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Strange problem with graphics

So, ever since I've had this new system of mine, my Geforce 6800GT has had some... issues.

So what happens is that I will overclock it to a certain level. Let's give it a generous boost of... 410 mhz, 1.13 ghz. This overclock was stable in my old system, and so it should easily be stable in my new, more powerful system, with even more power to feed its hungry circuits.

However, strange things have happened. What happens is that randomly durnig any 3d application (can be minutes, or hours into a game, let's say), the screen will freeze, all sound will stop, and MAYBE some hard drive churning, but not enough to say that that's the problem. The screen remains frozen for about 10 seconds. After, the computer unfreezes, and continues to operate ALMOST normally. The main difference is, video performance is MUCH lower. Take for example, Doom 3. I can usually sustain 60 fps in the game, but after one of these freezes, my average fps will be around 40-45.

The problem DOES show up less often if I don't overclock, but that almost defeats the purpose of me having this card. Plus, on my old system, which was not as powerful as my current one (Old system: Pentium 4 2.4b --> New system: Athlon 64 3400+), I did not have this problem.

Is this a common problem? My motherboard is the DFI nforce3 250gb Lanparty, PNY Geforce 6800GT, 450W power supply.
 
Overclocking produces more heat when components are forced to run above their normal speed. That often results in the system locking up.

Gameplay even at 45fps should be playable and if you can achieve that without overclocking the card, then it should be adequate.

Did you install the drivers in the correct order? Many people make the mistake of installing DirectX after they've installed the graphics card drivers. This will result in the system not configuring the 3D driver correctly. The correct driver order is:
1. Operating system
2. Chipset drivers
3. DirectX 8.1 or higher (usually available on the CD that came with the motherboard)
4. All other drivers such as those for your graphics card, soundcard etc.
 
It's not as simple as heat. I said that from a constant fps of 60 fps, after the freeze, the fps drops to a constant level of something SLOWER. Then, if I switch in and out of the application, the fps RESUMES its normal level, until the next time it freezes. I know more than that, it's not just heat. Fast writes are disabled.
 
Sounds like a software issue, not hardware. You might have a program running that is slowing it down, or it might be that you're running out of memory and it's paging the game memory. Check how many page faults the game has.
 
It is definitely not any program that I'm running. Would it really be memory? Why would the problem temporarily alleviate itself after I switch in and out of the game? I have been meaning to get a gig of RAM (right now have 512)...
 
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