Blue artifacts - 4870

[Shamrock]

My new system is almost 2 months old now, but about 2 days ago I recently started having graphical problems with my "Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 PCS Extreme 512MB GDDR5".

I noticed whilst browsing the forums that in black parts of screenshots there were blue artifacts appearing. When playing a game this got a lot worse with blue sparklies appearing all over the screen! The temperatures in CCC seem to be ok, only hitting around 65C, but the ramsinks were very hot to touch. I'm assuming this is some sort of overheating issue, but I don't understand why its happening now all of a sudden! I've not had any problems up to now and I haven't overclocked it, although it is pre-clocked to 800/950. It reached the point while playing Warhead that the whole screen went corrupted and I had to reboot.

Basically what I'm asking is, does this sound like a heat issue, and is there anything I can do?

Thanks

 

[Sean_UK]

If the ram sinks are more than hot enough to burn your skin; then yes the damage may be done by now so i would suggest RMA time tbh Or you could try placing 120mm fan blowing accross card and see if the problem persists >



Edit: Would also suggest dropping the factory overclock back to normal stock versions and see whats happens