I'll second that afterburner is not the cause.
I had the issue before I had installed it. In fact, I only installed AB to try underclocking the video RAM, but it didn't help.

I never get BSOD's, just stripes, and usually when I first boot up, the driver crashes and recovers within 10-20 seconds of reaching the desktop.

So for, for me anyway, it points to a seriously buggy driver.