integrated graphics and battery life

I'm looking at a Dell 6000. I don't game at all. I do multitask Office apps, and do graphic design (not 3d or rendering) in Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. Watch DVDs.

Battery life is important to me. Quoting from the Notebook Video Graphics Card Guide by Pulp in the dummy guide, "The flipside is that integrated GPUs run very cool and can substantially improve battery life. If you're not going to really be gaming on your notebook, these are usually preferable."

At the same time it's hard to ignore how much the Intel GMA 900 integrated graphics is despised here. Is that because most are gamers?

So what do you think is best for me? Will I notice any difference upgrading to the ATI x300 running the apps I do. Will battery life be significantly impacted if I upgrade?

Please help me find the sweet spot.

 

integrated fits perfectly for you. don't let the detractors fool you.

 

We dont despise it, but heavily detur anyone from buying it if they are going to play ANY games. Even Half life 1 lol..

GMA works perfectly for you, Have fun with your new Lappy..!

 

GMA works perfectly for you defently maybe you buy an external battery,they cost 200$ but have 4-5 hours work
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very cool

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Lot cheaper to add a little system memory to compensate for the lost memory of the integrated card than to buy one with a dedicated card.

 

I thought so too, since the the Dell basic 6000 system configurators weren't even offering an upgrade to the GPU. But last night I was playing around with combinations anticipating using a $250 coupon to get me to $750 with WSXGA+, and viola, $50 for upgrade to 64 X300. No doubt just to complicate matters since I've finally gotten comfortable with the integrated solution thanks to replies to this thread.

But if I won't see any performance difference and battery life is impacted, I guess I'll stick to GMA. I really don't ever play games besides an occasional foray at Minesweeper. But it is not uncommon for me to have 2 Excels, Firefox, Stock charting and Trading program, and html editor open simultaneously. Or alternately, InDesign and Photoshop and Firefox and Outlook Express. In these types of multitasking environments I might benefit more from 1gig ram than dedicated video. You think?

Anyone know how much battery life is reduced by the upgrade to X300? Naturally on battery I would keep the number of applications open to a minimum. Any benchmarks on this somewhere?

 

I use my laptop a lot like you. I do some flash editing and always have at least five windows open at a time. I chose to get the larger battery and I get four to five hours of battery life with low brightness settings.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the most important part. I have the integrated graphics and everything works great.

 

That's great to hear, BigRemo. Thanks for posting your experience.