Freezing

Spec's look decent but many things can cause this problem, a lot of them fall under 'settings' and 'drivers'. Making sure ALL BIOS settings are set correctly is foremost. Clear the ESCD in BIOS after any hardware change. Make sure frequency and timing settings don't cause excessive wait-states for BUS x-fers. After BIOS is checked, ensure MoBo 'chipset' drivers are installed - full AGP functionality may not be possible without them even though Windows installs 'generic' drivers. All hardware mfg. drivers should be installed and settings checked. Make sure not infected with badware. Disconnect any hardware not needed for gaming, or disable drivers like multimedia enhanced keyboards and any system processes or background tasks that are not essential so there are less things causing IRQ requests.

Make sure DMA is enabled for HDD and CDROM's if supported by them. Error-scan, defrag and check S.M.A.R.T. status of HDD's. Use a sys info tool like 'Everest' or 'PC Wizard' to check if settings in BIOS and OS are allowing full hardware functionality.

Some hardware (and software) just don't play well with certain others lol, so if all that fails, borrow another video card with similar features and see if it works better before spending money on a new one. Check if your MoBo chipset has known issues with any of the different graphics chip mfg's.

Good luck and hope it turns out to be something simple ;)
R.M.T.