IMac early 2008 occasional screen flicker with external monitor

I am experiencing flickering with my early 2008 iMac when driving an external monitor. My Thinkpad is flawless when pushing out to the monitor.
It will be fine, but occassionaly (every 5-20seconds) the screen gives a little flicker, about 1/4 of a second in duration.
Also, sometimes, there is no flickering, it depends on what is being displayed, which makes me think video card. I am using the 2400XT and my software is up to date.
ROM Revision: 113-B2250H-259
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.259
I am thinking about trying to source a 2600pro that came on the more high end version of my iMac and swap out the graphics card. I also want to drop a 2TB hdd in it, so I figure I might as well kill 2 birds with one stone, or kill 1 iMac with 2 simutaneous upgrades if I am unlucky! (o_O)

iMacs are not designed to have the graphics cards upgraded. If your old card is bad and you feel competent to exchange it for the same one that's really your only GPU option. Apple never said the iMac GPU's were upgradeable and frankly I've never heard of anyone successfully upgrading an iMac GPU.
As far as the adaptor well you could bring your system into an Apple Store and have it checked out by a Genius, it's a free service. I don't know how to make a reservation in Japan but I'm sure you can from the Japanese Apple site. The link in the US is:
http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/
I'm providing that so you can look for something equivalent.

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