Well, I started the comp up after letting it cool down and having the mini fan pointed at it. it booted up and is now seemingly doing great. i will download ASUS' video card doctor and check out the temps of the video card itself while i still can.
so, now that's it's started up fine, can i assume that it was just heat that caused this?
EDIT: the temps are midrange for the card, 60c, DDR3 is 53c. I have no idea what happened to make it mess up like that. are there any preventative measure i should take so it won't happen again? i already have three case fans. front intake, side intake, rear exhaust and round cables to help airflow. does anyone have links to PCI fans that stick in a PCI slot and have fans that blow up to the video card?