Link to my build here:
A few months ago I was playing Realm Royale with my friends and then my graphics card stopped working. The computer was still on, but the screen went black. I was able to turn on my PC, but whenever I tried to load a game it would work only momentarily and then it would have the same issue. The graphics card was dead! It was near the end of the warranty period, so I RMA'd it and received another GTX 980 Ti.
Fast forward yesterday and I was playing Dark Souls III, then my monitor screens went white. I smelled an electrical burning smell coming from my case. I force shut down my computer, and then found it wouldn't boot. The Graphics card was hot to the touch, as was the RAM. The PC would start (light on, fans running, GFX card lights up), but monitors would stay black. Removing the Graphics card brought me to "windows repair" and after some finangling I was able to start up the PC without the GFX card.
I smelled the GFX card and could smell the electrical burning scent coming from it. I checked the mobo and found no bulging or burnt capacitors. Checking the voltage of the PSU in the bios gave me good numbers.
I'm sure my GFX card is shot, but what I *don't* know is why. Was it just a bad GFX card? Or did my PS fry my graphics card? Is there any way to tell? Other than checking voltage I'm not sure how to troubleshoot a power supply and don't know how to tell if it was the culprit.
I contacted support asking if the card I recieved via RMA was used or refurbished but got no response to that question. It seems unlikely to me that the GFX card would be fried so easily; my computer has never had any dust or temperature problems. The "new" 980 Ti I was using was rarely under any load at all; I almost exclusively have played NES games on stream for the past few months, and just yesterday was my first time with a modern game in months!