Dedicated vs Integrated vs RAM

Hi all. Real simple question here, just haven't really found much of an answer for it.

With today's typical machines being up at around 8 GB of RAM, does it really matter if you use an integrated vs a dedicated GPU? For example, I've been disregarding some laptops because they have the Intel HD (4400 I think) card.

Thanks. Really appreciate all help.

 

hi
it totally depends what you are going to be doing on the laptop.
if you are going to do general stuff like forums,facebook, youtube or watch video's or general everyday stuff then the intel HD graphics are fine.

if you are thinking of gaming, cad work, video editing/rendering, heavy photoshop or adobe work then a dedicated graphics card is a must.

quite a lot of laptops now come with optimus which is switchable graphics. mine has a intel HD4000 for every day use which also makes the battery last longer.
i also have a nvidia 680gtx dedicated card which will auto switch as soon as i load a game or do video rendering.

hope that helps

 

You'll do fine with 8GB RAM. The integrated graphics takes advantage of the system RAM, so 8 is the sweet spot.

 

System RAM doesn't matter at all the dGPUs (they have their own VRAM). Integrated graphics can benefit from faster RAM, but the amount of RAM doesn't matter once you get to 8GB of RAM.

Now, what are you going to use the laptop for?

 

Thanks for all the info guys.

I'm using it mostly for school/work...so the norm: web browsing (high usage / multiple tabs at once) but I do stream a lot of sports events, and at times may have a handful of streams playing at once. (E.g two soccer games, two basketball games, a horse race, etc. Also for music and videos...more entertainment than gaming. I may play Football Manager, but I'm not big on computer games.

 

You'll do fine on a Intel HD for those activities No Dedicated needed.