CPU Upgrade = Odd Results (Troubleshoot)Follow

Today, I finally got around to upgrading my wifes PC by adding a Phenom X4 to round out her upgrades for FFXIV. We had also upgraded her GPU to an ATI 5770 HD which was originally running on an AMD Athlon X2 5200 Brisbane. She's now using a Phenom X4 9850. However, I've run into an odd issue.

Previously, everything ran fine...but you could tell that the processor was a bottleneck in FFXIV because of the long load times and NPC load times. To my horror, upon unpacking the CPU, I found that it was shipped with about a dozen slightly bent pins. I've had this problem before, and in the past used the tip of a mechanical pencil to very gently bend them back into place...and I've never really run into an issue doing this. This was no different, I very gently nudged the pins back into alignment with a mechanical pencil tip, finished the install and was happily greeted by a PC that boot up without issue.

Until, I get into Windows and notice some minor graphic pixelation. It's very minor, but it is noticeable, and it's not just in 3D. I'm getting it on webpages and even the desktop wallpaper. I've ensured that I'm running the latest graphics drivers (Catalyst 10.9), updated my AMD processor drivers via AMD.com, and ensured that I removed to Dual-Core Optimizer installed for her previous CPU. Also, there is nothing overclocked right now. Everything is at stock clocks.

The pixelation is actually less noticeable in game (FFXIV), and more noticeable in the desktop environment. I even tried lowering the clocks of the GPU down to 800/1100, down from the stock 850/1200. Didn't help at all. ATITool is also showing pixelation in the artifact scan environment, regardless of the clock speeds.

Could this problem be stemming from the CPU? I also flashed the BIOS for good measure to ensure it wasn't an AM2+ BIOS issue with ASUS boards. Here's my full system specs:

AMD Phenom X4 9850 2.5Ghz
ASUS M3A78-CM Mainboard
Sapphire ATI 5770 HD 1gb DDR5
4gb DDR2-800 G.skill
Corsair 550w PSU
Seagate 7200rpm HDD (160gb)

Everything runs fine, there's no system hiccups or exaggerated screen/graphic tearing or artifacts. It's simply pixelation. Any ideas?

Ironically, after some troubleshooting I determined my DVI cable apparently has gone bad. Changing it out seemed to rectify the issue. All is well ^^;