8800GT 512 z-buffer problem

Hi.

I have a 8800GT 512MB card.
The problem I have with it is as follows: When playing certain games, there is a flickering effect on some textures.
To describe this better, think of an area where a lot of leaves are drawn. Now some of the leaves that are supposed to be behind others produce an effect where they apper and disappear, or appear teared, in front of the other leaves. This "switch" between the 2 leaves is very fast (and annoying), and is always taking place in the same areas.
I have searched the net a little and this seems to be called z-figthing. Basically, the Z buffer does not have a good enough precision to determine which of the 2 objects should be drawn in front.

The reason I opened this thread is that I didn't notice this effect when I bought the card (over a year ago). It only started recently, and it happend in Sam and Max Episode 104 (bushes in front of the White House) - not a demanding game, I know - in Crysis Warhead on many forest areas, but not in the first Crysis, and possibly in Prince Of Persia 2008 (I am not really sure here, it could have been something else). There are other games where this doesn't happen (e.g. CoD4, D.I.R.T, Need For Speed series, etc.)

What I tryed:
- many driver versions -> no change.
- windows XP and window 7RC -> no difference.
- blown the dust away -> this lowered the temperature by about 4 degrees C (from 101C to 97C - very hot, I know)
- 3dMark06 -> no artifacts, but there is a flicker of the shadows on the leaves in the Firefly test (I'm not sure if it's the same problem).
- Furmark -> no artifacts; this is where I had a look at the temperatures, bu running a burn-in test.

So, is the problem that I have common on the 8800 arhitecture, and I should live with it? Should I return the card? (I'm not really sure I can convince the store to replace it, since they'll only run 3dMark06 and Furmark).

Thank you for your patience to read all this.
Have a nice day.

Here's a quick diagnotic test:


Underclock the clock by 10 percent and run the same tests at the same settings.

If the problem goes away, I'll say that since you've been gaming on the card for over a year and have had it 101 C many many times, then it's GPU degradation. Think of lightbulbs, over time they're just not as bright as new but still works.