Is this a broken video card?

[MinimalMayhem]

I just bought a fancy Gigabyte R9 290 Windforce card and while it worked perfectly the day I got it, the next day I saw flashing textures when playing BF4 (as Flinch suggested, it was a bit like being on acid).

Now the retailer (Overclockers UK) told me that this is likely a driver issue, but can someone with a bit more knowledge/experience have a quick look at this short clip of the bioshock benchmarking app to tell me if this really is drivers or is the card nearly dead? Â*To be fair, it looks worse on this vid than in reality, but you ge tthe idea - flashing and weird blocks appearing.
Latest AMD drivers, bios etc. installed.

See the vid here: Is this card broken?l (http://gfycat.com/SecondaryDescriptiveFowl)

[Caveman]

I am very sure this is a hardware issue. Had the same with a 780 and a 6990 before. And Always got a new one instantly from the store.

Edit: next time buy a card from a proper videocard builder. club3d, shapphire, asus for example. don't try to save 10 or 20 bucks on that. They usually got the cooling part way better designed.

[MinimalMayhem]

Thanks Cave.
I went for the gigabyte because it was quiet... guess I should've tried the sapphire.

[Hangover]

Also check your PSU so you got enough power at least 750 w

[icuidid]

try to keep your pc temps down as low as poss.
if it gets to hot can also cause the same kinda problems.

[MinimalMayhem]

Thanks temps were good (50s or 60s from memory) after running for a while - thought that video was shot with the card pretty much just after boot at room temp.

I think the key thing is that it was perfect on day 1 and then on day 2 (and following days) it went spastic - with no change in any other config that I'm aware of, which to me says some hardware component(s) breaking down after the 'stress' of playing BF4 without crashing!

[Caveman]

So you returned it?

[MinimalMayhem]

yep, went back today. should hear back soon hopefully

[MinimalMayhem]

They refunded it - I swapped for the sapphire equivalent. £10 more but comes with a free BF4 code (which will be on ebay shortly).