Internal Graphics Card vs. Dedicated Graphics Card

[mattruthluke]

Hello. We are in the market to buy a new computer. We aren't gamers. But at the same time we want the best HD quality television and movies we can get that is clear and not jumpy when fast action appears in the movie. My budget is as cheap as I can. We really just want a great HD quality monitor experience.

What is really the most important thing to consider when buying? Motherboard, CPU, Graphics Card, etc...

When I first began looking I was thinking about getting a Core i3 with integrated Intel HD 2000. But now I'm not so certain that it's worth the money. Maybe I should just get a very very cheap pentium system that handles HD and upgrade with a dedicated graphics card.

I'm just confused on what really is going to effect the HD quality. Does the motherboard really matter as much as the graphics card and memory? Or does the CPU matter more than the graphics card? Or does none of it matter as long as you have a 1 GB dedicated graphics card, etc.. etc... etc...?

 

[djangoringo]

So what you want is a htpc, you could go with the i3-3225 with intel hd4000 graphics + h77 micro-atx board, a amd apu like a10-5800k with a fm2 micro-atx mobo(with hdmi port), or with a cheap intel pentium g640 + graphic card nvidia 630 gt or 620gt + h61 mobo.

 

[solman79]

Hello. We are in the market to buy a new computer. We aren't gamers. But at the same time we want the best HD quality television and movies we can get that is clear and not jumpy when fast action appears in the movie. My budget is as cheap as I can. We really just want a great HD quality monitor experience.

What is really the most important thing to consider when buying? Motherboard, CPU, Graphics Card, etc...

When I first began looking I was thinking about getting a Core i3 with integrated Intel HD 2000. But now I'm not so certain that it's worth the money. Maybe I should just get a very very cheap pentium system that handles HD and upgrade with a dedicated graphics card.

I'm just confused on what really is going to effect the HD quality. Does the motherboard really matter as much as the graphics card and memory? Or does the CPU matter more than the graphics card? Or does none of it matter as long as you have a 1 GB dedicated graphics card, etc.. etc... etc...?

Hi mattruthluke,

If you could post an approximate budget, we could recommend some configuration options.

If plan on using your PC for 'general entertainment', another way to save some money would be to go with the AMD FX series processor (FX-6100 for example). The processor and compatible motherboard combo would be significantly cheaper than the Intel series. You can use that saving to buy a decent graphics card.

The Intel Sandy/Ivy Bridge processors outperform the AMD FX series, since most applications today still cannot utilize the 6-8 cores offered by AMD, plus Intel has more efficient cores on theirs. However, this is based on benchmark testing. Unless you're running very heavy applications, you won't see any noticeable difference.

By the way, I'm not a die-hard AMD fan, so (to all the Intel fans), please don't fmale me

I would suggest getting a Graphics card with HDMI output.