Have you upgraded to better drivers? It's a new card but chances are there are better drivers available. I'm not sure which version is best for that card.
If you get artifacts, it could be a symptom that the card is overheated. I'm not sure though.
43 processes is way too much. I have 32, but 10 of those are the AV software (disabled when flying).
There's a hard way of finding out what you can disable. Then there's -- no wait, there's just the hard way!
First run msconfig, go to the last tab: "Startup". Google search each and every one. Some are basic needs (like video drivers) some aren't (like the part of the video drivers that handles multiple desktops -- which I have disabled, the CThelper for the sound card isn't necessary, QTTask is a stupid thing from quicktime, Eng Util is that stupid english quicklaunch bar that won't go away unless you uncheck it here, etc etc etc)
Just go down the line. In the google search one of the first links that shows up should help you. Once you know what program it belongs to, then you know if you can disable it or not. If it's not Windows, if you don't need it to run your PC, DISABLE IT! Most of that stuff will launch as you need it, even if you disable it. You won't miss much.
Hope this helps a bit, but you have to do the hard part: searching for the things you have and disabling the ones you want from that list.
Also you can do a google search for processes under the Task Manager screen, but you can't always find those to stop them from loading.
EDIT: After you reboot you'll get a popup message every time you use msconfig. Just check the box that says "don't tell me this again" and hit "continue" or "ignore" or whatever button lets you keep the changes you just made.
EDIT2: Sometimes you don't have to google it. There is a path field, if you make that wide enough you can sometimes tell what an entry belongs to by the path it has -- i.e. if it's under Norton's directory it's part of your antivirus, firewall, or whatever product of that company you have. If it's under the directory of program X, chances are it's part of program X, unless you have several types of program X installed you don't need to search.