HIS IceQ X Turbo AMD Radeon HD 6850 Crashes In Windows 7 != GNU/Linux

[Colonel_Panic]

Greetings, chaps. I'm having a devil of a time assessing a most peculiar problem with my graphical processing unit. My current model is an HIS IceQ X Turbo AMD Radeon HD 6850 which I purchased in November of last year. The card is physically working flawlessly, this statement being supported by my observations of its workings alongside the Debian GNU/Linux operating system.

The problems, however, occur upon loading Redmond, Washington's latest offering of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition on an x86-64 architecture.

All graphical entertainments cease operations at random intervals; as such, I can not guarantee an enjoyable session of Batman: Arkham City or Empire: Total War via Steam. For example, my sessions will abruptly end and be replaced with vertical tiled lines of color with audio occasionally looping indefinitely. I am currently using the latest drivers from AMD for the card and can not figure out what to do next in terms of alleviating this problem.

I would be most appreciative of any assistance you can render in this regard.

Sincerely,

Colonel Panic, GNU

 

[Colonel_Panic]

Good morning. I am writing to give more information on this problem. When I bought this card, I did not have the CPU cooler I now own (Thermaltake Contac 30) which slights hangs over my RAM.

CPU Cooler:
Thermaltake CLP0579 120mm Contac 30 Intel LGA-2011 Ready 160W TDP Heatpipe Direct-contact Technology CPU Cooler

RAM:
Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G

Old PSU:
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W Modular High Performance Power Supply

New PSU:
APEVIA ATX-AS680W-BL 680W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready Power Supply


The only other element which changed was my upgraded PSU; I bought the 680W because my sister needed a new PSU for her machine.

After perusing these and other forums, I've read how this could be either a PSU or RAM issue. What do you think is the most likely culprit? RAM overheating from the CPU cooler hanging above the first stick of RAM? The PSU being of a lower quality than my original 500W?

I would greatly appreciate any help in this matter.

Sincerely,

Colonel Panic, GNU