Graphics card died?

[Vanquish]

Usually on AC I get a sort-of stable 125fps. Recently however, I've been subject to random fps drops and screen lag, and yesterday I was forced to play AC with maxfps 45 purely to stop my screen from lagging.

Whenever I start AC I usually get 5 or 6 fps. Alt+Tabbing out brings my fps to a higher number, but still only about half of what I would get before. At the minute I have 45fps and it's very awkward to play decently with.

On sauerbraten I get a stable 60 instead of 140, so AC is not the only game affected.
Does this mean my graphics card is dead/dying? Do I need a new one? Any help or thoughts are appreciated as I'm basically clueless :/

[Cho]

You can maybe try to update your graphics card's drivers. My graphics card went down to 3fps once after I had updated through Windows Update. Then I manually updated and worked again.

[tempest]

If you think it's not using your graphics card, ceck what the "Renderer: ..." line in the console output says.

[jamz]

If your graphics card is dying, I've got a spare GeForce 7600 something-or-other which might still work. You can pop round and pick it up. :P

[Vanquish]

Ah thankyou all for your help! Tempest I did as you said and the problem is now fixed, thankyou.

Jamz, really you are too kind of a human being. I wouldn't want to impose on you like that, your offer is extremely generous however and I am appreciative. The problem seems to be fixed for now anyway, so it looks like I won't have to buy a new one!

Thanks for your replies! :)