Purchasing a New Graphics Card

The process to pick out a new graphics card is not always an easy one, especially when you are working with a hackintosh. The trick is, I have to get one that is compatible with the hackintosh, as well as one that will provide the best gaming experience when running windows. In addition, I must have the money for one. My options were either the Nvidia 4XX series, or the Nvidia 5XX series. My price range was no more then $200. I had to read up on the new fermi cards so I could get a sense of what the performance differences were between the 4XX and the 5XX sereis. When it came down to it, the difference in performance was maybe 10-15 FPS (frames per second). However, the 5XX series is a bit pricier because it just came out two months ago. After looking at the differences, it would seem I was confined to buying a 4XX series card. Next things to do? Well I had to choose between the 460, 470, or the 480. From what I already knew, the 480 ran way too hot, and the 470 was very noisy. Bassed on this, I decided to look into buying a 460. Many different companies make variations of the 460, so I had to decide on a company. This is where I had no idea what I was looking for, they all seemed the same. It was at this point that I went to reddit for help. I posted a thread asking what card would be good for me in the 460 series. Within a couple responses it was narrowed down to either an EVGA 460, AR Version, with 1 GB of GDDR5 RAM, or the MSI Hawk 460 with 1 GB GDDR5. The difference between the two cards was the EVGA model came with a lifetime warranty, were as the MSI model was very good for overclocking. That means the MSI card can be set to run at levels higher then it is manufactured to.

There is a price difference between the two cards of about $10. Originally I thought I might need the lifetime warranty, however the more I thought about it, the more it seemed a card with more performance capability would be better. After searching, price matching, and more thinking, I decided on the MSI Hawk. The current price of the card is $199.00 with a $20 mail in rebate. I have decided I will be buying from Newegg because they have the lowest price overall. I was debating whether to go to Amazon or not, but I believe Amazon would be hard to deal with if there were any issue with the card. Thanks to reddit, and a lot of searching, I am getting a new MSI Hawk. My next challenge: Getting it to work with my hackintosh.

~Dave