Lately, graphics card manufacturers have become less willing-or perhaps less capable-of deviating from the reference designs provided by ATI and NVIDIA. This trend is especially apparent at the high end of the market, where often little more than a sticker and a couple of MHz differentiates one manufacturer's card from another. There's not really anything wrong with reference designs; it's just disappointing to see card makers settling for the status quo rather than pushing the envelope with tweaked board designs or innovative cooling solutions.

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