Hi all

I recently attempted raising a discussion concerning whether or not a person not much into gaming ought to invest in a costly graphics card when one of those many onboard solutions probably could do the job just fine...

The persons behind some of the contributions clearly did not understand what I was trying to disclose, and said that, "At TG forumz, we're all gamers", etc.

But what I really wanted to do was to reveal those key selling points! Think of a GeForce Go 7600 GPU in a notebook compared to Intel GMA 950. If I am not much into gaming, which advantages will I get by purchasing the expensive solution from e.g. NVIDIA?

Are there any advantages for the average business man? Or is it the video enthusiast who can draw benefit from a dedicated video card?

To make it short and concise: Why choose dedicated graphics (especially in the business segment, therefore no focus on gaming)

/Kenneth_K

Two words: DEDICATED MEMORY.

Yeah, of course - but how to communicate this to the consumer?

And why should the business segment need dedicated memory?

Aren't there any cool "features" with a dedicated GPU? CPU offloading, anything?

Doesn't use system RAM, more powerful. Onboard graphics can barely play movies at decent quality.

There are 3 reasons to get dedicated graphics:

1. Gaming
2. Professional 3d apps (like 3dsMAX)
3. Video work (to a lesser extent than the first two because some integrated solutions are getting better at some aspects of this)

If you aren't doing any of these 3 things, an integrated solution will work just as well as anything else.

The business segment doesn't need dedicated RAM for graphics... or an add-on card. Any old integrated graphics will be fine for MS Office/internet/e-mail/viewing photos etc.

There are applications where you would want dedicated graphics in a business environment: CAD,GIS,Graphics,and Video editing. I can tell you out of our office a handful need an add on card (10 people out of somehwere around 107).

On a cost vs. benifit analysis it simply isn't worth it as a business to provide this to all employees as integrated works perfectly fine. In fact adding a video card adds another point of failure for the PC and means added downtime (I've had more problems with desktop video cards than mobo's)

As far as my spending decisions I choose to get a system at a pre-determined price (around $1200 without monitor) for our average user. At this price point I choose RAM and processor power over a GPU as it is not needed. In comparison, for graphics users I have a higher price target ($2000 without monitor, + 2 19"LCD's). Of course these are desktop price points... laptops are a bit higher.

Onboard doesn't automatically mean shared memory. There are solutions that have dedicated memory for onboard video. I have a laptop that has it's own memory, and I've just recently purchased a desktop for a client that also had it.

Agreed. Some may insist that a dedicated video card does not use your RAM and this way makes your cpmputer more powerful. It is true, but it is irrelevant for a businessman. Only if you do very heavy multitasking will you need every byte of RAM. But if you do not run 15 things simultaneously you will be fine with integrated graphics.

As a matter of fact, I have two Dells in my office. Both have rather crapy integrated graphics and while I could not play the most demanding games I can still play several of my all-time favorites such as

Diablo 2,
Baldur's Gate 2
Master of Orion 2

and, of course

World of Warcraft which is a recent and good-looking game unlike the three old games above.

So yeah, for a traveling businessman there are VERY few (if any) compelling reasons to spend money on a dedicated video card.

Outputting To televisions or projectors, multiple monitor support. These sound like things a traveling business person might be interested in.

And your point is?

I'm sorry I thought it was self-evident

Graphics boards offer features like: TV/Projector output as well as multiple monitor support. Most onboard solutions do not, and those that do usually do not to the same level.

I wasn't sure and didn't want to assume, that's why I had to ask. Anyways, back to the subject. Well, projected visuals doesn't come out very nice anyways... Multiple monitor support? That's for the very few that would need dedicated graphics, most don't come with those anyways, even dedicated. I'm sure a lot come with TV/Projector output and not as rare as you make it sound. Even the regular vga support. Again, what's your point?

If you have a projector, and a 7600 laptop card, you can use the multiple monitor support to use a vga out for your projector and enjoy crisp perfect visuals in an excel presentation, or even output in component HD. Even though some onboard gpus provide these features, they do not offer the same support and options. In addition to simply increasing productivity in general, offloading ram etc.

And what are you talking about "projectors don't output very well anyway"
Have you ever used a projector in the last ten years?

I'm not saying that these features are for everyone, I'm saying if you plan on giving presentations with your laptop there are a whole host of benefits inherent in having a real vga card. I don't think most "traveling business men" need one

what the hell are you arguing with me for, I simply provided a single example of something a VGA card can due that onboard can't that business men might be interested in. You can't really disagree, it's just true. Is It worth the money, I don't know, I don't care. Would I buy one, do I think you should? I don't have an opinion.

Simple answer: no. Around here it's sometimes difficult to get an answer that isn't pitched towards high-end gaming but I can tell you from experience that nVidia 6100 or 6150 mobo's are plenty powerful for non-gamers. They'll cope with anything you want to do, including video playback.

This topic comes up frequently, and from experience and previous posts:

Onboard graphics do not play games well, period, not ever.

The latest onboard chips are faster than some video cards of just a few
years ago, without the special gaming features, and with a moderate
overall performance penalty. What do you need to display Excel?

Unless it's for the special purposes like external presentations, to add
a card to a laptop will only give you more heat inside, more power draw, etc.
Bottom line, if you want to game get a good rig!

I have in fact seen one not too long ago, new and everything. Are you kidding me, you call those crisp? I have a 1600x1200 laptop lcd, now that is crisp. Doesn't seem like your living by high standards anyways, so is the dedicated graphics going to make a huge difference?, maybe in your pocket... Besides the integrated graphics are getting a lot better also nowadays. You stated something that an integrated graphics can do also, and tried to make i