I bought my video card through Amazon and received it a little over two of weeks ago. It is an EVGA GTX 980 SC ACX 2.0
I use it with an Acer XB270HU monitor and its been beautiful. I run games such as GTA V, Skyrim, H1Z1, and Crysis as max settings and the card never flinches.
However it started giving me issues just before the weekend. While watching a stream on Twitch, the display screen went out. I thought it may have been a loose display port cable but it was firmly attached on both ends. I had to do a hard reboot to get the display back. Everything seemed fine after that. I even played some Rust yesterday and everything was fine.
This morning while just checking email, The screen went out again. And, once again, I had to do a hard reboot to get it back. I got a bit worried so I started up "Speed Fan" to keep an eye on temps in case it was a CPU issue. CPU was where it is always at, -60, which I always found weird. The GPU was at 34c which is well within its range.
I was surfing Reddit for about 10-15 minutes after starting "Speed Fan" and got the blue screen of death. It flashed by very quickly and did not see the code. The system was not under any sort of load when this happened.
I waited about 30 minutes to turn the system back on. I needed to calm down first so I could think clearly. Once I was started up and was back in Windows I got a very strong electrical burning odor coming from the exhaust fans on the PC. Those of you that have ever smelled a fried computer card will know how I felt at this point. I quickly shut it down and unplugged it.
I opened up the side and could easily tell the odor was coming from the video card. I took the card out and examined it but found no visual issues. The smell was very strong at this point and seemed to be focused near the rear fan and face plate.
To be sure it was the card, I got my old video card that this card replaced ( MSI GTX 580 ) and installed it in the PC. Everything is working fine now and there is no longer an electrical burning smell coming from the exhaust fans. I've been up and running for an hour or more now.
I have created a replacement order through Amazon and I should have a new card later this week.
Has anyone else experienced this issue?