Discrete or Integrated Graphics

[apmallett]

Happy New Year to all!

I'm looking for a laptop to do photo editing on the move. Is it worth considering a discrete card or is the Intel GMA 4500M powerfull enough? Thanks.

[Blaineoliver]

You will get not acceleration on photo editing with an intel GMA. Only certain programs use gfx cards to speed up editing, such as photoshop, check if the programs you need use it, if so then only consider it if you get a powerful cpu also, there is no point giving up cpu power for gfx power when the gfx card only helps with some of the processes in photoshop etc.

[Daney]

Discrete is always better than onboard. I'd get the discrete option as it will benefit in many more areas.

[aidanjt]

If you're using Photoshop CS4 then you'll be wanting an nVidia chip, an nVidia IGP will do, a discrete chip will perform better for batch processing. It depends on what you want/need, if you're not using Photoshop CS4 then a discrete chip is a waste of power and battery life, likewise if you're only doing the odd touchup then discrete and even CS4 hardware accel is a waste of money and power.

[apmallett]

Thanks for the replys guys. I only have a copy of CS3 and not 4 so at the moment hardware acceleration is not so important for me. The work my girlfirend plans to do is more than simple touch up so I will look at getting the best processor possible for the money and most of the "cheaper" laptops only have onboard. May try and stretch to the i7 dell (which has discrete ATI) for best of both.

[Funkstar]

Lots and lots of memory along with a faster than normal hard drive would be an advantage too.

Obviously an SSD would be great, but if that's out of your price range then even swapping a standard cheap drive that most manufacturers install with something larger and faster would be a great idea.

[dirky]

On a side note, you should beware that I've had 3-4 laptops recently all with discrete gpu fail due to heat (latitudes) and none of them were going graphically intensive tasks. The M1330 is/was also well known for this issue too

[daveyhue]

I would defineatly reccomend getting a discrete graphics card over onboard and maybe a little more ram just to help with the rendering.

[apmallett]

Thanks for the further help. Its pretty much confirmed my thinking. Its just finding the right deal now. I saw the new Acer i5s on the CES news and these look interesting to me. See what the rest on January brings.