Question Has my GPU finally failed?

[catfoodd]

Fellow Nerds,

I recently started to experience fracturing on my monitor during gaming sessions. It probably occurred over the last couple months and imo was very minor and occurred sparingly.
A few days ago I encountered the "black screen of death."
During a gaming session (Grim Dawn), the monitor goes black, I hear sound but no functionality and a hard reset at the tower is required to reestablish control.
I assumed it was some sort of glitch and tried running it again to only re encounter the same issue without even accessing the Windows Log In Screen.

Has anyone else experienced symptoms like this with their GPUs or specifically the R9 390?

Observations:
I've removed the back plate on the GPU and found a plastic/rubber spacer that had started to "sweat" or melt. This has since been cleaned up (Probably too late). Lol
I've tested a few fuses on the board which had continuity.
I've tested power supply voltage at board when running and I have 12 volts.
With the GPU installed, the Asus intro still populates the screen and I can access the bios. All GPU fans run at a constant, medium speed but once I exit and return to attempting to log into Windows, I get a black screen and some artifacts if I try to apply inputs (Mouse Clicks).
I see no visual indications of burnt/failed components (With the heat sink removed as well).

I'm currently running the same system off of the display port on the motherboard and have no issues.

Here are the components of my build (Build 6 years old).

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 6M Skylake Quad-Core 3.2 GHz LGA 1151 65W BX80662I56500 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530
GPU: Sapphire 11244-01-20G Radeon NITRO R9 390 8GB GDDR5 DVI-D/HDMI with Back Plate (UEFI) Graphics Card
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 220-P2-0650-X1 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Full Modular continuous Power Supply
Motherboard: ASUS H170 PRO GAMING LGA 1151 Intel H170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
SSD: SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 250GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E250B/AM
RAM: G.Skill 16GB (2 x 8GB) Ripjaws V Series DDR4 PC4-25600 3200MHz Intel Z170 Platform Desktop Memory F4-3200C16D-16GVRB

If the GPU is indeed at the end of its life, would any of you have any recommendations of a replacement for the gaming I take part in?

Prices are crazy right now! This same GPU I paid $345 is now $150 more, 6 years later.

I typically play League of Legends, Diablo 3, Diablo 2, Grim Dawn, Runescape & Rust (being the hardest on the system).

Do I also look into replacing any other components are this time or consider a complete rebuild?

Looking for advice as this was my first personal build and first "failure" I've encountered.

Thanks in advance for your time homies!

 

[punkncat]

Artifacting is commonly a sign of VRAM failure. Driver support for these has ended, or one might suggest trying to update the driver.

It could be worthwhile to consider a good take down, cleaning and application of new thermal paste and pads (if this one has them).

Even something like a 1660 is a much higher performer than the venerable 390. Probably worth trying the "free" options available, but if it came to actual money would consider something newer.

 

[catfoodd]

I forgot to mention that as you navigate out of the BIOS, the GPU fans all slowly ramp down and power off.

@punkncat

Thank you for the reply. There was a short period of time between initial black screens that I was able to check my AMD Portal and verify the drivers were up to date.
I also did reapply new thermal paste. Most of the thermal pads were flimsy but only a few started to tear apart.

Does anything else look like it needs an upgrade? I do intend to do a complete clean out of the PC if I do decide to replace at least the GPU.