Five and a half year old GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0 here - exactly the same MOSFET which burnt out on th3joker's and CurboSS's card failed on mine too. Damage looks almost identical too. Extended warranty ended in February. There was a period when it was not in use so it reached about a 5 year lifespan (no overclocking or mining).
 
GPU crashed under gaming load (lights out completely, not even a bluescreen). The card smalled burned, but it was hot (at that moment) and dusty so I cleaned the card. I wasn't sure about the origin of the smell, checked and testet the other components seperately before I plugged it in again. It was running fine again for about 2 weeks (?) before it crashed again. Motherboard shows error code when the card is plugged in now, it doesn't even make it through the POST.
I recently took off the cooler for the first time, checked for damaged parts which brought me here. I'll probably try to remove the broken MOSFET - not sure I'm going to replace it. Let's hope I'll be able to extend its lifespan by at least a few months so the 3060 Ti won't be that overpriced any more. I'll post updates when I know more.

YugiSatan
The rest of the board seems to look pretty normal, so don't know if i should only remove it and see if it boots without it, or to replace it.

Replace it, for sure.

I have 3 of these darn things, and my last one I just took apart, went over it with a light and my mag glass, for I do repair on electronics, and unlike the other 2 having the same exact mosfet in the exact same location, and as soon as my son hit the power on his pc, that same, YET AGAIN, mosfet popped glowed red, and smoked as he yanked the power cable in less the a second. I was really hoping to get 2 of my old ones working again, and this one has sat in a drawer away from light, and moisture, but seems really funny, that I have 3 of them in my possession, and many if not all the rest in here have all had the same exact chip and in the same exact location all go pop.
 
Sounds like a design flaw in the board, or some really really crappy parts, but considering they are all the same chips, but however the locations all seem to be the same, so it would come down to a design flaw, for I do not overclock, and not worth it imo to gain maybe 5-10 fps and heat/kill ur parts. All stock parts on all of them, and I am using super high quility paste I been using on everything electronic that needs replacing with it, for more then just computers use the stuff, including some cars.
 
So anyone know if evga did at all a recall on these? I ask for I was really hoping I could use my sons evga 1070ftw, for something else and run these 2 in sli so in most the games he plays will be much better then just a single 1070.
 
OH, and yes, we have put his 1070 back in, and it posts. I took the mosfet off the "newest" 970 to go pop I just went over for 15 minutes, and did what one poster said and, not sure really how or real, but said it worked. But like another one it quit and will not even post, and thats the case with this one now, his pc does a double beep.
 
If there is no recall, and considering this is my 3rd 970 by evga to go pop, and seems like others, not too sure if Ill buy another evga anything for I have had 2 power supplies go bad, another 1070 of mine before going to a RX580 I bought for cheap several years off ebay I brought back to life with my heat guy (and many other brands for what its worth), but why at all would out of all the cards I have owned after learning overclocking is not worth it at all, but better ram, cpu, is best really) to go bad with a company that goes around asking for top tier cash and claims sell the best, when I have more of them fail then any  other brand I have owned, and been doing pc repair, and computer what nots along with electronic repairs for over 40 years. Great its got a 3 year warranty, but its dead. I can go grab my old 8800gt, 9600gt, 3570, and my box full of others from 5 years old on that all work, and have a box of all pretty much evga stuff thats dead to use for future parts if needed.
 
Gonna take off one of the other mosfet from the other broken ones, and replace, and see if it will pop again, and will then recheck it all over again with my mag glass to be sure there is nothing at all to cause this I can see, for every trace, resistor, cap, you name it, other then that one mosfet on all of them show a problem :(

Which as a business I guess would be ok for who gives a ****, but as a disabled guy, broke trying to make all he buys last as long as I can, even many years as it gets, and has, been passed down to my children, that having it last but 2-3 years, and with todays costs of everything especially cards,  made by XFX, or Woofungs with nothing more then a year warranty, for I need the crap cheap as I can so I can afford it, and then last way past the 1-3 year warranty, not, oops, its up, so sad, here buy the new Evga FTMFWOCBBABBQROLTFL $2Kwhen should of been $400 that will last just right around 3-4 years if lucky, but u rich whit3 man, you afford better when this card goes pop :D
 
