>> I see three possibilities:
>>
>> 1. The GPU is overheating.
>>
>> 2. There's a bug in the version of the video driver I have installed.
>>
>> 3. Valve have made an update to TF2 which introduces some kind of 
>> rendering bug.
> 
> 4. Hardware fault on the graphics card (eg bad RAM)

Surely that's a rather rare failure mode on a graphics card? That seems 
to me more like the kind of thing where you get a brand new card and 
it's DOA. This card has been installed and running without issue for years.

>> Apparently the nVidia control panel no longer tells you your GPU 
>> temperature; you have to download and install an additional tool. 
>> Anyway, having just stopped using the GPU, the temperature was reading 

> 
> Try showing the temperature in parallel with running the GPU (eg 3D game 
> in a window), IIRC when I did those sorts of tests before, the GPU 
> temperature dropped rapidly very quickly (eg 10-15 degrees in just a 
> second after exiting a game).




>> To me, that sounds rather damned hot. Is it usual for a GPU to get 
>> this warm?
> 
> Actual chip core temperature of 55 degrees seems fine to me, if it got 
> to 80 or 90 I would start to get worried.

Oh, OK. Generally my CPU doesn't get anywhere near that hot - but then, 
I guess my CPU doesn't develop several hundred GFLOPS...

>> At this point, I'm not sure if my GPU is failing, or whether I just 
>> need to update my drivers...
> 
> One very easy and cheap way to check...

Well, I did it anyway, just for the hell of it. Next time I play, I'll 
see if it makes any difference.

(The wonderful thing about intermittent faults is that you can never 
truly know if they are fixed.)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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