Integrated graphics besides gaming

[huh!!]

Besides gaming, does using a dedicated graphics card provide any advantages over using integrated graphics? I know if the dedicated graphics has video acceleration, it might lower cpu usage but will dedicated graphics provide any other advantages in any applications beside this and gaming?

 

[ShawnD1]

1. Real graphics cards do not eat your system memory
2. Real graphics cards are more efficient when playing videos such as DVDs and media files
3. Real graphics cards support more than 1 monitor (monitor + TV in my case)
4. Real graphics cards have better driver support

 

[huh!!]

hmm... this is for my friend who will only use it for general office apps, surfing, and maybe some photo editing in the future.

1 and 2 could be a problem.

Just slightly worried that having integrated graphics would be too much of a hinderance for her.

Thanks for all the info. ShawnD1

 

[McArra]

For that she should be OK with integrated and a good ammount of system ram(for photo editing in very high resolutions).

 

[Marsumane]

Getting something like a cheap 9100 or an even cheaper $30 geforce4mx card may be an option to conider. Befroe this is considered though, i would look into having 512 ram because even $30 would be better spent on ram rather then a graphics card if you are below 512.

 

[clicknext]

It also depends on what kind of integrated graphics. The nVidia crap should be a bit less crappy than the Intel crap. For her purposes, I'd say more ram and a good processor would help more than a better graphics card.

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: McArra
For that she should be OK with integrated and a good ammount of system ram(for photo editing in very high resolutions).

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
1. Real graphics cards do not eat your system memory
2. Real graphics cards are more efficient when playing videos such as DVDs and media files
3. Real graphics cards support more than 1 monitor (monitor + TV in my case)
4. Real graphics cards have better driver support

1. true
2. nope, they should be the same, it depends if the functionality is built into the chip
3. nope, some integrated graphics supports two monitors or has TV out, the shuttle nforce2 IGP board I got for my mom supports two monitors.
4. not neccessarily, my mom's nforce2 IGP uses the same drivers as real graphic cards.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
1. Real graphics cards do not eat your system memory
2. Real graphics cards are more efficient when playing videos such as DVDs and media files
3. Real graphics cards support more than 1 monitor (monitor + TV in my case)
4. Real graphics cards have better driver support

1. true
2. nope, they should be the same, it depends if the functionality is built into the chip
3. nope, some integrated graphics supports two monitors or has TV out, the shuttle nforce2 IGP board I got for my mom supports two monitors.
4. not neccessarily, my mom's nforce2 IGP uses the same drivers as real graphic cards.

I have an integrated ATI Rage Pro in one of my crap computers.
-Any and all media players will crash if they try to use hardware rendering (Direct Draw?)
-I've never seen a dual output integrated card, but it's possible that they exist.
-Drivers from ATI's website do not work for my Rage Pro. The only drivers that ever worked were the ones that came with the computer, but those were for Windows 98 only.

 

[Gurck]

Depends on budget really... for some web surfing and word processing, integrated graphics are fine. I just built a system for an aunt who'll be using it for that and it's plenty adequate.

 

[ShawnD1]

Budget is relative. Integrated graphics will cost less now, but you can't take your card with you when you upgrade. I've had my crappy Radeon 7200 in 3 different computers so far. If I were to have integrated graphics for each of those computers, it would have cost me more than it did.

 

[huh!!]

Thanks for all the responses.

Gonna get at least 512 mb of memory so that should be enough I believe. Can't really think of any normal apps that would require more than this for now.

Will try and find either nvidia or Intel integrated graphics products. Their drivers seem to be update more often than either via or ati. Tho. I may be wrong.

Hopefully will be able to find a nvidia integrated product that also has an agp slot just in case for future upgrades.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

ATI Rage Pro - that's the problem.

From Intel 845G, it's very good.