This has been a common problem across the line with the new Nvidia cards, but I am very surprised to see it on the OPs Mac as it is older and therefore probably doesn't have the Nvidia chipset.
See this thread for the fury:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1924473
There are many others too, the snow is common. Hopefully they will fix it in a software update since basically every new Mac has the Nvidia chipsets in it.
P.S. I have not had it on my 17" MBP with either the 9400M or 9600M enabled, however, I have seen it on an older Mac Mini, so I think it has something to do with software.