Lancs

Very helpful, Wardozer, thanks. Looks pretty layman as well, but will proceed with caution should I go ahead. CPU-Z reports Stepping B - Revision G0 - so I guess that's a green light on the processor. Yet to determine if my motherboard supports overclocking. Or the fact that my processor has G0 stepping is saying that my motherboard allows overclocking, ah yes. I'll need some time to digest all this new info. Thermal paste too, before i do anything. Ta.

Back on track. Card and drivers are fully working. I followed the guide in the link that you posted, Mythos. The first time however I wasn't successful, not sure why, but basically ended up with the same flickering display and crashes upon CCC trying to load after boot. Anyway I persevered and after the 3rd attempt at follwing the guide, I rebooted Windows in safe mode, ran DriverSweeper, rebooted again and ran CCleaner, and consulted the guide one last time. I kind of understand that the whole point of the driver removal guide is to avoid such cleaners that mess with the registry, but I had nothing to lose at this point and decided it was worth a shot. So, cleaning frenzy complete I then installed the latest drivers form AMD's site. They installed successfully and I was given an option to reboot, something I'd never had in previous attempts. So I rebooted and heard the fan on the card for the first time. Windows loaded, resolution at 1920x1080, no flickering, no indication of past problems. CCC loaded fine, no problems. Rebooted a second time just to be sure. All ok. All I can say is that there must have been some stubborn residual file or folder lurking from previous versions, and likely the combination of Bradley's driver removal guide + DriverSweeper and/or CCleaner, I was able to move forward. Either that or I just got lucky, I'll never know for sure. There still exists an element of doubt around this whole driver episode for me, I guess because I wasn't able and still cannot pinpoint the actual problem. I'll only be 100% happy after atleast 10 days use. But for now I'm going to enjoy what the 7770 has given me performance wise over my 4850, at first glance it looks to be, erm, a lot :] Thanks guys, for your input. PS, I'm curious to know what your one other thing to try was, Mythos?

Does running higher resolutions draw more power from the PSU? I did think maybe faulty card, but didn't really want to say it. If it's faulty, then it's faulty running only at 1920x1080.

The card arrived with everything in order. Installed it and straight off the bat I seem to have hit some kind of system problem. First I uninstalled the drivers for my old card and ran DriverSweeper. Next I powered down the comp and after fitting the 7770 and rebooting I imediately noticed some wasn't right with the display. It's difficult to describe, it's like a constant flickering or shimmering covering the entire screen. It comes in at the Windows logo and continues to desktop. I thought possibly it's happening because I hadn't installed the new drivers, so I got on with that. I bypassed the XFX drivers on the CD and went straight to AMD's offical site, matched my specs, got the drivers. Installed those and rebooted, only to still see this flickering happening. I must point out though, it only occurs at 1920x1080. Any resolution below that and there's no trace of it. I tried reseating the card, checked it over and it's all good. I checked out a few settings in CCC, notably the Composite Sync option in "My VGA Displays", and the moment I checked that box, and with 1920x1080 running, the flickering stopped. Ok, I'll take that, I thought. So with renewed enthusiasm I rebooted again, but once back at desktop the flickering returned. So again i clean swept the drivers and reinstalled a second time. Still no use, plus this time CCC failed to load, and now fails everytime, along with, for what it's worth, FRAPS?? None of the games I own will load also, they all crash with error messages. I'm at a loss. I've googled to no end and tried all manner of things for a solution to this flickering bizarreness. Could it be Monitor related? I own an ACER X223HQ, barely 2 years old, or is it likely a motherboard problem, BIOS or thereabouts...?

I tried over at Dell..... basically to "get a 12 inch ruler and measure" was the reply. Precisely what i've been doing. Hm. Anyway, my bro does have a dual slot but the process of getting it out of his PC and into mine is a big hassle. So, cardboard! I made a cardboard box using the exact measurements of the XFX and I'm pretty confident it fits. Where the heatsink for the CPU is, the card here is flush up against the lip of the heatsink casing, where one of the mountings are, but this won't interfere with the cards fan. I was looking at the 7750 Ghost edition as a plan B had i got a straight no on the 7770. But yeah, with my Kellogg's Coco Pops Lite version I'm pretty sure it'll fit and will be ordering it later today. I'll prob bob back with the results, and also to explore fleshing out my CPU like you mentioned, Wardozer. It's something I've never tried, but I'm sure i could handle it, with a little help.

Apologies (double post).

Thanks for the input guys, you've been a great help. However I may have jumped the gun on the "will the card fit in this space" section of the purchase. Armed with a ruler, I popped the case and had a quick peek. Depth wise, 1.5 looks pretty tight. Up to a point there is plenty of room, but then towards the back end of the card, where the CPU heatsink resides, well it looks to me like it intrudes into the double slot space by maybe a centimeter or so, it's hard to say for sure without actually offering up the card itself. Did Dell make these XPS 430s with double depth cards in mind... this I need to know. I should head over there now and put it to them.

20W to spare, phew! I guess it can't hurt to replace my PSU sometime in the near future with one with a little more headroom, plus it's always nice to have a spare knocking around. Thanks for the info, Spike ;]

Hi guys, I'm looking to purchase a new GFX card with possibly new PSU and just need some info regarding power consumption and the amount of space etc the card will occupy. I've had my eye on the XFX Core Edition Radeon HD 7770 - 1GB, just short of