@Sam.Shab --> Already can enjoy games. The 5770 runs Mafia II & some other games I tried at Max Settings. Will not miss the new card I guess so much. The guy was trying to give he a HD 4350 or some other crap as a standby though
@ssb1551 & @piyush --> I kinda already suspected that the card could be at fault, but didnt want to believe that a new purchase could be faulty. First time got something that came faulty out of the box. Hope these dealers dont try to pass faulty stuff from one customer to other and hope it works out for someone. Anyway mine seemed new with the type of platic fixed which once you take out cannot be reapplied.
And one observation regarding to one question I asked @ the very beginning of the thread.
"If I want to save money and take a lower end card like GTS 450, will the games look good @ 720p (1280x720) gaming on a full HD monitor rather than play @ 1920x1080 ?? "
The Answer is that I tried both these resolutions in Mafia at max settings. And sitting at a distance of at least 5 feet (I play with a Wireless K/M or Wired XBox Controller), I frankly couldnt make out any visual difference at all on my LCD monitor for the 5 mins each I tried. Maybe my monitor (BenQ 2420) really scales well at non-native resolutions.
Maybe this can be used as advice for ppl wanting to buy a system or graphics card on tight budgets. The details do matter very much but maybe resolutions not so much on 22-24 inch full HD screens.