Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

I am new to laptops and am trying to buy a small screen version such as HP DV2699 or Toshiba U300-13V. I would take it on my travel for connection to my emails.
My main hobby is digital photography, and HP is a Media Centre pc with a lot more accessories, but I am torn by the much better specification of the Toshiba (faster processor etc). The sales assistant told me that the Toshiba for instance, would "load" 30 seconds faster than the HP, and the Toshiba also has nearly twice the battery life, so its attractive if I can do my photos on it.
It has the X3100 graphics card but doesn't say if it is dedicated or shared, and from what I read this makes a difference when doing digital photography and editing home movies (from digi camera).
I am in desperate need of some advice please.

 

The X3100 is shared. You would do well to get a dedicated card, yes.

 

X3100 is an Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP) it's memory is from the system (shared). It will do fine for the tasks you have mentioned. Photo and video editing are more demanding on the CPU vs GPU. You should be fine with X3100 for anything but 3D gaming or some CAD.

 

I pretty sure that photo editing (with Photoshop) will gain nothing if your using a more powerful GPU. If you want to do a lot of Photo Editing; have a lot of Ram and a good CPU.

 

Photoshop (CS3 at least) has a feature that utilizes the GPU to speed certain tasks up. However, you are right to say that the CPU and RAM are the main components that determine the speed.