Graphics Distortion, replace card ?

[edmundking2002]

I bought this PC just over a year ago now, it was working fine for roughly half a year, but on world of warcraft i started seeing distorted graphics, I've endured by Alt-Tabbing out of wow and back in which fixes the issue for a couple of minutes, but the problem has become increasingly worse so that i am now unable to play at times. My initial reaction is that the problem is with my graphics card, i would like to know any other possible problems before i decide to replace it.
I have tried cleaning out my computer and I've ensured i have the latest driver, but I'm unsure how to check if my graphics card is overheating.
I have also tried lowering all the graphics settings, enabling vertical sync etc. none of this works

Here is my computer:

here are some examples of what happens to my graphics, some are truly bizzare and i see new ones every day:

this is the most extreme, where i cant see anything

this is the most common thing i see: the model (in this case the ogre) is distorted

and now one of the weird ones: the ground has gone pink

 

[alisbin]

first thing i'd say would be, update your drivers, there should be new ones on the nvidia website. if that doesnt help then it could be overheating, as far as i remember the GS doesnt have a cooling fan (please correct me if i'm wrong on that somebody)

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

as far as i remember the GS doesnt have a cooling fan (please correct me if i'm wrong on that somebody)

That isn't accurate at all, any 7900GS I've come across has had a fan on it. Everest will be able to tell you the temperature that your GPU is operating at.

You can try increasing the refresh rate on your monitor.

Also, make sure there isn't a resource conflict in the Device Manager.

 

[raybay]

Video graphics card failure, or corrupted (or failed) video graphics card... or failed video graphics card fan.

 

[SNGX1275]

Steps I'd take:

Update Drivers
Remove card and blow out with canned air.
Replace card.

It shouldn't come to step 3. Sounds like either bad drivers or overheating.