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    Need for a dedicated graphics card vs integrated

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by mlief, Apr 16, 2006.

  1. mlief

    mlief Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm shopping for a new laptop. The Dell Inspiron is high on my list, mostly because of price and past experience (I currently use an Inspiron 8000).

    Anyway, one of the options is bumping up to a dedicated GPU. My key question is, for someone who does NOT play games, does not use CAD, and does little photo editing other than personal pictures, is there any reason to pay more for a dedicated graphics card vs the Intel Integrated 950?

    Thank you.
     
  2. titaniummd

    titaniummd Notebook Deity

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    No need for a dedicated card in your case.
     
  3. miner

    miner Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    dedicated graphics is mainly suggested for people who are intersted in gaming and doing graphics intensive work. For your purposes as titanium suggested integrated will work fine.

    The only negative thing for integrated solutions is they take away some system RAM(usually 128MB) so make sure you get atleast 512 or even better 1GB RAM.
     
  4. Shampoo

    Shampoo Notebook Deity

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    Very true, it is only needed for games and 3d intensive tasks.

    Thing is, the Intel graphics are actually not half bad at handling last generation games like Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike, etc.

    It just won't handle the latest and greatest games which even new graphics cards can't handle too well.

    Cheers,
    Mike