Merlin, out of curiosity, do the loading screens run differently than in game fps? I have thought the heavy load (load not heat--fan at most runs at 50%) on the gpu at these times is a combination of my particular set up (linux + wine + I'm not a linux guru) and the fact the game is loading a bunch of graphics stuff.
Not really sure what FPS the game normally runs during the load-up, as I never checked. Regular game play can drive the FPS in excess of 100, which will severely heat the card. If the loading screens are running the same numbers and the extra load in the system from booting the different items may make things worse.
It may be possible that the fan/s you're hearing are the CPU and/or other system fans, as well as the GPU fan, as it registers a slightly higher work load during the load-up phase. Most motherboards these days support variable speed fans so when the workload increases, rather than when the heat itself rises, the system will kick the fans in the guts for a little to offset a perceived heat build-up due to higher work load. Much like the way the fans kick into high gear when you first turn on your computer, until the system reads everything properly and slows the fan speed to where it should be.
After using the FPS limiter I never noticed a change in the fan speeds during the loading phase of the game, or neighbourhoods. This doesn't mean it doesn't happen, just that if it does, it is such a minor change that I don't hear it anymore.
Well, eh, thanks for the reply. I have my system set up to report actual gpu load. (Roughly a 60% difference between load screens and game play). The fan speed I set manually to 25% or 50% to keep the card below 60C. Displaying fps outside of the game play is one of the (many) things I haven't figured out for linux. I asked about the fps because I'd been trying to get an increase. For any searchers that look to this thread --compiling to a 1000 Mhz kernel gave me a decent gain in fps.