Can it be determined what could've caused the death of my graphics card?

[wildbeast]

So as i was palying, my pc suddenly restarted. After the restart the monitor gave me "No signal" so i decided to switch the cable to the integrated graphics card of the motherboard, and after that i had picture again. What i noticed is that the fans were spinning at about 50% power all of the time, even though they shouldn't be when the pc is idling, and the card was not being detected by Nvidia drivers or device manager. When i gave my pc to a service, they told me that the graphics card is dead.

So my question is- Is it possible to determine what couldve caused the death of my videocard?

The card is GTX 970. Last month it turned 3 years since i've had it. I've never seen the temps going beyond 71 degrees, nor have i heard the fans spinning too loudly. I've never changed its thermal paste, 71 degrees with reasonable fan speed didnt seem out of ordinary so ive never bothered to. When i think about it, it mightve had some lag spikes, although i thought thats because of the games i played are just not well optimised (AC: Origins for example, one of the last games i played before it died). A strange thing ive noticed is that the fps dropped considerably (down to like 30-40) even in games i usually had constant 60+ fps when i looked at, or standed at specific spot, i don't know what caused it, but my card hated some views or spots. The place i live usually has an outage once in 2-3 months, so this card has seen quite some, infact, the last one happened a week or two before the card died, could it be that?

 

[yeti_yeti]

There is no real way to determine exact cause of why your graphics card stopped functioning. It could be a problem with power deliver though. Have you tried putting your "dead" gtx 970 in another computer and see if it works?

 

[ragnar-gd]

GPUs rarely die.
When highly overclocked, they may age fast because of the heat (usually killing condensators), but usually they are the most resistant part to heat. What you describe does *not* directly hint at death-by-heat, but there still is a remote possebility.
All PC-components can die by failing electronics, especially by static electricity. So if the power outtage is accompanied by power-spikes, this might have happened. Still, this is unlikely, as (1) power-spikes do usually *not* happen at power-outtages that happen regularly, and (2) usually the PSU dies first, if a power-spike happens, *then* the Motherboard, and all other devices thereafter (the HDD usually being next).

All in all, you had particular bad luck, and, in your case, failing electronics because of *local* overheating or statics is the most likely cause, but you'll never know without an expert looking at the card (which is not worth it), and most probably if you did know, all likely causes could not have been avoided by you.
Say goodbye to an old friend who provided you with alot of fun (hopefully), died too early, and look for a new bride.

 

[wildbeast]

Sadly i have no other pc nor anyone that can test my card. In two-three days im getting a new one, but im afraid that this might repeat again soon after i get it. Could the power supply be faulty, overloading the card in particular? I'm not very familiar with currents.

As for the possibility of being misfortunate- that blows...this card was amazing, i was so happy with it. Yeah, ive had tons of fun with it...that's the other possible cause i guess: Playing demanding games on it all the time for three years might've caused it to degrade faster. Nonetheless- amazing card.

 

[Philballer17]

Before you buy a new GPU, I'd recommend upgrading your PSU. It could of been the PSU that killed the components. To prevent that from happening again, just swap it out. Something like an EVGA SuperNova G2/G3 would be a nice upgrade for you.

 

[wildbeast]

Alright, thanks!