Artifacts happen as cards die. They can happen on ALL cards. AMD, Nvidia, Intel, IGPs, APUs, GPUs, etc. Any card as it ends its life span will get them. I have the original 280, the 7950. No problems so far. But I haven't overclocked mine, or raised it's voltage. Cards should last for longer then they would be useful, so I probably won't be upgrading this until a new DX version comes out, drivers aren't made for it in windows 15, etc.