So, I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 right now. Last night I realised that I'm way behind as we're up to 14! Decided to run the updater and figured I'd take the path of least resistance (but lengthy choice) of going 12.04 - 12.10 - 13.xx - 14.xx. So I download the first packet and then get an error message about my graphics card perhaps not working in 12.10.

Now part of the reason I was looking to upgrade is because I get (and have always had) this strange occasional flickering - now that I have two screens it's just on the second monitor.....oddly this is not the same port that was giving issues before). The graphics card is an ATI Radeon HD5450 and I have the Catalyst (I think it's 13 or 14) driver installed - last night. It could be that the graphics card has never worked properly...I bought the PC new and with an "upgraded" video card and it's always suffered with this flicker. I just figured that the drivers weren't right or something.

So I have 3 questions: 1) is my video card broken or is the driver letting it down and causing the flicker? 2) will it be able to handle the upgrade to 14 via 13? Or should I cut my losses and get something newer? 3) if I should get something newer....what should I get (

Thanks in advance....