Possible video card problem - GTX 460

[theirlaw]

Two weeks ago I upgraded to a eVGA GTX 460 after my fairly old (three years I think) 9800 GTX started randomly crashing and unleashing artifacts. All was well for those two weeks, until tonight when my display suddenly shut off while my computer remained running. I was unable to get any sort of video signal to come back up, so I did a hard restart. After the restart, still no display, but there was a new noticeable whine coming from my chassis.

At this point I unplugged the video card, and the whine disappeared. I plugged my card back in, with the two 6-pin molex connectors disconnected and the whine was present again, so even without the card fully powered it is seemingly making a noise.

Out of curiosity, I decided to pull out the semi-functioning 9800 GTX that I had just replaced to see if I could at least get something to display, and sure enough, on first boot it came back up, artifacts and all... with no whine.

Now as far as I know, the two video card should have similar power consumption, but I still haven't been able to fully rule out the PSU (it too is probably three years old). Aside from testing out the GPU on another machine, is there anything I can do?

 

[XacTactX]

What PSU are you using?

Place your ear directly next to the PSU when the GTX 460 is plugged in and see if you hear the whine from the PSU. If not the PSU, then it is likely the GPU.

The best thing, that you already mentioned, is to take the 460 to another PC and try it out. Then you will know if what the cause is.

 

[Replicnt]

What wattage is your PSU? Unplugging the video card should have generated a huge while from the video card as it is supposed to do when it is under powered. I'd guess you need a bigger PSU myself.