Question for the hardware gurus: Seeing wierd artifacts on screen while gaming

Hi all,

As of lately, any time I play a game on my PC I've begun to see some very strange things on screen. They can range anywhere from green pixels (which also occasionally display on my desktop), to odd lines extending out from certain characters or environmental objects in games, to large areas of the screen turning a solid color (see screen grabs below).

I've tried re-installing the video drivers and even rolling them back to the previous version with no luck, which makes me think it's likely a hardware problem. I have a feeling this has something to do with my video card overheating as I know that can lead to artifacts being displayed on screen, but I figured there would be some far more knowledgable people on here that may have had similar experience.

As an experiment, I ran through an old game that wouldn't put any stress on the video card, HL: Blue Shift, and there didn't seem to be any problem save for one flashing green pixel in the center of the screen. Started up HL2: Episode 2, however, and I got these:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v259/jiff1229/ep2_outland_010000.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v259/jiff1229/ep2_outland_010001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v259/jiff1229/ep2_outland_010002-1.jpg

I built my PC about 2 years ago and it is made up of the following:

Abit AN8 32X motherboard, Athlon 64 X2 4400+ processor, XFX GeForce 7900 GT video card, 2GB OCZ DDR400 PC3200 platinum edition dual channel memory

Of note is that the 7900GT was factory overclocked... Also, I did clean out the case and dust off the video card, and the fan appears to be spinning great. So hardware gurus, is it fried? Needs a new fan? Any ideas?

Jeff

I would start with checking your temps. If, you don't have the software for that....try : Either PC Wizard08 or Speedfan.... both are free.--Anna--

Agreed, I would scrutinize your CPU temp just as tightly as you would your GPU.

Thanks for the quick replies all! Speedfan readings are as follows:

GPU: 48

HD0: 37

Core: 45

Core: 50

Ambient: 0

All are in degrees celcius.