Graphics card overheating

[Butternuts]

Hey guys I need some help.

So I was playing WoW on one screen and watching youtube on another and then all of the sudden both screens went black and my fans went on full blast. I could still hear the youtube video playing in the background so I think everything was running still it just wasnt being displayed on the screen. So I let the fans run for a few seconds but it freaked me out so I turned off my computer and let it rest for a bit. Turned it back on and fired everything up exactly how I had it and started my graphics card's monitoring program. The GPU temp started to creep up around 80C. Thats not too bad so I went to the bathroom and when I came back I had just saw the temp reach 102C and before I could stop everything it all went black and the fans went all the way on again. I turned it off again after waiting to see if it would come back after a few seconds. Decided to let it cool for about 3 hours. Went to walmart and got a canister of pressurized air to clear out all of the dust. ( It was pretty dusty). Now I am running it right now and using it to type this up and it is idling at 50C. when I try to run WoW without running youtube at the same time the temperature starts to hike up to a little over 90. I exited out of WoW before it got any higher. So basically I am trying to figure out if I fried my graphics card. Until today I have never had any issues with it overheating. My graphics card is a EVGA Geforce GTX 760 (I know pretty old and outdated but I am a college student). I am sure you guys need more info to help me out but I dont know what else to put. Hoping someone can help me either fix it or help me figure out if I should buy a new graphics card or just build a new rig all together (I dont really want to but may be the best option because this one is kind of old)

Thanks everyone!

[KingSapmi]

Do you have a can of compressed air? Try turning your computer off and taking the graphics card out and see if there's a lot of stuff clogging it up. Have you overclocked it before? If so, dial everything back.

[Butternuts]

Do you have a can of compressed air? Try turning your computer off and taking the graphics card out and see if there's a lot of stuff clogging it up. Have you overclocked it before? If so, dial everything back.

I used the compressed air on the entire computer. I didnt actually take out the card and do it up close. maybe that is what I should do next. and no I am not overclocking it.

I will give the compressed air thing a shot.

[Lathais]

I used the compressed air on the entire computer. I didnt actually take out the card and do it up close. maybe that is what I should do next. and no I am not overclocking it.

I will give the compressed air thing a shot.

If you already blew it out, that will not likely do much good. Maybe removing it and reseating it will help. If you moved or bumped the PC it could have come a little loose. However, was this the first time you blew out the PC? If so, and the card is more than a year old, which I would guess due to being a 760 is at least 2 years old or you'd have a 960 instead, you could have potentially overheated it to the point of it being on it's last legs now. Dust is a PC killer. You should clean your PC at least a couple times a year, but really more like monthly. I dust my PCs at the same time I change my AC filters, which I do at the same time I pay the electricity bill, monthly.

[anon5123]

If you're not overclocking, then it is most likely dust clogging up your GPU. Yes, detach it from the motherboard and give it a good dusting with some canned air.

Like most machines, computers require regular maintenance to continue functioning well. In this case, regular dusting.

Oh, and make sure there's at least 6 to 8 inches of open space between the GPU's exhaust vent and the wall. Give it some room to breathe.

[Butternuts]

If you're not overclocking, then it is most likely dust clogging up your GPU. Yes, detach it from the motherboard and give it a good dusting with some canned air.

Like most machines, computers require regular maintenance to continue functioning well. In this case, regular dusting.

Oh, and make sure there's at least 6 to 8 inches of open space between the GPU's exhaust vent and the wall. Give it some room to breathe.

Yeah I ended up taking off the cover and there was like 1/8th of an inch of dust at the end of the heat sink. haha. cleaned that up and it runs great now! Thanks everyone!