[DrNip]

Speaking from personal experience don't ever skimp on the RAM. If there is one thing to spend a little more money on it is this in my opinion. I don't think RAM is the issue here though. Have you tried uninstalling the driver and reinstalling it? Sounds like the driver isn't behaving properly to me. I know when I push my cards to hard the driver stops responding and this sounds about what it does. Just taking a stab at it.