Intel (HD Graphics, Iris, GMA) vs Nvidia Maxwell (GeForce 8xxM; 9xxM) vs eGPU

Hi everyone!

I've been out of the loop for a long time and now I'm on the market for a new laptop.

How do performance and energy efficiency (performance per watt) compare between these two?:

1. Intel (HD Graphics; Iris (Pro); GMA)
2. Nvidia Maxwell (GeForce 8xxM; 9xxM)

Has Intel caught up in terms of performance?
Is it worth it to get a notebook with a dedicated Nvidia GPU? Is the decrease in battery life worth it?
I am hoping to play games such as Street Fighter V, among other games, on this notebook.

Also, are eGPUs viable yet? Do I need a USB-C port for this?

Thanks for your time!!

 

Has Intel caught up in terms of performance?

It depends, Intel will never be able to compete with a mid-high tier Nvidia GPU (Nvidia GTX 850M & more), plus it's not what they made their gpu for, their product focuses on low consumption & acceptable performance for basic daily tasks.

Is it worth it to get a notebook with a dedicated Nvidia GPU? Is the decrease in battery life worth it?

there is no (almost any) decrease when you use optimus technology, it balances between dGPU and iGPU when the apps need more/less processing power.
However, there is some laptops that switches manually or do not switch GPU's at all. Depends on the need of the acquirer.

I am hoping to play games such as Street Fighter V, among other games, on this notebook.

Easy get something like 950M or more for 60fps 1080p/900p

eGPUs ?

Depends if you want to have the gpu when you travel or move often, or not, some thunderbolt enabled solutions are being developed, not sure about their viability for everyday use.

 

No, Intel has not even remotely caught up. Their HIGH end Iris Pro iGPU is as good as a low end dedicated GPU. But now with Nvidia Pascal and AMD Polaris on the verge of being released (by verge I loosely mean this year sometime) and GDDRX as well as HBM RAM coming, Intel will have a huge hill to climb especially with keeping up with RAM speeds. DDR4 is a minor step, GDDRX and HBM especially are huge leaps faster than GDDR5. Plus you'd be hard pressed to find a laptop you'd like with Iris Pro GPU, because they are few and far between, mainly in Macbooks.

External GPU's are just being recognized/manufactured by the major OEM's like Dell, Razer (not so major), Asus, MSI, etc but still niche products. If you want to game at home but have laptop portability on the go, then eGPU makes some sense. But it's also likely going to cost you just as much if not more than getting a laptop with a decent dedicated GPU. I'd opt for minimum 960m, 970m if you can swing it or 965m if you can find a laptop with it, but will probably cost as much as one with 970m.