Okay folks, I need your sage advice as I am stumped with this one. My rig is shown below in my sig line.
I do not have the budget for a new motherboard, RAM, cooler, etc. unless I win the lottery. But I do have enough credit card points to get a new videocard from Amazon--about $400.
Here's the story. I had purchased a 7970 Ghz months ago and plugged it in. And....*SNAP, CRACLE, POP* smoke and no image. Result was a burned out card, and more tragically one burned out PCI Express lane--my middle one. I was devastated. I was thinking that my lane had been bent down by the weight of the card and so was compromised when I plugged the higher wattage card in? Or the lane wsa fine but just couln't support the extra power draw? Or it's neither and I am just an idiot?
I am terrified of blowing any more PCI-Ex lanes out. I could survive one more loss but I would have to trade the placement of my audio card for my videocard and give up the audio card--which I got refurbed from the 'egg at 50% off.
I'd still like a new videocard. So....do nothing? Get something where the wattage wouldn't be a concern, maybe an R9 270X Sapphire Toxic so I'd get the most out of the chip? Roll the dice on an R9 280X? Stop whining, shut up, go home and save my shekels for 10 years so I can afford an all-new rig? Discuss please! (Note: really appreciate counsel from Just An Engineer as I agree with a lot of his advice).
Thanks for anything you'd like to offer!