Why do my Graphics Cards keep failing?

[Grass_Hopper]

Hi. I have recently rebuilt my PC and have a recurring problem with my graphics card. The PC plays games such as world of tanks and world of warplanes fine, but if I try to run some older games, such as Combat Arms, Day of Defeat Source or even Counter Strike, the graphics cards dies. It dies completely, won't work at all even if removed, uninstalled and then reinstalled. I even tried it in another PC.
I have had two replacement cards, even upgrading from a HD7750 to the HD7770.

The specs for my machine are
Gigabyte 970A-D3 motherboard
AMD FX-4100 quad core at 3.6ghz
8gb DDR3 1600mhz RAM
Sapphire HD7770 1gb card
windows 7-64 bit
OCZ 700 SXS power supply

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Gregster]

When you say "Dies", do you mean the computer shuts off? or Freezes? or drops back to desktop?

Have you checked temps whilst gaming for both CPU and GPU. You may think it is the GPU but it could be your CPU is too hot or the overclock isn't that stable and these games which make it crash are pushing the CPU harder.

 

[Grass_Hopper]

The graphics card stops, leaving me with a blue screen as the monitor searches for an input. The PC is still running and the fan on the card is still running, but no image on the screen. If I turn the PC off and restart it there is still no display, but if I change the graphics card for an old one then the display works.

 

[Bacon?]

Are the games compatible?

 

[Jakus]

Well Grass Hopper, the only things that can damage a GFX card are the User or the PSU.

You might want to look at Nvidia for better old game support.

 

[humbug]

You might consider an older GPU like a GTX 4## or AMD 5850 / 6870 / 6850 are about the same performance and can be had pretty cheap.

also use older drivers for those GPU's, like 12.3 or something, you might even try 12.3 on that GPU, see if it helps.