I know I'm probably/hopefully getting it fixed but I'm actually pretty salty about it.
 
It's an 800€ card, I bought it last year in December. EVGA SC ACX 980ti, never touched the clockspeeds, memory or voltage, never done anything with it but play games and it doesn't even last a year? Am I just incredibly unlucky?
 
It happened while I was playing a game, my computer just shut off instantly as if the power went out but it didn't. The Motherboard status lights and LEDs were still on but I couldn't boot up again. It literally wouldn't react to even the power button directly on the Motherboard. It would only work for a split second after disconnecting power entirely from the PSU but instantly turn off again. Now I did hear a quiet click noise every time I tried and it came from the PSU so I thought (hoped) it was the PSU failing since that's a lot cheaper right. But I removed the GPU just in case and because it's easy to do and what do you know, the PC boots up just fine without it.
 
So it's definitely the card shorting something I guess and the clicking noise some sort of protection circuit going off. Guess I'm actually pretty glad about not cheaping out on the PSU, could've easily damaged other components if it wasn't properly protected. I'm just really god damn pissed it had to happen on a Friday and of course customer support only works on business days.
 
I really just need to vent somewhere, what the heck?

Electronics fail. Its a fact of life, not matter the cost. That is what warranties are for.

At least it wasnt DOA

I edited out all the vulgar language from your post.

I had an XFX 290 die in less than 24 hours. The other 290 was just fine.
 
It's unfortunate, but electronics sometimes just fail. It happens, but that's why you go with a company that stands behind their products with a good warranty and good service. 
 
Register your card if you haven't already, and start an RMA. EVGA will take care of you.

My GTX 970 FTW did the exact same thing about a week ago. In h1z1 pc shutdown my leds were still on, pc wouldnt boot unless psu was disconnected. Had my buddy test gpu in his rig 1000w psu still no life, tried new card in my system and everything works fine. i get where you are bro its a pain, you pay for quality and expect it to last but everything must come to an end. Good luck on your future gpu 

my 980ti hybrid smelled up my house. was playing CIV 6 and suddenly weird smells comes out, thought it was from first amount of rain we had in awhile, suddenly PC just turns off completely and smell got 10x worse and obvious as to what is was. First ever PC part fail besides hard drive and first time i actually saw smoke from a part. So happy i still have my 780 classified and im not shut down. still waiting on support ticket to see if im still under warranty and whats gonna happen. only bought it back in april.

XDarksageX
my 980ti hybrid smelled up my house. was playing CIV 6 and suddenly weird smells comes out, thought it was from first amount of rain we had in awhile, suddenly PC just turns off completely and smell got 10x worse and obvious as to what is was. First ever PC part fail besides hard drive and first time i actually saw smoke from a part. So happy i still have my 780 classified and im not shut down. still waiting on support ticket to see if im still under warranty and whats gonna happen. only bought it back in april.

You should definitely still be under warranty.

newsWatch9
I know I'm probably/hopefully getting it fixed but I'm actually pretty salty about it.
 
It's an 800€ card, I bought it last year in December. EVGA SC ACX 980ti, never touched the clockspeeds, memory or voltage, never done anything with it but play games and it doesn't even last a year? Am I just incredibly unlucky?
 
It happened while I was playing a game, my computer just shut off instantly as if the power went out but it didn't. The Motherboard status lights and LEDs were still on but I couldn't boot up again. It literally wouldn't react to even the power button directly on the Motherboard. It would only work for a split second after disconnecting power entirely from the PSU but instantly turn off again. Now I did hear a quiet click noise every time I tried and it came from the PSU so I thought (hoped) it was the PSU failing since that's a lot cheaper right. But I removed the GPU just in case and because it's easy to do and what do you know, the PC boots up just fine without it.
 
So it's definitely the card shorting something I guess and the clicking noise some sort of protection circuit going off. Guess I'm actually pretty glad about not cheaping out on the PSU, could've easily damaged other components if it wasn't properly protected. I'm just really god damn pissed it had to happen on a Friday and of course customer support only works on business days.
 
I really just need to vent somewhere, what the heck?

 
that just sucks. =(.  Hope you don't end up with too much down time and you get a warranty replacement soon. 
 

Did you try another PCIe slot? Might be a bad slot, see if it boots in one of the others.

Emwun Garand
Did you try another PCIe slot? Might be a bad slot, see if it boots in one of the others.

Yeah, I'm using a new 1060 that I got for cheap yesterday in the same slot. Working just fine right now. It definitely seems to be the card.