User:Shaellawen/How to tell if your video card is poo

This is an opinion article.

What is the poo scale?
The Poo scale is a numbering system used to quantify the power of a video card, ranging from 1 to 9. It is based on the magic number of a video card.

What is the magic number?
The magic number is typically the second digit of an Nvidia GeForce model number or the third digit of an AMD/ATI Radeon model number.

Examples:
 * GeForce 8800 would have a magic number of 8
 * ATI Radeon 5870 would have a magic number of 7
 * An S3 card has a default rating of poo
 * An Intel card has a default rating of poo
 * An ATI Rage card has a default rating of wtf
 * A GeForce MX 4000 card has a default rating of "throw it away and buy a new card"

Note that on the poo scale, a 7 is not necessarily better than an 8. It's dependent solely on model number.

What does it mean?
Here's the breakdown:
 * 1-2 is poo
 * 3 is meh
 * 4-6 is good
 * 7-9 is excellent

1-3 are rated "poo" because the vast majority of these are integrated or "LE" cards by Nvidia, which are basically the regular versions of these cards with their balls cut off.

If you want to run WoW in Ultra mode you probably want a card with a score of 7 or higher. A 6 may handle it depending on the generation of the card. GeForce GTX 460 is more capable than a GeForce GTX 260.