GPU artifacts after windows logo screen

[kirokie]

So I was playing overwatch 2 when my PC suddenly froze so I had to restart it using the power button. After restarting, my PC was fine but after the windows logo screen I was startled by the fans because it became louder and I saw artifacts on my screen and the resolution is not what it supposed to be. I opened up device manager and saw that the driver for my GPU has failed so I tried to reinstall it and update it after. After that, it was running fine and my default resolution is back so I tried to open overwatch again and it crashed my PC immediately and the whole thing happened again (Screen artifacts, etc.). And I reinstalled my GPU drivers again. It worked again but now my PC freezes at the loading screen after typing my password. I force restarted it and it did the same thing. I left it open for a while and when I was browsing the internet for about 5 mins I noticed that some artifacts appeared while the screen is still frozen. After a few minutes, the fans became loud again but just for a split second and it finally logged me in. But after a few sconds, it freezes again and it repeats the cycle.

 

I'm wondering if this is a driver issue or if it's a hardware issue. I tried cleaning my GPU, reseated my ram, reseated CMOS but the problem persists. My PC is pretty old but this is the first time it happened and my PC was running perfectly before it.

 

Specs:

GPU - Nvidia GTX 680

RAM - 8gb

CPU - Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6850

MOBO - ASUS Maximus Extreme 

 

 

[CommanderAlex]

Doesn't sound like the graphics card was taken care of since it's an GTX 680 that came out 10 years ago. Thermal paste is dried up at this point and needs to be replaced if it hasn't been done.