User unplugs VGA cooling, is surprised VGA card broke

A while back the fan on the card started making this really annoying whining noise. So I unplugged the fan. Yeah, I know. Stupid. But I didn’t care because on my last PC I did the exact same thing and nothing ever happened to it.

A few hours before the card died I heard this loud SNAP. The computer was still running however. So I fired up the laptop and remoted in to the big box and yep, everything was still there.

What did this mean? Dead video card.