I'm pretty sure the only reason they went with the 5xx series is branding. I was running FFXIV 1.0 with a GTS 250 without any problems and upped to a GTX 460 1 gig with almost no difference that I could tell. The card I'm currently running can be had for around 120 bucks now, so things ain't that bad. At least they aren't recommending an i7 this time. That was ludicrous.