But in all seriousness, like me, I need it to go past and beyond the warranty, I run my stuff for 3-6 years, then pass it on to the kids another 5 or so years for their games, so asking a premium, and until I was looking up why it is I have 3 cards of evga, 2 of which at the time, had the same mosfets, in the same exact places were bad. This one I felt had a chance since I did not see any physical damage at all, other then the paste was a rock not a paste anymore. But the moment he hit power said its glowing orange, sees smoke, and already pulled the plug. And then coming in here when trying to find me some exact mosfets since I had none this small for a video card, or any other electronic I have ever worked on for that matter, for these cards, and this brand mostly, seems to be popping them left and right. I could say its bad stock and all, but even bad stock, its seems to be mostly going bad in that same place, with the same chips, in the same locations mostly, leaving to think that one Mosfet is running harder then the rest of them. I have checked the mosfets controllers, and checked the card at the pci connector using my ohms meter in music mode to see if there are shorts, and in doing so, though it is not exploded, in one I was going to use as a donor card, to find out, it had yet another one ready to blow on it as well, had I just replaced the one. One card also when checking for shorts, the gates on the chip, and ohms, 4 of the 12 aside of the obvious one blown, was showing a resistance of OMG 37-45! Others were right around the 6/7 at the gate connector coming from the mosfet :O HOLY CRAP! I even put new batteries in my meter and grabbed my old unit just to make sure 100% what I was seeing was correct. So I need to check ALL of my cards and find me some good mosfets without the high as all get out resistance at the gate sides of them.
 
Need to replace them all and the controllers if I could afford it, but sadly cannot. Not a too bad a thing, he still has my old 1070ftw, but also scares me, for it is a Evga card, and not much luck with that brand, and should it go pop about now, he is screwed, I cannot afford another payment, or card atm, having had to sell my 6700XT last month (hell pretty much the entire pc of mine) to get Xmas presents, and ended up having to finance another 6700XT, due to the card at a time was told shortages were near a end, so was able to get it soooo close to retail, at $700, to now its back to $1K-$1200K, and I need my rig, for I built it to sdo everything around here while I could pretty much just sit here and do it. But yeah, will it be another Evga, or recommend to a friend? Not too sure in my situation, for I do not need it to break b4 the warranty is up, or have them feel soooooooooo bad in their product, they have to offer you a 5 yr warranty, if YOU flip the bill, or even 10 now. Be simple, gain trust, build something with a 1 year, but actually have them last, to a point, thats all they will buy, even if it is one card at a time, as its getting passed down, for like these 970 ones, if they was made by wontonsoup co, wouldnt matter, and since said card made by then $200+ cheaper, with but a 1yr, is going strong, would I buy another one if in same position in said time, heck yeah, it was cheap, no frills, lasts. Evga on the other hand, ask premium, we do not feel our cards are too great, but hey, you can buy this kick butt warranty for piece of mind, not lasting down the kids pcs till I retire it into a box that says working cards, but rather the broken video cards (again mostly evga ones in there and I think one gigabyte, with a blown mosfet of a totally different design, maker, location, and type), and would I go back and ask to buy another that will break in a few years after warranty? Hell no, Im gonna go find me that diamond in the rough, wontonsoup (pink no less) unit I can afford that aside of doing the thermal paste on it, just keeps going and going, no smoke, sparks, or flames 3-10+ years later, and no offering, or purchase of a warranty plan. 

There is but a few reasons a company will offer someone a extended warranty. They do not believe in their own product, so they sell one to make you go, damn good thing I paid $100 extra for them 5/10 years or Id be screwed. Other places try and sell you one, knowing they have a good product, but will try so hard to sell you one, knowing you will not be back soon, like me, for its gonna last, so this way they can pocket all this free extra money. For poos and giggles, I searched just Evga for parts, and XFX for parts, and though the Evga has but 165 listings vs XFX's 169, the XFX cards are older, much older units, that you know because they are XFX cards, have been run into the ground for they couldnt afford a "Evga" or other main maker asking for much more. There was more stuff from 970 on up on Evga brands, then XFX had from the 570 on up, not including the really old stuff of FXF, for most people when the Evga one broke, threw it away saying next Evga they buy will buy a extended program, when they could just go buy another maker without a extended that will last.
 
Sorry for the book, Im mentally and physically messed up, and tend to ramble, but point I feel is there. Design flaw, and look on ebay and see which one has more broken stuff up for sale, and how new or old they may be in that regard. Evga looked up on ebay, as Evga 970 bin, cards only no fans, there is 19 cards, of those cards 18 of them are used Evga 970. Of those 18, 9 of them are listed as broken, making 9 listed as working, 50/50 broken/working (used only, I took out the new cards listed which was 1-2). Zotac, the cheap maker of the time, has a listings of 11 GTX 970 cards, and all cards listed says they work, hmmmmmmmm :P