ASUS P8P67 Deluxe latest BIOS 3207,GTX 550 Ti latest driver 301.42, G.SKILL F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL, Corsair 750 watt, Windows 7 64-bit.
 
Screen, mouse cursor and audio freezes for a second every 15 mins or so. Get error msg driver stopped responding and recovered a few times a day. I tried all the non-beta drivers clean install but same problem. Used Precision X to overclock to 999 and downclock to 900 but same problem. CPU and GPU temps are normal, both around 40 idle and 60 peak. I noticed when screen/mouse/audio freezes, Precision X shows a jump to max core clock then down to 50/400 MHz again. Do I need to request RMA?
 
My previous video card was ATI X1600, no such problem. I wanted to get a ATI card but its seems not popular at NewEgg.  I'm a casual gamer.

I would probably just RMA it, its like its going up to max then downclocking, thats kinda a weird thing to be happening and i have never got that with my 550Ti.  Talk to EVGA.

Maybe I should upgrade to the GTX 560? It's within my budget $150.  The GTX 560 Ti $215 is out of my budget. The only reason I bought the 550 Ti because it has the most positive reviews on Newegg. I'll just return this 550 Ti instead of RMA. Good idea? I couldn't add link so here's the description on Newegg,
EVGA 01G-P3-1460-KR GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

or maybe I should use a totally different chipset instead (AMD) like the HD 6870, though it got only 4 stars on Newegg.
 

Try a diifferent pci slot and power connection.

No other slot available, tried different power connection but same problem.

I just purchased HD 6870 from newegg. I hope it will fix this problem.

I think I found out what's causing the screen freezes, it's a software called Netlimiter. I uninstalled it and no more screen freezes. This card is running hot though and the fan is very noisy above 60%. It's goes to 75 deg C when playing Battlefield 3, fan at 100% is super noisy. What is the max temp this GPU should be running? Is it same as CPU around 80 deg C? Maybe the HD 6870 will be quieter and cooler.

This card is rated up to almost 100c, 75 is perfectly where it should get during demanding games like Battlefield 3.  Even 80c is not bad.

Do you get used to the loud fan noise at 100%?

Since its not EVGA or NVIDIA fault for my problem, I returned the Sapphire HD 6870 without even opening it. I purchased the EVGA SuperClocked 012-P3-1572-AR GeForce GTX 570 instead of the 560 Ti because of small price difference. I also bought a Razer keypad and Razer mouse and upgraded my Acer AL2616W to BenQ XL2420T. All for FPS games like Battlefield 3.