EVE Online players that might be running the game with older graphics cards might want to start planning for an upgrade before sometime next year. In a recent dev blog, CCP Zulu outlines the future of ShaderModel support for the game and notes that by the 2nd quarter of 2011, ShaderModel 3.0 will become a minimum requirement. The reason for the new requirement is to help keep EVE Online a visually impressive game and improve overall performance. What this means for players is a possible upgrade to your graphics card if you're running an older one to play EVE Online.

Simply put it means that to run EVE you'll have to have Nvidia GeForce series 6 or higher cards. Ati Radeon X1300 (Radeon R520 chips) or higher or Intel GMA X3000 or higher or Intel G965 or higher. These are series of cards that were first published in 2004-2005 and we will therefore continue supporting graphics cards over half a decade old.