Passive cooled graphics card, normal to be too hot to touch?

[heisthegaffer]

As above, I have a smallish media PC with an NVidia 9500 graphics car which seems to get really hot, to hot to touch really.

2 questions, 1) is this normal/common? and 2) given it's a smallish PC with little air circulation, is it safe.

It's quite an old PC, prob 4 or 5 years old a mate has given me and it's the standard card so obviously designed for it but is it worth swapping for a fan cooled card? I must admit, i's for the lounge so the quieter the better but I don't to damage it.

Thanks

[heisthegaffer]

Cool, thanks guys... will take out the fan cooled one as it's a bit noisy and put the passive one back in.

[heisthegaffer]

wolves_wanderer said:

And stop touching it ya weirdo

I can't help it, it hurts but I like it.

[heisthegaffer]

MissChief said:

Make sure you have good case airflow as this will keep the temperature down.

Is it worth me leaving the side off? There really is little space inside at all.