All about: Video cards for laptops

Despite it's importance on all laptops, the video or graphics, card is probably the most underrated component in their specification. Look up the specifications of a laptop and often, unless the laptop is specifically high performance, one misses the video card even though it can be an important element in the capabilities of the laptop. Read this article to learn more about video cards for laptops.

Why is a video card important

The video card For simple word processing, web surfing and other simple computer use, any video card will do. As long as it works it will do the job, however as soon as you start calling on more demanding applications the video card can quickly become the bottle neck in the system. Applications Any 3D environment including Games, CAD design systems and increasingly other applications push the graphics cards and while most laptop graphics cards will do 3D graphics, the low end cards common on the majority of laptops will struggle to give decent performance. Games commonly run best at over 50fps (frames per second) and anything below 25 will quickly show stuttering and poor performance. Run a common game such as World of Warcraft on a low end laptop and chances are that even minimum settings will see a frame rate of 25 or below.

What are the choices?

Graphics processor There are in effect three choices when it comes to the graphics processor in a laptop. Intel, ATI/AMD and Nvidia are those choices and each one has a number of models to choose from. Intel Fortunately, the initial choices are rather easier. Intel is the most common supplier and provides the bulk of the low end graphics solutions. If you are struggling for frame rates then chances are that your laptop has an Intel card. ATI and Nvidia can be treated largely as the same and all of their models will provide better performance than the Intel options. This means that it is worth doing some research and get the best model you can afford. Website Tomshardware.com includes 'hierarchy' lists for graphics cards including the 'integrated' types common on computer laptops and is extremely useful for judging different models.

Conclusion

As it can be seen, the video and graphics side of laptops can easily be overlooked and potentially can be a minefield. However, carefully considered research into the laptops you are looking at and websites such as Tomshardware.com can quickly allow you to sort out the best laptop for you.