Soldato
The card doesnt necessarily die with such heatsinks, but its not what i consider adequate cooling.
AFAIK you got those heatsinks from a Prolimatech Mk-26 cooler, which i had on my 7970 for some time. And the heatsink where horrible, VRM temps would reach 90c+ while the ref cooler would keep them under 80c.
They're Alpenfohn heatsinks and all the answers you need are in here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=23924445&postcount=830