 it will fit in my htpc case, it'd be snug but it'd fit. I'm assuming my psu can handle it. Nothing else is using any real amount of power. Assuming my psu has a 6pin that is.

[BryceBooth]

That is certainly a viable option, I would suggest downloading the latest version of Silverlight for it as well. After months of frustration using Netflix on my HTPC, I caved and settled on my Xbox 360 for the task, may as well use it for something, and it's been trouble free.
Using a more power-hungry video card will only add to heating problems, as it'll use more power, expel more heat. You could certainly try it though.

[igot6strings]

Unfortunately the lagging occurs everywhere, even in XBMC not just Netflix. It wasn't like that before. Still running the same drivers. Silverlight is up to date too. The problem with Silverlight is Microsoft doesn't allow the onboard 6310 to use Hardware Acceleration. It can handle it its just that microsoft didn't bother to include support for it which is quite sad because there is an entire generation of cheap laptops/netbooks as well as a ton of HTPCs that run off a 6310/6320. The E350/450 chips were pretty popular for folks on a budget or looking for a silent system.
My 6450 is faulty I think. It was only $20 and lasted 3 months so I'm not going to bother with RMA. Its less of a hassle just to find a new card.
If the 6770 works that'd be great. I don't think temps will be a problem there. It maxes out in the mid 40s when playing BF3 on high so I doubt videos will cause much heat. CPU and board temps in the case are basically room temp +5'c. The system is fine heat wise its just the damn 6450 thats getting hot.
Not too worried about power either. The E350 uses next to nothing power wise, I believe its something like 20watts and I think that also with the gpu enabled, in my case its currently disabled, it also has 8gb ram and an SSD. Nothing overly power hungry. The 6770 should work fine if I can make it fit. That is assuming my 275W psu is actually what it says it is and not another one of those bunk fake Chinese power supplies. I'll do some testing when I have a chance and if all goes well I may get started on making a bracket for it.
I do have the 6770 in BST right now. If it sells I'll possibly switch to GT 210 or something with a bit more juice and already low profile.