New to the forums, just wanted to say hey to everyone first =) Here's my situation....

So I took a break from gaming, came back to my computer, noticed pixels all over my screen and loaded up Bioshock and this happened:

http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php [...] ockwa8.png

Is my video card toast? I've had the PC for about a month and haven't overclocked anything. I get temps of about 38 on idle and anywhere from 45-47 on load.

Also, can someone help me determine whether this is a hardware or not? If it's a hardware problem I'll just RMA it but if its not, what can I do?

By the way, here are my computer specs:

e8400 @ 3.0GHz
EVGA 8800GT 512mb
Corsair 550w
4gb OCZ gold ddr2-800
Vista 64-bit

Thanks for any help guys

I'm guessing you rebooted and the problem is still there. Are the temps you listed for the video card or cpu? If video card your running cool compared to mine, which is at 60c most of the time.

Troubleshooting:

1. Uninstall video drivers and reinstall video drivers.
2. Reseat video card and check pci plug connected to the video card
3. Do you have onboard video or another video card you can swap in to test.

looks to me like the video card overheated and then crashed. it should be fine if you try again. although monitor the temps and see if they're getting too high.

I have rebooted, in fact, it has been like this for about a week =(

Note: Outside of games, there is scattered pixels throughout the screen in clusters (the ones in the screenshot are what I'm talking about) all of the time.

Is my only option RMAing the card?

Do what PCSoul suggested, if none of it helps then it sounds like the card gave up on life.

Are there scattered pixels when you boot or during the boot process before you go into the OS?

also, consider trying a different cable to connect to your monitor. maybe something happened to the cable. its less likely than the other things suggested, but i suppose it's worth a try.

Since it was working then did that, it does look like the card is giving up.
If you are getting it on the desktop, something is wrong.

I am going to have to say to as said above too(driver,reseat,check the cables).

It should not be the actual monitor cable since if it was the screen would not have the artifacts.

I have seen drivers cause this, but you said it just suddenly happened

Beat that driver glitch.

It does indeed show my scattered pixels during boot up, but it just looks different. Instead, it is more of like a streak of lines on the first screen (MOBO screen), then when it goes all black there is nothing, and when it loads Vista, it returns.

Well if reseating does not work, the card has gone bad. Most times the memory just gives up and does that.

RMA time

Sorry, but It's looking like RMA time. Problems in the boot screen is not a good sign.

Thanks a LOT for the help guys =)

I'm totally fine with RMAing it...I had the feeling that was the case anyway.

Looks like I'll be out for a week, but that's fine.

Once again, THANKS =)