After Almost 10 Years of Service, my RX480 Left to the Big Motherboard in the Sky.
A bit of a bittersweet moment for me. I built the PC that the RX480 was a part of after graduating from elementary school, which I titled "Project 1k". What started off as an i5-4690k, 16 gigs of DDR3, and an RX480 eventually led to a Ship of Theseus-like situation with a motherboard/RAM/CPU swap across 2 separate Ryzen CPUs.
The card stayed the entire time, surviving the refresh and even receiving a repasting around 2021 when it started crashing on thermals. The build remained with me through high school, college, and now, about 3 years into my working life. There were a few minor artifacting situations here and there, but it kept on running like a tank that I drove into the ground. It probably deserved more care than I gave it, which may have given it a few more years of life. I decided to finally put together a new build a few weeks ago (at quite possibly the worst time), and the day before the build, it finally gave in with a final flash of green and fell silent.
It could still be a thermal issue that could be resolved with another repaste, but I think it's time to give the card a well-deserved retirement. Rest easy.