Win7: Games freezing, display error, all things fuxd

So my computer's been noobing out hardcore lately. I'm not a total computer noob. I know more then the average person I guess but I'm not zerocool or anything.

Specs:
Windows 7 64x
MSI 790FX-GD70 mobo
HIS Radeon HD 5850 1gb
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz
OCZ Gold Edition 8GB Dual Chan

Ever sense I got Windows 7, usually when I try to play a game, the screen goes white or black when the game or a map loads. I can hear sound but it's just blank screen. I crtl+alt+del a couple times to get back to the desktop (this usually causes the game to just crash.) Back on the desktop now, I see "display driver has stopped responding and has recovered."

The last thing I did to fix this problem was upgrade to my current specs (my old card was an nvidia btw so it's not just an ati problem.) Problem is... it's worse now! It does it waaaay more often now. Probably 8 out of 10 times. I get the same error if I play Bf:BC2, CS:S and TF2.
Then a couple days ago I got a flash update on Firefox. Now when I watch youtube videos, I get the damn error... and I sometimes can't just crtlaltdel the hell out of my computer to fix it. It just completely freezes.

All this makes me want to get rid of Windows7 and et XP 64bit. But there's no DirectX11 support for XP and XP support will probably start dropping all together soon.

Does anyone have any ideas? I know it's all pretty vague and could be anything, I've just run out of ideas about what to do. I bought Windows7 because I wanted a 64bit OS and it seemed dumb to buy XP sense it's old and everyone bitches about Vista support. Win7 seems to be a good OS except the one thing it doesn't do is the one thing that I really want my computer to do: kill fools via digital display
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-Otter-

Haven't used an AMD CPU on Windows 7 myself, but on XP/Vista there was a driver specifically for the CPU that had to be installed for things to work correctly.

Should probably also check to make sure you have the most recent drivers for your video card. I've had similar problems in the past that were caused by the drivers that came on the disc with the card. That particular driver version had a flaw that they fixed within a few days, it just happened to be the one that it was shipped with.

And just as an FYI, XP 64-bit is an abortion.

Well, just spitballing ideas would point me towards your GPU. Even though you swapped cards you mentioned that after the latest Flash update it causes the same issues, and the latest Flash updates specifically adds support for GPU acceleration.

Check to make sure that your 2D and 3D clocks are changing properly when you load into games and when a flash player loads. Look up the stock clocks on the card and then use something like GPU-Z or similar to watch the clocks change.
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Failure is just success rounded down.

weak or failing PSU, shorted mainboard, failing mainboard, many possibilities.

If you hammer the crap out of the CPU ONLY during a benchmark, does the system have issues?

Do you have an extra power supply you can try? 600W plus preferably, and verify the power requirement of your +12V rails on the video card vs what your PSU can handle.

Well I reinstalled Windows7 again because I've tweaked so many things trying to fix this problem that I figured it would be best to start new.

Problem is still there but waaaaaay less frequent now. CS plays fine, no flash player issues, BFBC2 still freezes when the map loads sometimes but I'm fine with that i guess lol I really think the reason it got so bad is because I tried to fix it with so many different methods (some where kind of sketchy too)

I'm just going to deal with what I got until I'm able to take it to someone who's better at trouble shooting then me.

If BlackOps has this problem then I'm taking it to a pro the very next day, for real.
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-Otter-

UPDATE:
Soooo I might have figured some shizz out. I ran a memory test and I have some sticks failing.

So I looked up my memory on Newegg to see if any new reviews have been updated... there have... and everyone's sticks are failing.

I've looked at that list of memory that MSI has confirmed to work with my board.
My board has 4 mem slots and I'd like to keep my set up at 8gb so it looks like I need to find 2gb sticks.

I'm thinking about buying two sets of this
G.Skill ECO series 4gb
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-Otter-

Update:

FIXED!!!

It was my memory. I bought me 8 new gigs from NewEgg during BlackFriday. Works perfect.

I also got a new monitor, external harddrive case and some baller ass headphones. Online shopping sprees ftw
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-Otter-

be careful with those online shopping sprees man....next thing you know you have a GTX 580 on your table and you aren't able to use it
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Core I7 4790K @ 4.7 Ghz
Corsair H115i AiO 280mm Water Cooler
EVGA GTX 1080 TI

It's nothing but an excuse, you could use it or gift it to me for Dirty Santa.
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Failure is just success rounded down.

I would nikola.....but the parts are on the way
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Core I7 4790K @ 4.7 Ghz
Corsair H115i AiO 280mm Water Cooler
EVGA GTX 1080 TI