Intel HD Graphics 3000?

I'm thinking about buying a new laptop since my current Toshiba Satellite A505-S6965 is starting give me nothing but problems. The problem I'm currently facing is that all the budget ($300-$800) laptops have the Intel HD Graphics 3000 card instead of any dedicated cards.

Back when I got my Toshiba, there were a few cheap laptops with dedicated cards, like mine. My current laptop cost me just under $750 and came with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 (512MB), has 4GB RAM, and an Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 (2.00GHz) w/ Windows Vista 64.

My question is, how would the Intel HD Graphics 3000 compare to my current one? I don't know if it makes any difference, but the laptop I'm looking at has 6GB RAM (2 more than my current laptop), a 2nd Gen Intel Core i5-2450M (2.5GHz), and Windows 7.

I don't play modern games since I have an Xbox 360, but I do enjoy playing World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3, Age of Empires, Dawn of War 2, etc.

 

They are about equal, the HD 3000 will be a little faster.

 

Hardware wise, they are kind of on par but the 4570M wins it over the HD 3000 because of way better drivers. Intel drivers aren't really good with games.

For the games you want to play, the HD 3000 is sufficient, but if you want to do high-player raids in WoW or you want to run Dawn of War 2 on Medium though, the HD 3000 is still lacking than if you spend a bit more getting a laptop with something like an AMD Radeon 6630M or a nVidia GeForce 525M/540M.

 

There aren't any laptops in my budget besides an awesome Asus one I found on Newegg, but it sold out within an hour of finding it... That one has a NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M.

 

What is your budget?

 

Between $300-$800. I really only wanted to spend $300-$500, but obviously that's not realistic.

 

look for a laptop with an a6 or a8 APU. their IGP is substantially better than intels and are much cheaper too

 

If you're looking for something on the cheap, I suggest browsing the Marketplace section of this forum. Lots of folks have systems to shift and they're usually pretty flexible on price.


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i think you can easily find something closer to $800 with a dedicated gpu.
it wont look fancy most likely but it will have decent power

Closest to $800 and most powerful one is prolly Ideapad Y570 with GT555 and i7 it should be around $800
There are plenty of options with GT540 for around $700.
Also take a look at Acer Aspire Timeline 5820TG with HD 5650 and i5 for $700 if you can find it (it exists in my country at least)

 

Yes, go with an AMD A8 CPU which comes with a 6620G GPU. See my sig for performance results. Drivers are much better and performance is phenomenal. It's a great integrated GPU for gaming at 720p or 1366x768.

This has been a popular choice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158073&Tpk=6135dx

Takes a little tuning but its performance in general is phenomenal.