Trying to diagnose a failing video card

[Nyxd]

I left my computer on last night, and this morning I couldn't get a signal to come through the monitor. I shut down, rebooted, and got a BIOS response indicating a hardware problem with the video card or monitor input. I have had this problem a couple times before, although it would reboot normally and I would have a video signal again. It's an AMD 6790 card on a gigabyte motherboard both not more than a year or two old.
I have had the video crash while gaming semi-regularly, every 4-6 hours of game time or so, but always attributed it to software problems with the game. Are these symptoms of a shot card? I tried removing just to clean the contact points but those nasty little PCIE levers wont let it go. Thank you.

 

[farrengottu]

on the pci-e slot on the side nearest to the front of the case there should be a pretty easy to press release.

and yes it sounds shot but could maybe need a good dusting. take it out and blow it out. canned air, a compressor or your mouth works fine. but the latter two put moisture on the card so dont power it up for 20 minutes after you blow it out with those sources.

the best way to test it is to plug it into another computer. if you dont have another one with a pci-e slot then hopefully you have a friend/family member that does.