I have a problem with my graphics and would welcome any thoughts.

The card is an NVidia 8800GTX and the PC is a core 2 duo 6700.

My system has been running OK for several years until the other day when I tried to start a game (that I had been playing OK for weeks). The screen became garbled and the computer froze. I rebooted and it remained garbled and unresponsive.

In safe mode (which always works fine) I uninstalled the graphics card and then ran NVidia’s software to re-install drivers.

I rebooted and everything worked fine, and did so for another week of daily use and switch-on/reboots each day, until yesterday when after a short time from being switched on, the screen started to develop pink splodges and the computer became unresponsive.

This time I got NVidia’s latest drivers and went through the same process...all well again.

Until this morning when the same thing happened...and cured by uninstalling and rebooting.

This screams failing graphics card to me, but the bit I don’t understand is why it sometimes fails at boot when the system is stone cold. Problems like this often creep up throughout the day, particularly playing games, when the card overheats (which is what I thought it was at first). Also, I don’t understand why it is instantly cured by re-installing the drivers; it is though something corrupts them. And, once it is working, it is OK for hours afterwards as the temperature goes up.

I have done a full virus scan and all is OK.

I’m thinking of upgrading the computer, or maybe getting a new card temporarily and this leads me to a specific question: as technology changes so quickly, can anyone confirm that the 8800GTX uses the identical PCI express format as the latest cards (e.g. like the Radeon HD 6850 or NVidia GTX 570) i.e. will one of these new cards be a straight swap?

Any thoughts welcome.

Skeletal