Intel HD Graphics 530 - OR - upgrade to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M

Hello,

I would really appreciate some advice for buying a new laptop. I think I will buy the HP ENVY - 15t Slim Quad Laptop T1P54AV_1 ( http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/Laptops/hp-envy---15t-slim-quad-laptop-t1p54av-1). I will go with the 12GB Memory upgrade. But I don't know if I should go with the included graphics card - Intel(R) HD Graphics 530, or upgrade and pay $150 to get a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 4GB Discrete Graphics.

I do a lot of multitasking (work and personal), including photoshop (files as large as 2GB), running 50 chrome tabs, streaming movies, MS Outlook, Word, Excel files, and adobe acrobat ALL AT THE SAME TIME. However I do not play computer games.

Can I stick with the included Intel graphics card or do I need to pay the extra $150 to upgrade to the NVIDIA GeForce in order to have a smooth experience without the laptop freezing or slowing down my work?

Here are the specs for the HP ENVY - 15t Slim Quad Laptop T1P54AV_1:
• Windows 10 Home 64
• 6th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ Quad Core Processor
• 12GB DDR3L System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView WLED-backlit Display (1366x768)
• 1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive

Thank you ahead of time for your advice!!!

 

I would be very nervous with 12GB given your work flow. Aim at 32GB or maybe bigger.

You don't need a GeForce, especially when it's a relatively weak model. If you get a 970M/980M, some OpenCL accelerated PhotoShop filters and transformations might be slightly faster. For simple desktop operations, the GeForce can be technically worse due to higher (PCIe) lag on a dGPU, but in practice you won't feel it.

 

Here is how I would weigh the options in order of importance (to me and for performance, battery life and longevity of the system):

• Consider a system/platform with DDR4 RAM instead - DDR3 w/Skylake platforms is a frankenbuild...
• Win10 Pro x64 only
• 16GB RAM or higher (and the fastest DDR4 RAM you can afford too)
• 15.6-inch diagonal Full HD WLED-backlit IPS Display (1920x1080) - 1366x768 died in 1999
• Discrete GPU? What filters in PS/Adobe do you use that can use the GPU? And what % increase in productivity will the discrete GPU provide?
  • For 99% of my work in Adobe products (high resolution RAW image editing), a GPU in a mobile platform is a negative - especially for battery life, but also for creating excess heat (which may throttle the cpu and therefore, my productivity)
  • For a non-gaming user (such as I) and for many years now; a discrete GPU is like having sandbags in the trunk of the car all year round in a rear wheel drive vehicle (just in case it snows and you'll need the traction...)
• Buy the cheapest HDD you can get away with (and don't forget to ask for any 'deals' for a larger HDD - you can always throw it into an external enclosure to use as a backup/data drive - btw, a 'deal' is $10 more for double the capacity) knowing that you'll replace it with an SSD that is OP'd and at least ~500GB or larger
• 6-cell 62WHr Lithium-ion Battery
• Do NOT settle for a 1x1 (single antenna, single stream) WiFi 'solution'. 2x2 or higher
  • This would be a deal breaker for me if 1x1 is the only option (beware of whitelisted BIOS that limit what components you can include on your system)

For your indicated usage model, the RAM (16GB or higher), an SSD (don't get bottom of the barrel TLC garbage here) and the 1920x1080 screen is what will give you the most fluid multitasking experience possible.

Anything you change above will degrade your experience and satisfaction of your new system. Proceed with caution (this decision will be 'final' for the next few years, I'm assuming).

And for what it's worth... I would forget the 'slim' notebooks if you want to push the latest platform you can buy to the limit day after day (at maximum speed with no throttling).

Hope this helps.

Good luck.

 

No, you don't need a discrete GPU. Stick with Intel integrated graphics. You'll probably also be getting the added benefit of better battery life by going this route also.

Out of everything that you listed, absolutely get an SSD. More than anything else. Mechanical HDDs are pretty unacceptable these days as a primary OS / applications / games drive. Get an SSD as your main system drive, and keep mechanical HDDs to store bulk media content that doesn't rely on load times (movies, videos, photos, music, pr0n, etc).