Faulty Graphics Card?

Hello,

I built a PC for my brother a couple of weeks ago, all parts bought from Scan.

550W Seasonic S-12 80 + efficiency 12cm fan, Active PFC
ASUS P5B-E iP965
1Gb (2X512Mb) Corsair TwinX XMS2 DDR2 PC5400 (667)
256MB Gainward 7900GS Bliss Golden Sample PCI-E

Everything has been ok so far, had a couple of problems running oblivion but I out this down to the nvidia drivers being buggy. Today (christmas day) he got Medieval Total War and about 5 mins into playing it crashed.

On reboot the screen is corrupted right from the start and although it will boot into safe mode, it will not boot normally. The screen corruption is present at all times.

My first initial thoughts are that it is the graphics card and I would appreciate it if someone could give their opinions on it?

Unfortunately I just read that Scan are not reopening until 2nd Jan so Im not going to be able to pop down as Id hoped. If the card is faulty, are there going to be any problems getting it replaced? The card has been running with stock settings in a well ventilated case, having it fail barely a month old is obviously not right.

Please use the support link on our site to report the suspected fault - together with any details of what you've tried. (Perhaps also a link to this thread?)

We'll look at it when we get back from our brief break.