2010 iMac startup failiure graphic related. Please help

I have a 2010 IMac Intel 64 bit. Today at evening, when i turned my imac on, it displayed the startup apple logo, except there were different distorted lines and pixels all over the display, the logo was placed weird and the background was different color, after that, i assume it detected it was messing itself over and went into safe mode. After the wait in excruciating anxiety, it merely threw in the Light blue screen that you see in the background of the login screen before it loads and then nothing. The very hardware seemed to work. It periodically went into display sleep if left untouched. This seems to be related to graphics and displays, can you please tell me what is causing this and maybe a DIY help guide, tough unlikely, since it seems to be hardware