Bit worried about my 4870

[Merlin5]

Quite a few months ago, my screen would go blank for a few seconds then come back on. I switched the DVI plug to the second DVI socket, then it was fine.
Now my screen is doing the same thing. Also, I'm getting occassional fast flickering with vertical bands like this picture I took with my camera this afternoon. This afternoon it did it quite a lot, so I rebooted. Even when I got to the blue 'windows is shutting down' screen it was still doing it, but past that screen it stopped and hasn't done it now for a few hours. But the blank screen thing happened 3 times a few minutes ago. Is the card on the way out? I must admit, I took the side of the pc off weeks ago with a view to giving it it's 3 monthly dust out but didn't do it yet and the cover has been off since. Could it be just dust?

 

[subbytna]

that's not a good sign, dust won't cause that to happen unless your card is heating up to the point of artifacting....normally your card will just shut down with heat.

What temps you getting?

you're probably gonna have to get a new card soon though as it's about the end of it's lifespan.... <- code for splash the cash on some new tech toys

 

[arc@css]

Memory on the card seen better days by the looks of it.