Hey,

first of all - im new here, so Hi everyone.

Now. I have had this geforce 7600GT graphics card now for just over a year and its been fine. However,

recently its been acting up. Ive taken a few screenshots to point out whats happening:

Sorry for the sizes of the pictures, but i felt it necessary so you can see whats wrong.

I have updated my graphics card driver and today i took my card out and got the dust off of it, i suspect that it may be overheating.

However is there any other cause anyone could point out?

That looks like you've got V-Sync disabled to me and you're getting artifacts known as tearing.  Make sure V-Sync in enabled in the game's manu and in your graphics drivers and give it another shot.