How to tell if Video card is defective?
 

I have an asus EAH3850 graph card...recently, I've been having more and more problem playing 3D games. ALmost all 3d games I play now have weird texture problem, randomly crash or BOSD.

Games that used to run fine now becomes unplayable too. (like COD4...it now only plays fine in mission with very few texture and details..like the last airplane mission, I used to be able to play every mission and I finished the game from start to finish)

I've updated, deleted and updated again with new and different drivers from both Asus and ATI but nothing helped.

I am thinking it might be a hardware problem. But is there anyway I can confirm? i.e. program? Software?
If i send it in for warranty claim, I have to tell them what's the problem and what's defective too.

Visually inspect the video card. It might be something as obvious as a blown/leaking capacitor.

overheating issue? If it has a fan make sure it's moving and not clogged with dust or sthing

NTCW on Pacific downtown might be able to help diagnose it.

Sounds like an overheating issue, get the card RMA'ed.

I thought about overheating, but using the ATI program and Speedfan, it reports the GPU typically at 40'C idle, and 55-60'C load.
Could the temperature sensor report inaccurate number?

If I RMA the product, do I just tell them it is overheating? What if they look at the reported temperature and said no (since it is only going at 40-60'C)

could also be power supply issues. i had problem when playing games where the system would randomly hang or BSOD. turns out the powersupply was crap and couldnt supply enough amperage. Upgraded to a quality unit and haven't had an issue since.

btw, when I use the ATItool, there are 2 sets of temperature. The first one looks like a normal GPU temp (going from 35-60'C), but there is also a 2nd number of temperature that either reads 0'C or 99'C.
Any idea what is that?

http://img99.imageshack.us/i/24163143yx8.png/ <-(i.e. like this, where the 34'C read either 0'C or 99'C)