Onboard or seperate video?

[holabr]

Assuming the price is about the same, what are the advantages/disadvantages of configuring a new system with a motherboard that has onboard graphics vs a mobo without graphics and a seperate low cost video card using the same GPU? If it makes a difference, I am leaning toward a AMD with ATI graphics. I also know my power consumption will be slightly higher with the seperate card.

 

[lsv]

Discrete graphics will be faster and use more power while being more expensive. There's not much else to it.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Depending if the onboard has Sideport, a dedicated card will have its own RAM and won't steal system memory.

 

[Scali]

I think low-cost discrete cards are pretty useless.
Modern IGPs are good enough for everything except gaming. They have HDMI output, can do HD/BluRay playback, have enough features and performance to run any modern OS with all the eyecandy on...

It's just gaming that's not going to work.
But you'd need a pretty decent discrete card to get a good gaming experience. I'd say in the league of Radeon 5750-5770, to really play modern games at decent resolutions, with decent quality settings.
Everything below that is just a waste of money in my opinion. It's not going to handle games well, and everything else would already be covered by a cheap IGP anyway.

So my advice: if you're going for a discrete card, make it worth your while.

 

[Meghan54]

An onboard gpu will typically depend upon system memory; discrete video cards have their own RAM.

Onboard gpu's put a higher load on the cpu, discrete video cards lessen the cpu load.

 

[netxzero64]

what is the purpose of your setup? if it is for gaming then a discrete mid to high end video card will do because AMD's on board graphics especially the ATI 4290 on the 890 chipset fairs well for lite gaming and HD video playback...

 

[frozentundra123456]

I think low-cost discrete cards are pretty useless.
Modern IGPs are good enough for everything except gaming. They have HDMI output, can do HD/BluRay playback, have enough features and performance to run any modern OS with all the eyecandy on...

It's just gaming that's not going to work.
But you'd need a pretty decent discrete card to get a good gaming experience. I'd say in the league of Radeon 5750-5770, to really play modern games at decent resolutions, with decent quality settings.
Everything below that is just a waste of money in my opinion. It's not going to handle games well, and everything else would already be covered by a cheap IGP anyway.

So my advice: if you're going for a discrete card, make it worth your while.

I would agree with you to a certain extent. However, I think something like a GT240 DDR5 or HD5670 are worthwhile upgrades over integrated video and allow one to play most games at moderate settings. The GT240 can be found really cheaply now I believe. Considering the cost of a computer, around 50.00 for the GT240 is not much of an investment. But you are right that you need a more powerful card for higher resolution gaming.

 

[s44]

There still isn't an ideal HTPC IGP.

Nvidia is basically out of the game and doesn't bitstream.
AMD can't even do multichannel PCM over HDMI.
Intel does full bitstreamed sound but has 24fps issues.

 

[bryanW1995]

if you have to ask then onboard is the way to go.