Short question: How can you tell if your video-card is going out. I've done quite a bit of learning on other things, but have never had to replace my video cards, so I'm still a newbie when it comes to this part of computers.
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More detailed info:

I have two cards - BFG GeForce GTX 280, and Sparkle GeForce 9400GT running currently, on four monitors (three monitors right now, due to problems). The monitors are Dell S2209W (three) and one S2009.

Problems started a few days ago. My main monitor (on the GTX card) would fade a bit, almost as if it was going into "dim" mode on a laptop, then it decided to shut off completely. Whenever I would reboot, or even turn the screen off and on, a picture would come up, then disappear.

When I removed the monitor, I left the cord connected to the same DVI connector in the GTX card, and plugged in the S2009 monitor to it, and made the other monitor attached to the card the primary monitor.

None of the monitors are replicating the problem now, so I thought it was just a the screen going bad.

But now, I'm beginning to have other issues. For instance, I just clicked on a link (on the screen using the 9400GT card), and when it went to open firefox on another screen (attached to the GTX card), both screens attached to the GTX card flashed and went blank, then finally came on. I had to move my cursor across both screens to get some of the icons to show back up. I've had other random issues like that as well.

Oh - Just in case:
Chip - I7 940 clocked at 3.4
Board - Rampage III Formula
Memory - Kingston 9905403 4MB (2) in slots 1 and 2; 3 OCZ Platinum 2 MB in slots 3-5. Total 14 MB of mem.
2 Mushkin Chronos 60 GB in Raid 0 (OS)
2 Velocityraptors 150 GB Raid 0 (storage).
Three external drives as well, plus a Blu-ray and another DVD drive.

 

Do you have another cord you could test your GTX with? It could be a faulty graphics card, but problems like this are usually caused by loose or bad connections somewhere. If you can, re-seat your graphics card(s) too.

Icons disappearing until you move your mouse over them could be any number of problems. Usually it's the result of a corrupt file in the shell. Do you have Fences or a similar program installed that could mess with file paths or icons?

What "other random issues" have you had?

 

Wait, you have two different models of card in the same computer? :/

 

Yeah, now that I'm thinking about it, when I touched the monitor it did feel pretty hot as well, so maybe I should take some time and do some testing with it. I have a number of cords around here so I'll switch them out as well. At first, a faulty connection was exactly what I thought it was as well.

For messing with my icons I have Ultramon and Objectdock Plus running. I've hit snags with both of them before at different times, but I could usually isolate it to one or the other pretty easily. The last time however, it was a link on a webpage that made it all disappear. Of course, it may have been the program not refreshing/responding when the screen finally refreshed.

Yeah. Up until a few weeks ago, I've never had a problem with it either. I've built a couple computers that way. I've found that as long as I stay with the same type of driver (GeForce on mine, though I've used ATI in another build), there's no problem. Of course, you won't get the exact same capabilities on every screen, but for my builds, that's fine. I wanted my main screen used for moderately good gaming graphics (I'm not a hard-core gamer) as well as work. My other screens, are used only for work/researach, so I don't need massive GPUs driving them. I'm not a big enough gamer to go with TRI SLI or other setups. I'd rather spend that money on storage and processors. That's why I just bought a decently good card to go with a high-end card (for back then)

 

Gb/Mb Oops. Yeah, I meant Gb. Anyway, I saw my current monitor plugged into the same DVI port fluttering today (the colors that is), so either I have two monitors going out at roughly the same time, or a card issue. Hopefully whatever it is will keep at bay for another three weeks, then I can take time to look at it.

 

Ok guys I am at my wits end i've been Googling for 4 straight hours and no help so heres to hoping you guys can be my saviors.

So here's how it is, my comp suddenly went crazy when watching a movie
I shut it off but when i turned it on it wouldn't POWER on, the mouse's led is on so it isn't my psu. I pull everything out and reconnect and power it up and it works the fans are spinning its normal. Then I notice my Graphics carf isn't Connected I put it back in and it doesnt fucking work same problem.

When i pulled it out it works but when it's connected it doesnt power on completely. Please guys help me what the hell is going on?