Welcome to the forums.
I've no idea, but it may not be the video card. It could have been something on the motherboard or on in the PSU.
That said, are you using a liquid metal TIM on the GPU die? It looks like it, and if so that was a bad idea unless you used nail polish or similar to electrically isolate the components around the GPU die. Because if you didn't, it might have been one (or several) of those that popped - and to the best of my knowledge, EVGA will likely deny warranty repair on that card if you did use liquid metal.
If you aren't using liquid metal TIM, then please disregard. And if it turns out to be the 980 Ti, EVGA has a fairly standard 3 year warranty on their cards and you should still be covered:
https://www.evga.com/supp...rranty/graphics-cards/ You can always try the 980 Ti is another computer, say a friend's or at a computer repair shop, to see if the same problem follows the card. If it does, RMA the card. If it doesn't, look at your motherboard / power supply. If you have a spare power supply that would be the easiest to test next.
EDIT: also the fact that your TIM isn't covering the edges of the GPU die is bad. A GPU die doesn't have a heatspreader like CPUs do, so the TIM needs to cover edge to edge completely. It wouldn't have caused the pop (assuming non conductive / capacitive TIM), but it can cause the GPU to overheat on those edges even if the GPU temperature is being reported as within tolerance.
post edited by arestavo - 2017/12/31 08:24:57