So I was playing some TF2 today, and bam - suddenly locked up. About five seconds later, this happened:

 

 

 

 

My card is a three year-old G80 8800GTS 640MB and the heat it generates probably was its undoing. Currently, I'm thinking about an ATi 5670 (1 / 2) seeing as I mostly play Source games and 2D shooters that aren't graphically intensive at all. I'd really appreciate any input and I don't want to spend over £100, seeing as I've just paid for a new phone line + internet.

 

Also of note: I've been having the problems with lockups but no artifacts for 6 months now, but I wrote it off as bad drivers. However, I upgraded, downgraded and upgraded again today - lockups with artifacts persist in TF2, Oblivion and Stalker, but they seem to be more frequent on 197.* versions of Forceware. Cleaned out my card a week ago and high temperatures plus crashes still occured, so I think it's definitely time to get a new GPU.

 

Oh, and my resolution is 1440x900.

Yep, will suit your needs. I don't remember which has the best warranty period, Asus or Sapphire (i think Asus has longer), so you might want to check out that before choosing.

Yep, ASUS is 3 while Sapphire is 2. Thanks, I thought I wasn't over/under-estimating but not 100% sure.