nvidia 8800gt dead?

Hi all. First time poster so be nice hehe. On xmas eve my pc had a crash that it recovered from. After a restart i had artifacting at the first boot. Managed to get into windows and display was reset. I changed resolution and found in the system details i had a code 43 error. gfx card was really slow couldnt play games but could surf to order a new 1. Now the display outputs nothing to the monitor at all. I have ordered a new 1 and logic should dictate that a swap out will solve all. But im worried that if theres anything wrong with the rest of the system the new card could pop. The card was having issues i think for about 4 weeks with massive fan fluctuations and random crashes which ive not had since i built it 2 years ago. I know ive prolly answerd my own question but u guys will have alot more of a clue than me so anything u can offer will help:confused
rig is

q6600 clocked at 3.ghz
8800gt
evga 650i
4gig memory
2 h/d drives wdc
750 w antec blue psu
vista 64

new card is a nvidia 460gtx 2mb

 

Ya, it's toast. You're going to like that 460 as it's shorter and puts out less heat. I also have a 460 running with a Q6600 and love it! I doubt it's your PSU either. Just update your drivers if you haven't done so recently. Enjoy.

There was a bad driver update from nVidia this year where it set the fan speed to %20 and burnt a lot peoples cards. I don't believe that's what happened to you but who knows.:confused

 

Just to be on the safe side I'd also keep an eye on the system temperature with something like

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=337

If things heat up during extreme use, upgrades to the case, CPU or video card fans (depending on the hot spots) would be added protection for your PC.