Graphics Card Flickering Issue?

Hello, I really need someones help here!



For the last few weeks I have been attempting to diagnose an issue with my PC! It used to run more or less any game without fail, I could even often play on the highest settings... But recently? Everything seems to either flash, flicker or stretch out the textures!



Here are some videos of the games with their respective issues:



Skyrim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=ULhVjrQy7k3gE&v=hVjrQy7k3gE (Beware: If watched non-sober you may puke!)

Star Wars: Force Unleashed II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=r_OVUcG0C00

The Sims 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q2vbl3vzis



As you can see, they all have their own issues... I decided to try some old games and the first two I tried were GTA Vice City and San Andreas.



Vice City was very normal, and not much to mention, but San Andreas had the same issue as the Sims 3 and Skyrim just to a lesser extent!



Here is San Andreas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ktr3PZOd0Xc



After it first happened I assumed it was that the graphics card had needed a driver update, so I done that and restarted the game... and it had the same issue! Tried pretty much everything to fix it up to the point where I gave up and done a full destructive restore to factory settings, after hours of screwing around doing that I put in a game and... exactly same as it was before the restore!



Finally, I was talking to a friend of mine about the issue, and he is very into PC's and even builds and repairs them on his spare time, he lives too far away to personally come and check it out but when I showed him the videos he said he thought it was a graphics card issue, I agreed but found it strange because all other things the computer does is fine, with the only other slight issue being that when I watch movies if I leave the player to check the internet without hitting pause, and then click back to the player once I'm done, the screen will take a few (10ish) seconds to unfreeze itself from the scene I turned from, and suddenly it'll play fast until the picture reaches the audio from the scene it's actually at!



Anyway, I would just like to know 100% that it is a graphics card issue before I go out and spend money on a new one!



My specs are:



CPU: Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz

CPU Speed: 2.7 GHz

O/S: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition Service Pack 1

Video Card: GeForce GTS 240

Video RAM: 2.2 GB

Pixel Shader Version: 4.0

Vertex Shader version: 4.0

Free Disc Space: 343.5 GB





Thank you in advance|||Have u tried any tweaking in the Nvidia control panel. Sometimes u can fix things in there.



Failing that, it does sound like there is a fault of some kind in the video card itself.



It is definitely a graphics issue of some sort. And if u have replaced the drivers, and since this occurs on more than one game, reason would dictate that the card or its related software are faulty.|||I would agree with your friend. Most definitely looks like a graphics card problem. Make sure you have the latest drivers for it, and check the temperatures. If you have an old graphics card laying around then try installing that in and see if you get the same problem or not.