problem with X1950XT PCI-E 256mb.

[GAMEfreak]

howdy folks, and merry x-mas in advance!

okay so am not quite sure whats going on. I have the following:

E6300 oc'd to 2.8ghz
2gb of ddr2 pc6400 geil ram.
250gb hdd
x1950xt 256mb pic-e ( set back to stock)
Gigabyte P965-DS4
Hiper 580w PSU


ive been having a problem for quite a long time with freezes in certain games. the comp just freezes randomly in the following games: ET:QW , Battlefield 2 and one other game i can't remember ( ) . anyhow am not quite sure why its happening as there is nothing in the event log under admin tools.

i figure its possibly of the following:

drivers - ( don't think its this as ive gone through drivers from 6.3's all the way to 6.11's with no change).

power - I doubt the psu is being overly stressed, and have set my cpu back to stock just in case when checking on things.

card - could it be a faulty card? ive heard tell of a bad batch of these cards, and i did get this one when these just came out. would it be wise to RMA it?

anyone got any ideas on tests to do to solve this? it seems to pass ati tool diags easily. any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[GAMEfreak]

doesnt seem to be going over 80 under load. i'm sure the T junc is much higher than that considering. no access to another pc to test on another board am afraid. will try with lower settings just in case.

I haven't flashed my motherboard before, ( altho ive done it to my psp and countless mobile phones lol ). why would the north or southbridge be a suspect? i'l try it I guess, but I would have expected to find some dirt on it on google if that was the case, but ive found nowt.

the gpu always runs at stock. thats just for my sig tbh .

i guess i'l rule out the bios and chipset drivers when i get home tomorrow afternoon. i'l post back on what happens. thanks a lot so far