Two GPUs fried, could it be the motherboard?

Hey there,
I’ve had two different graphics cards die on me just three months apart. First, my GTX 460 bit the dust about four months ago... out of nowhere, I started getting blue screens and constant resets, or that annoying "your graphics driver has crashed" message. After that, it wouldn't even function properly in Windows unless I stripped out all the drivers and used the basic defaults... and by the time Windows was booting up, the artifacts were already appearing on the screen. Total junk.

Then, after that one died, I put in an older HD 3850. It worked perfectly for three months—it had been fine for years before that—but then suddenly, the exact same thing happened. Resets, blue screens, driver issues, you name it. Now, when I boot into Windows, the image is all distorted... not exactly artifacts, but these weird white lines everywhere.

So, my question is... could my motherboard be the culprit behind all this? I really don't want to go out and buy a third card if it's just going to fry in a couple of months too.

My setup is an MSI 760 GM-P23, running an AMD Athlon x445, with a Cooler Master RS500 power supply.

I’d suspect the power supply first...

What’s the airflow like inside the case? Is it totally sealed up? Is there enough breathing room? Maybe those cards were just overheating...

The case was wide open on all sides—super breezy... the fans on the GPUs were spinning just fine and weren't even overclocked

Mark Adams17 said:The case was wide open on all sides for airflow, and the GPU fans were spinning fine without any overclocking applied.

How old is the power supply?

Have you tried stress testing the cards?

It could be the motherboard, but I honestly have no idea how to test or prove that. Most of the power goes straight from the PSU through the connectors anyway... so if that unit is old... hmm...

The power supply is pretty much new, maybe a year and a half or two years old at most... haven't really tried pushing any GPUs to the limit with it yet.

I’d call that a total coincidence. You're looking at cards that are practically ancient relics, and let's be honest—they pull a massive amount of power for what they offer.
If you aren't chasing raw performance, just hunt down something a little more modern, maybe a 64-bit card in the $100$50 range, like an HD 6450 or something similar.
Or, if you want peace of mind, grab something that actually comes with a warranty.

That’s what I was thinking too. Old cards... they pull so much power... might as well try pushing them to the limit, you've got nothing to lose here.

Actually, it's probably better to just grab a cheap new card so you at least have a warranty. If that one dies, the motherboard stays safe...

You might want to double-check that model number for the Cooler Master RS500; I don't think that one actually exists.

Look, a motherboard just doesn't have that kind of destructive power. When one fails, you're looking at issues strictly within its own circuitry—it isn't going to go on a rampage and take out everything plugged into it.
In my twenty years of messing around with hardware, I’ve never actually seen a motherboard die on me... but a power supply? Yeah, those things blow up all the time.

If you consider yourself a gamer, my advice is simple: grab a high-quality power supply first, and then move on to the graphics card.

@gogoklepci: There's a power supply available, here's the link

@implosive: Honestly, it’s weird to me too that it’s the motherboard, but I wanted to double-check everything. I mean, having two motherboards die on me in just a couple of months... it felt suspicious. The PSU is a Cooler Master, so I'm really hoping it isn't the culprit. That's a decent enough brand, right?

I actually baked my GTX 460 in the oven. It’s still running for now, though it’s only been two days...