Odd dots while rendering

[Kairus101]

I have been making Minecraft avatars for some time now, but since I installed my new graphics card (nvidia->sapphire), random dots/holes started appearing.

The black dots are part of a second cube that is slightly larger than the first one, where the crown is.
This isn't just the image, it isn't an IO problem, it is happening on-screen too.
I'm rendering quads, I'm just confused as to why the new graphics card affected the program, and how I should go about fixing it.

All the modifications to the rendering are below

GL_MODELVIEW;
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_NEAREST);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_NEAREST);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_NEAREST);
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);
glDepthFunc(GL11.GL_LEQUAL);
GL11.glEnable(GL11.GL_TEXTURE_2D);
GL11.glAlphaFunc(GL11.GL_GEQUAL,0.5f);
GL11.glEnable(GL11.GL_ALPHA_TEST);
GL11.glClearColor(160f*colorConstant, 176f*colorConstant, 224f*colorConstant, 1f);
GL11.glBlendFunc(GL11.GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL11.GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
GL11.glEnable(GL11.GL_BLEND);

GL_PROJECTION
glFrustum(-1.0f, 1.0f, -h, h, 5.0f, 60.0f);

[Fool Running]

Whenever I see problems like that, I immediately think "overheating" (or some hardware problem). I've also had two cards (both EVGA) that have their fan speeds really low so they overheated right from the factory. I had to use their EVGA precision software to fix the low fan speeds.

I would get a program that can tell you your current GPU temperature and make sure it is reasonable.

[Cubic]

I know this is a sort of throwaway-answer, but are your drivers up to date? Before checking whether your hardware is cooking itself or not (though you should probably do that as well), make sure nothing fishy is going on at the software side.

[Kairus101]

Whenever I see problems like that, I immediately think "overheating" (or some hardware problem). I've also had two cards (both EVGA) that have their fan speeds really low so they overheated right from the factory. I had to use their EVGA precision software to fix the low fan speeds.
I would get a program that can tell you your current GPU temperature and make sure it is reasonable.

Graphics card runs at a constant 34 Celsius, which isn't surprising, being a single spinning textured cube..

I know this is a sort of throwaway-answer, but are your drivers up to date? Before checking whether your hardware is cooking itself or not (though you should probably do that as well), make sure nothing fishy is going on at the software side.

Downloaded the newest drivers, to which it said I already had, and AMD auto detect confirmed it, I have the latest drivers too. But, as you said, worth checking

Just so you know, it is running as an applet, which doesn't matter I'm guessing, just trying to think of anything out of the ordinary..

[CodeBunny]

It's limited to where you're rendering the geometry, right? You aren't getting the black specks all over the screen?

[Kairus101]

It's limited to where you're rendering the geometry, right? You aren't getting the black specks all over the screen?

Correct, the black dots appear on the outlines of planes which are transparent on the edges