Best & fastest GPU for a small case

You are pretty much asking for the impossible.

Conflicting requirements:

-Not longer than 20cm
-Super fast
-Good cooling
-Quiet

The "super fast" and "less than 20cm" is the most conflicting factor in that.

However should you be able to compromise 1 cm, Sparkle's GTS 450 1GB One is ~20.96cm and provides a decent gaming experience at sub 1600x1050 resolutions.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Different brands make difference sizes though eg regular hd 5770 is just over 8 inches but PowerColor brought out HD5770 Vortex Edition which is only 7.15 inches / 18.16cm

Im happy to compromise as far as noise goes but i know there has to be a card that fits all my requirements based on the fact there are soooooo many brands available trying to better each other on design

Exactly ^

Superfast, future proof, and less than 20cm is just not happening lol.

You'd need a GTX 570 or a AMD Radeon 6970 to future-proof it and they are 25-28 cm. The Nvidia 570 is smaller than the AMD 6970.

msi gtx 460 cyclone is 20.6cm

I'm sorry, I thought you wanted to have single slot.

In that case, you have slightly better options. For Nvidia all GTS 450 and GTX 460 reference boards are within your choice if you can sacrifice 1 cm. Also the GTX 550Ti reference board design is also within your size allotment. GTX 560Ti does go out more of ~2.86cm out of your preferred range however and anything higher than that well is not what you would prefer.

For ATi, the HD 5770 by PowerColor that is not a reference design (HD 5770 is usually ~22.225cm) but that could suit your needs. Other than that non-reference design HD 5770 by PowerColor the HD 5770 reference design is ~20.8cm so that's within tolerable preference. HD 58xx's are completely out of the question for your range.

However, the HD 5770 is on par with the GTS 450 give or take 5%, so if you get the GTX 460 or the GTX 550Ti (which is weaker than the GTX 460 768mb) you would be better off for "future proof" as it does pack more performance than the HD 5770. Also keep in mind not all the coolers on video cards are limited to the PCB alone so you may have to compensate for that extra length. All in all however, I'd have to lean towards the GTX 460 since you do have the wattage for it might as well go whatever you can max out.

ideally it would be single slot but its not that big an issue to have a 2 slot

You are suffering problem from CASE, not from SIZE OF GPU . So change your current CASE , all problem will be minimise !

i swear i asked people not to suggest a bigger case in my original post!

If you need an explaination: Ive got a very expensive custom made desk that only has a space for a small tower case and the depth of the entire desk is only 50cm so the case has to be a maximum of 39cm (allowing for cables at the back and for the door to close on the front) and all the short cases have the 3.5 bays running the entire way down the inside of the case so its either

a) spend another $2800 on another desk so i can buy a bigger computer case

OR

b) compromise on the GPU

im leaning towards MSI GTX 460 CYCLONE which is 20.06cm