I just got a new computer set up for me with a Sabertooth 990FX motherboard and a Radeon HD 6870 graphics card (I hope I got all that correct!) and, although my game of Skyrim runs smoothly enough, for some reason while I play it, the screen will black out for a moment, then return to normal. It gets pretty distracting, especially during fights. Anyone know how I can fix this?

Do you get the same behavior on other games too?

Well, I only just set up my new computer two days ago, and I've only been playing Skyrim on it so far. Don't know if it'll do the same with Oblivion or Morrowind. Those are the only PC games I have.

I've seen this before, on my own system...

Make sure you've got the latest http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=8109 in your system. If you have it installed, reinstall it.

In any other occasion, I'd also advice you to do a clean install of your Catalyst drivers, but we're talking about a 2days old setup -can't be any more cleaner than that.

Blackouts....?
Doesn't sound good!
My experience tells me to check and confirm your PSU (capacity and quality) and its connection to your vidcard.
Also system energy saving scheme within Windows, should be high-performance.
If the vidcard is very new and the drivers are not, this could have an impact as well...
And then there's the CCC - lots of setup to be done in there.
Then (assuming your rig is solid and the BIOS setup correctly) there are the actual gameplay settings.
I would run at your native resolution (usually 1920 x 1080 or whatever) - this is not always what the automatic thing selects.
I would run no AA / 8x AF to begin with, just 'for science', y'know? Even if you think you should get more. Just for now.
Concentrate on getting the vanilla game running without blackouts, before getting into HD textures etc. etc.
Otherwise: just guessing without full DXDiag.
Hopefully this is just a teething problem with your new equipment,
Regards

It seems to be working a bit better now. Thanks guys