The only things running in the background would be steam, skype, and anything else(like antivirus and such)
And yes, I have tried updating drivers, uninstalling/re-installing the drivers, and the effect happens no matter what resolution I'm using.
And, nope. I recently got a new graphics card, but that is not what caused it, this effect started after I upgraded to 8.1
The temps are fine, nothing too high
and I can't risk re-installing it, I have nothing to back up my files to.