Solved! Integrated graphics card - memory

[dush0805]

Alright ,so I went to several stores and checked out laptops with Ati Radeon 3200/4100/4200 graphic cards. I know all of the above are integrated GC's. But on some machines, Win 7 showed 256MB Ram of dedicated memory while on some, it didnt. Can integrated cards have dedicated memory, if yes, does it make them a little more efficiency

 

[frozenlead]

They can have memory on occasion, but it really doesn't make a difference. The chip itself is so weak that you're probably not going to be able to even fill 256MB of memory with the lowered settings you'll have to use.

 

[amnotanoobie]

The ones with dedicated memory would always be better, though in this case it is just a teeny-bit better. Since the videos card you mentioned are already weak themselves you'd probably gain 5% or less with the dedicated memory.

Though I'd recommend to always get the ones with dedicated memory, they'd be a teeny bit faster and they'd let you use your whole memory instead.

 

[ram1009]

Characterizing modern integrated graphics chips as "weak" isn't fair, IMHO unless you are comparing them to high end chips and then everything else is weak. I recently built a box with ATI 4200 integrated graphics and decided to try it out before adding a discrete card. I'm glad I did because it runs everything more than a couple years old, for example, Half Life 2 runs as well as it ever ran on my most powerful machine. I recommend a little experimenting before spending more than necessary.