Artifacting (the glitches you're experiencing) is a definite sign of an overheating or overstressed graphics card. If either you or, more likely, the previous owner have overclocked the card it could have drastically shortened its lifespan in the case of a substandard unit. Quality control isn't perfect, sadly, and some cards suffer more than otherwise identical examples of the same model. Whatever the cause, you're getting pretty certain symptoms of a physical problem with the card, as opposed to driver conflict or the like.
8XXX series are getting dirt cheap now that the 9-series cards are out. Might be for the best to snap one up.
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