EDIT - I figured out how to fix this issue. as weird as it is... disabling my custom fan curve from MSI Afterburner fixed the flickering while gaming. I tried disabling on screen stats from rivatuner and the issue still persisted but when I use the default fan settings for the card or use a static set fan speed its perfectly fine. the moment I enable my custom fan curve and fire a game up, the flickers are back. i've tested this about 10 times to verify. Seems like a weird issue, Don't see how a custom fan curve would cause slight loss of video signal and or flickers.