I am having a recurring issue with my graphics when playing games. When I load a game, within 3-5 minutes the screen goes off center and then the system freezes. I have to unplug the computer and restart completely. I'll go through this 3-5 times and then everything will be fine, I'll have hours of uninterrupted gameplay. Then for no apparent reason, it happens again. I'll go through 3-5 more crashes and reboots and then have several more hours of uninterrupted gameplay. One thing I have noticed is it almost always happens shortly after I tab out of the game to open my browser and google something. But it frequently happens without my doing that, also. Sometimes I may have a few seconds before the freeze and when that happens, I have tried to take a screenshot. But the image the screenshot saves is normal. So I have photo-shopped an image that represents the problem so you can see what I am talking about. Does this sound like a hardware or software issue?
My system :
MICROSOFT WINDOWS 7 HOME PREM 64-BIT
AM3 Phenom II X6 1055T
ASUS M4A89GTD_PRO_USB3
ATI-SAPPHIRE 100314-2SR ATI Radeon HD6870 1GB PCI-Express DDR5
COOLERMASTER RS800-80GAD3-US 800W Silent Pro Gold
CORSAIR CMV4GX3M1A1333C9x2 8GB -2X4GB- DDR3 1333
WD1002FAEX 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 64MB
SUPERTALENT AIN1-BLACK Internal 18-in-one CardReader
SONY AD-7260S-0B Internal SATA DVD+/-RW BLACK 24X DVD Burner
COOLERMASTER HAF 922M
My system :
MICROSOFT WINDOWS 7 HOME PREM 64-BIT
AM3 Phenom II X6 1055T
ASUS M4A89GTD_PRO_USB3
ATI-SAPPHIRE 100314-2SR ATI Radeon HD6870 1GB PCI-Express DDR5
COOLERMASTER RS800-80GAD3-US 800W Silent Pro Gold
CORSAIR CMV4GX3M1A1333C9x2 8GB -2X4GB- DDR3 1333
WD1002FAEX 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 64MB
SUPERTALENT AIN1-BLACK Internal 18-in-one CardReader
SONY AD-7260S-0B Internal SATA DVD+/-RW BLACK 24X DVD Burner
COOLERMASTER HAF 922M