Slowly dying PC - sudden shutdowns - dying PSU?

[waynenation]

My desktop computer has been slowly dying over the last couple of months. First, I had some sudden shutdowns with games that cause heavy load such as fully modded Skyrim and Fallout 4. Lowering the graphics first seemed to help but the problem got worse and now the system crashes right after I get into the game. I could play some less demanding games but now system is even crashing by using Adobe Illustrator. This especially happens when the design is becoming more complex.

On first sight I thought it would be my GPU (radeon r9 290 msi) which was constantly running with 90°C+ when under high load which is why I did a lot of troubleshooting with it and finally got new card. BUT this did not solve my problem and I have the same sympthoms even with the new card.

I'm thinking that my PSU might die right now but one sympthom makes me think that there might be another problem. I can start CIV5 with lowest graphics. After some time I get graphic glitches and some symbols disappear. I also observed that the more of the "fog of war" disappears (which means more load on the system?) the earlier the system crashes.

So if it's not the GPU, is there the possibility that a dying PSU causes bad graphics and cannot sustain enough power when the system is under load? I don't hear any strange noises and mem-test result turned out to be okay.

Here are my specs:
PSU: Crosair VS650
Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark2, IntelZ97, So. 1150
GPU : MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1241 V3
RAM: 2x 4GB Samsung DDR3-1600 CL11
CPU Cooler: Alpenföhn Brocken
OS: Win7 Home Premium 64-bit
Case : Thermaltake Urban S31
SSD: 250 GB Samsung EVO
HDD: 1 TB Seagate SSHD with 8 GB SSD Cache

Looking forward to get some help from you guys!

 

[ChumP]

Really sounds like the PSU is the bad apple.
VS series power supplies are known for their high failure rates and low quality components.
Swap it to a better quality PSU.
A 550W great quality unit will be enough.

Recommendations: Corsair CX/TX series, Seasonic Focus PLUS series, EVGA SuperNOVA G3 series

 

[waynenation]

But how come that I get graphic errors in games? Everything looks okay when I start Civ 5 at lowest graphics. After some 45 minutes or so the graphics start to flicker and symbols disappear. Can something like that be caused by a bad PSU? Could it be possible that other components are damaged?