Help Me Choose: Video Cards

Historically many laptops were designed with the graphics processor built in to the system motherboard. Integrated graphics products (UMA) allow a computer to be built without a separate graphics card, which can reduce cost, power consumption and noise. These integrated cards are found on entry-level laptops that do not need high levels of graphics capability. Integrated graphics share system memory for storage, which can impact the system performance when multitasking or during video-intensive activities such as gaming or watching HD videos.

On-processor graphics cards are integrated into the CPU (central processing unit) of all of Intel's 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processors and AMD's accelerated processing units (APUs). These CPU and graphics card technologies are smart choices for everyday computing and casual gaming. They also help optimize battery life.

But if you play high-demand video games, watch HD movies or use video-intensive applications on your laptop, you might need something a bit more powerful. Discrete GPUs (graphics processing units) are separate from the motherboard and feature dedicated memory of their own, measured in gigabytes (GB). These GPUs greatly accelerate graphics performance so you get less pixilation and more lifelike graphics.

With your new Inspiron™ laptop, you don’t have to choose between on-processor battery life and discrete graphics performance anymore. By selecting any of the discrete graphics card options, you are selecting a switchable graphics card designed to save your battery from unnecessary drain, enabling you to work or play longer on a single battery charge.

This new and intelligent graphics feature lets you use your laptop's high performance GPU when running your graphically intensive applications. When you are not, the laptop automatically switches from the discrete GPU to the on-processor graphics solution, thus reducing your laptop's graphics power usage to meet the needs of less graphically demanding applications.