Because I’m such a good guy to my younger cousin, I just bought a MSI N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 460 1GB VRAM video card for him. His computer, like most of my writers’, could not run Final Fantasy 14 properly. As I mentioned in my minimal specs analysis, the single biggest upgrade to your computer that will deliver the most bang for the buck is a new graphics card. It replaces his NVIDIA GeForce 9300 that’s integrated into his motherboard. The card hasn’t arrived yet so I can’t benchmark it, but the difference should be night and day for him. Why did I choose this card for him?

According to Squenix, this is the recommended graphic card you should have: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460 with 768 MB VRAM or equivalent. The MSI card is exactly that but with a little extra VRAM. My cousin has a spiffy 23″ monitor so hopefully this will allow him to run the game in oh so glorious hi-resolution.

But the reason why I chose the MSI card over all the other options that Newegg carries is because of three reasons, price, brand, and positive feedback. (Note, we are not affiliated with Newegg in any way nor is this an advertisement for NewEgg. Unfortunately, we don’t get any money or free stuff from them by writing this.) The total price of the MSI card is $200 factoring the discount and rebate. All the other comparable cards were $20-$50 more expensive. Having built many a computers, I find that some brands are more reliable than others and have better customer service than other. MSI has had a good history with me and at the time of this writing this card has 5 eggs based on 76 reviews. That’s pretty good.

If you want to go a bit cheaper and only get a 768MB VRAM card, I would go with this: EVGA 768-P3-1360-TR GeForce GTX 460.

Currently it’s at $170 with free shipping. I love, love EVGA cards. Never had an issue with any of them and they’re great for overclocking if you’re so inclined. Best price, strong brand quality, 5 eggs based on 87 reviews. Good deal.

What if you have all the money in the world? Well then you can one of those triple video card setup. But if you knew how to set that up yourself you wouldn’t be reading this guide. If you have a steady job and can afford a bit of splurging, this is the best card you can get in the category of PCI Express 2.0 x16: ZOTAC AMP! ZT-40102-10P GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB.

Man it looks it could be confused for an alien spaceship. Newegg sells it at $520 with $8 shipping. It comes with a free Mafia 2 game!

One final note, these cards use massive amounts of energy. You should have a power supply that’s at least 600 WATT or more. That ZOTAC card probably requires a 1000 WATT power supply. Buy accordingly.

Out of curiosity what video cards are you guys running? This guide will tell you how to do that if you don’t know how.

Hoc is a player of Final Fantasy 14. He is on the Fabul server using the name “Saito Uchiha.” You will find him primarily playing Pugilist but most of his time is spent crafting or gathering.