[SOLVED] Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 - Write off?

[ARandomSelectionOfNumbers]

Hello. My computer randomly died when playing Battletech last week, and wouldn't boot afterwards. A bit of investigation indicated that the issue was the graphics card (Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3 GB) - The computer boots fine without it in (if relying on integrated graphics) but when installed the computer will not boot, and only one of the cards fan's spins (so its clearly some kind of hardware problem). I've disconnected and reconnected the card a few times, and tried it in a couple of different PCI slots, to no avail.

My question is, in essence, do I just write off the card as dead, bite the bullet, and buy an up to date card? Or is there a prospect of this being a reasonably resolvable issue? (I'm guessing not, without more hardware hacking that I have the dexterity for coming into play).

For context, the system was built several years ago and there have been no recent hardware changes, which I think lends weight to the probability that something has just worn out with time and use.

 

[rgd1101]

full system spec? include make and model of the psu

 

[ARandomSelectionOfNumbers]

Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor
Asus Z87-Pro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance LP 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3-2133 Memory
Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3 GB Video Card Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Plus a few drives. I'm fairly certain the PSU provides sufficient power (I origionally bought the PSU with the intention of adding a secong Graphics Card at some point, but never ended up doing it), but any advice would be appreciated.

 

[punkncat]

IMO is probably a good time to upgrade that GPU anyway, with some future proofing in mind. According to your next couple of year desires for resolution with a mind towards whether you are upgrading the rest of the system to leverage said card.
In theory it "could" be a problem with the PSU but would lean GPU first.

 

[tiggers97]

Do you have an older graphics card you can try? like Punkncat said, it could be the PSU.

I'm in the process of upgrading my whole system from an I5-4760k. Except in my case, the mother boards PCIe slots have become flaky on me. Most cold boots and restarts will result in it not find the GPU (any slot). But once it does find it, it runs fine. Luckily, I had an older computer with compatible parts to swap around as well.

 

[ARandomSelectionOfNumbers]

Unfortunately not. If it was the PSU, what would the actualy issue be, some part of the internals had failed and it was not providing enought power to the card?

 

[King_V]

PSUs do degrade slowly over time.

A low-quality PSU is more likely to have degradation issues, or simply not be able to deliver as much power as it claims. That's why it's extremely helpful to provide the exact brand and model of PSU - so we can determine if the PSU is suspect.