video card big deal for gaming?

Between Intergrated and non intergrated video card for gaming

is it a big deal?

 

Oh yes it is...read through the GPU Guide, but the bottom line: an integrated card is going to suck with modern games. They are that weak.

 

thats like asking who would win in a race. a dodge viper or a geo metro. and it does depend on what game it is and what settings u prefer. like most integrated gpus right now can play almost any game using the quake 3 engine with out any problems.

 

for any game that involves 3D elements, scrolling of any kind or explosions and that sorta effect the Video Card (GPU) is the single most important thing
You could have the fastest harddrive, the most RAM, the speediest CPU, but if your graphic card sucks you will NOT enjoy the game

 

well, i will still have 256MB video card, but i have to choice intergrated or non-intergrated...... of course there is a price diff too

 

Integrated will not do it, no matter how much MB.

 

The ram is only an issue when you've got the power of the GPU to make use of it, ad especially only if it is dedicated ram (some IGP have dedicated, shared, or a mix of both). In the case of an integrated GPU, advertisements for 128, 256, etc of shared ram are misleading. Most people report that disabling much of the shared ram not only does not decrease performance, but in some cases improved performance because it frees it for general usage.

Don't fall into the ram for video trap. Even with low end dedicated cards having more then 128 mb will probably make little if any difference. Better to spend it on more system ram.

 

GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is the most important part of the graphics subsystem. The importance in the performance of the GPU to games/3D apps is equal to that of the CPU to normal apps, because the GPU computes most of the calculations required for displaying 3D/2D content on the screen. Video RAM is also important, but not as important as the GPU performance. In a very basic level, you can think of an integrated VGA card with 256MB of video RAM as a Pentium 1 based computer with 2GB of system RAM, and a dedicated faster GPU as a Core Duo processor. A core Duo with even 512MB of RAM will be more than 10x faster than the P1 with 2GB of ram. Which means, it doesn't matter how much memory you have as long as you cant utilize all of it.You get the picture?

Most integrated graphics cards have a very weak GPU and they use the CPU for computing advanced 3D calculations (AKA Software rendering) while dedicated cards have much faster GPUs with their own optimized hardware capable of processing large number of graphics calculations parallely, therefore they are several times faster than integrated software rendering Video adapters.

Therefore, if gaming is a concern, then DO NOT buy an integrated adapter no matter how much memory it has. Besides as Cheffy has already said, most of it is shared from the system RAM anyways.

 

Most games from the last three years which use 3D graphics will be completely unplayable with integrated graphics.

I was trying to play the game Final Fantasy XI on my old desktop. The graphics card on that desktop broke, so I bought the cheapest graphics card I could find at CompUSA (it was an Nvidia based card), and the game completely sucked. And this is a game that's three years old, not a modern game.

But older 2D games will really rock on a new laptop, even one with integrated graphics.

Of course, I don't recommend playing computer games because they waste your time. Try reading a book instead if you are bored.

 

I do not agree that computer games waste time.

I do not think we need your opinion on computer games and wasting your time.

And anyways you wasted your time on FF:IV so I wouldn't be talking.

If would not have hurt to do some research before buying the cheap GFX you were disappointed with.

 

Games are not a waste of time. They help you relax and have fun. Ok, you must not game 24/7 but still 1 hour in a day isnt bad.

 

The story about the videocard was to demonstrate the point that even a separate videocard with its own memory sucked when running a three year old game, so don't expect anything from the integrated graphics which shares your main memory and sucks CPU cycles for 3D calculations.

And yes, FFXI was a waste of time, that's why I'm recommending that other people don't repeat my mistake and waste their own time playing games. It's just my opinion, but that's why people leave messages on internet forums, to mouth off their opinions. If you're defensive about it, maybe it's because you know deep down that it's true.

 

i agree that games are not a COMPLETE waste of time (hey even i play games a few hours a month) but lets get back on topic, which is that the Video Card is the most important thing to look for if u plan on playing games...period

the world's most powerful Quad-core processor, with 16GB of DDR7 RAM, and a 100,000 RPM Super Raptor Hard drive are only going to take u so far if u have an IGP like Intel GMA950 or something.........the point being......
Game=GPU............................GPU>CPU/RAM/HDD if plan to game, but remember, u dont want to pair a 100mhz Pentium I with a GeForce 8900GTX....ok......just level things out