And this is the result of several effects combined Notes: SSAO and Indirect Lighting are very high quality effects, and as so they require a lot of video memory and a very good computer to be playable depending on the resolution. Screenshots were taken with in-game AA8x and AF16x. Boris Vorontsov:"The requirements to videomemory size are very high, depends from screen resolution and antialiasing, for example without antialiasing in a mode 1024*768 it cost 64 Mb of videomemory, and for 1280*1024 106 Mb are necessary."
Depth of Field: Also depends on the resolution, and the more discrete it is, the more it will require from the computer.
Have you tried some coolers (dissipater + fan) for it? They occupy a extra "slot" (not connector, just extra space), but IMO, if you don't have SLI, it's worth it. I have one of the Arctic's and my GPU's temperature used to be 30°C idle (it's 39°C idle now), and 39°C full (it's 45~47°C full now, depending on the game. It's never gotten any higher than 47°C). These VGA coolers are amazing for overclocking, very easy to install and very efficient. Also, they're not noisy at all.
For a comparison: normal temperatures for 9800GT without this VGA Cooling are 54°C idle and about 67°C full. My 9800GT's current temperatures are 39°C idle and 47°C full.
But it won't make a miracle alone, the results depends on how well is your computer ventilated. http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/main.php?cPath=2
Some overclocking graphics card come with it by default.
Mine is the "Accelero S1 Rev.2" one.
Since my case isn't well ventilated, I can't reach those low temperatures results anymore, but if I organize it I'm pretty sure the temperatures can decrease again.