To upgrade or clean install?

[uRock]

Currently running 11.10 and want to upgrade to 12.04. I had to do a cli install of my AMD driver before I could get to the desktop in 11.10 and was wondering if that would be a potential issue with an upgrade.

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b5)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation H67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc NI Caicos [AMD RADEON HD 6450]
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc NI Caicos HDMI Audio [AMD RADEON HD 6450]
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM57788 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01)

[kalkems]

I realise you have more experience than I but my experience has been that upgrading has taken a very long time and, most times, has created problems that have taken time to solve. Therefore, today I only do fresh installs today.
I have only had problems with one install and that has been on my old laptop, Aspire 3610. I do not even get as far as chosing my install language before the screen goes black and nothing happens. I have checked the cd and used it on other machines without problems. At the moment I have installed 12.04 25 times.
I am surprised that an upgrade is so time consuming. There must be a way to fix this as I believe this is an important issue for users.

note: I have installed on Travelmate 6292, Latitude D420, Aspire 5750 and an older HP laptop (3670 or something).