Failing Graphics card?

My computer is 4 years old and I have a Nvidia 8600GT card. Only during playing games (even Solitare!) the screen will freeze then after about a minute unfreeze for a while then repeat every few minutes. Occasionally, after freezing I have a black screen then a message that 'nviddmkm has recovered from a serious error'. Sometimes this also results in the BSOD with a memory dump.
I have not installed the windows update KB952287 which apparently can give a false error message.
Thanks in advance

A couple of the messages on ***this page*** say it can be a RAM issue rather than a video card issue (posts #10 and #11), but unless you just changed or added RAM to the computer, I don't think this is likely.

According to Post #3 on ***this site*** it is a very common problem and there is no solution.

Post #12 on ***the second page of that thread*** says they got rid of the problem by going back to old drivers.

Post #17 suggests changing the RAM timings and disabled "Intel C-State Tech" in the BIOS.

Post #18 suggests the cause might be related to temperatures. If that's the case, your computer might just need the dust cleaned out.

So as you see there are several problems that could cause the same symptom, and for some of the problems there is no fix. But you won't know that unless you try all the fixes.

Thank you for all the links Jenny, will try the dust option first. Have looked on the how-to videos and will try the compressed air.
On other forums suggestions include a dyson hoover or a garden leaf blower!

Many video card have their own fans for cooling. Check to see if that fan is running.

I've found that sometimes a defragmentation of the harddrive helps too - Even a cleanout of the temp files can help as well