Hd4850 Problems - Fuzzy Graphics etc.

I have been having problems with my 4850 for about a month now. I first realised there was a problem when I hooked up my second monitor to the card. It worked well for around 3 weeks, but then it stopped picking up one of the monitors on bootup (no signal or something) and occasionaly it would find it again. However when both monitors worked together every hour or so both monitors would go completely black for a few seconds. I was on catalyst 8-10 I think, but I put in my old graphics card, an x1900 and it seemed to solve the problems. I put the hd4850 back in a day later and the problems stopped for a while.

The problem is that games don't look right. They seem fuzzy and the textures look awfull even on highest settings. It's as if the anti-aliasing is off even though it isn't. Direcx9 games however look fine like left4dead. I used to play farcry2 on quite high settings without it jerking or looking bad, but now doesn't seem right and lags quite a bit. I have updated catalyst drivers every update and I'm on 8-12 right now. Is it the card thats faulty? If it is I won't be able to return it because it's not completely broken.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I usually stop drinking when my graphics get all fuzzy...

What is your PSU specs / model? Are you using your monitor's default resolution and refresh rate in the game settings?

Did these problems start when you updated drivers? When you update, are you uninstalling CCC through the add/remove software in the control panel first? If you are installing new drivers over top of the old drivers you can run into some weird stuff.

Also check your CCC 3D settings. Don't run AA through CCC, set what you can to use application settings, turn off catalyst AI. The only thing I crank up is the mipmap and the rest I leave it off or use application settings.

Not sure if this will help out but it will give you something to try out before doing an RMA.

If you have crashing and did a fresh driver install and your temps are normal, I would RMA then. If you get crashing with a new card then I would have a look at your PSU after that. Do you have a spare PSU to check? I don't think a faulty PSU would cause fuzzyness...it would cause a lot of crashing though.

Good luck.

Sapphire. I'll probably get a 4870 this time. Which brands are respected?