Unresponsive imac and screen artefacts present sometimes

Hi
I noticed odd things appear on the screen a while back, coloured lines, warped windows etc. they would clear themselves or could be cleared by dragging another window over them.
Also the mac would just lock up and only the mouse would move though you couldn't click anything to move it.
The only way out was to force restart with the power button as force quit was unresponsive too.
I did a complete re install of OS and software but the issue remains.
I did the hardware test several times but comes up saying everything is fine.
I did a surface scan with tech tool pro of the empty HD and that was fine too, no bad blocks.
I also ran a permissions repair a few times and again all good.
Is the graphic card fried? If so would that cause the finder to lock up?
Any one else want to share similar and if they have managed to figure it out I'd be grateful.
It's a shame as the mac has been really looked after and is still a great workhorse otherwise.
Many thanks

It looks like your graphic card is damaged. A damaged card may cause display artefacts, and when it stops working, OS X can only be started from safe mode. You should take your computer to an Apple Store or reseller

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Some things you can try:
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Unresponsive imac and screen artefacts present sometimes

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