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Saturday, August 07, 2010
Size matters
... and sometimes smaller is better, because 10 inch is just too much. I'm talking of graphics cards, of course. What did you think, you pervert! :)
When I bought my computer a year and a half ago, the graphics card I took was decent, but already at the time not high-end, a GeForce 9800 GTX (1 GB). The idea was to update it later. But when I bought a GeForce GTX 275 eight months later, the upgrade was a complete failure: It turned out that this new generation of GeForce cards was significantly longer than previous generations. The GTX 275 was 26 cm long (over 10 inch), and I just had 24 cm space in my mid-tower. So I admitted defeat, and put the new card in my wife's computer.
When this summer I ran the Final Fantasy XIV benchmark and my computer scored not so hot, I started to wonder how I could find a graphics card update without the size problem. And then I read a glowing review of Nvidia's latest graphics card, the GeForce GTX 460 (1GB). And it turns out that this card is only 21 cm long (8.5 inch). So today I went and bought one of these for 200 bucks. And yay, it fit!
On a pure graphics benchmark the new GTX 460 is twice as fast as the 9800 GTX. And on the Final Fantasy XIV benchmark my scores improved by about a third, from 1890 to 2443 in high resolution. And as I'm now slightly better than the recommended system requirements, I should have no problems getting that game to run when it comes out end of September. So now I'm happy with my computer again, and think I won't need to upgrade it or buy a new one before next year.
- posted by Tobold @ 6:09 PM Permanent Link
Comments:
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Why don't you get an ATI card. They're generally smaller and they use less power meaning that they also heat less.
Yeah I'm wondering how a good ATI card would increase your SquareScore.
Tbh I could do with a new graphics card, my one chugs a bit in WoW when there's a lot going on, although I do have the graphics settings all on max apart from shadows.
Tbh I could do with a new graphics card, my one chugs a bit in WoW when there's a lot going on, although I do have the graphics settings all on max apart from shadows.
My ATI Radeon HD5700 series card, which I guess is prety much moving into budget card territory now, benchmarks FFXIV very satisfactorily. Beyond that I won't comment, except to say that if I decide to buy FFXIV I am sure I won't be needing a new card.
I'll be honest, I got a little hot from the title, thinking you were recapping something from the Blood Elf Porn post.
When I saw you were talking about graphics cards, well... I didn't cool off ;)
When I saw you were talking about graphics cards, well... I didn't cool off ;)
my setup is a little under the system requirements for XIV but it's pretty well playable in beta (allowing for certain elements to very likely see some optimisation before release - the next beta phase starts soon and appears to address some of the most obvious issues for PC users).
...think it's probably ok to say that much without troubling the NDA.
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...think it's probably ok to say that much without troubling the NDA.
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