What is an Integrated Graphics Card? Its Pros & Cons

Just like the name suggests, Integrated Graphics card or Integrated Graphics Processing Units are integrated within your motherboard or Central Processing Unit. It has a lot less image rendering capability than that of the Dedicated Graphics Processing Units otherwise known as the Discrete Graphics Processing Units. In this article, we’ll discuss what is an integrated graphics card.

What is the Graphics Card?

The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) otherwise known as the Graphics Card is a programmable Logic Chip. It can be embedded within your Central Processing Unit or not depending upon its type. The two types of Graphics Processing Units are the Dedicated Graphics Processing Units or Discrete Graphics Processing Units and the Integrated Graphics Processing Units.

The function of Graphics Processing Units is to render graphics i.e. image, video, animations, etc. to the computer’s screen. As you might already comprehend the fact that not having a well-performing Graphics Processing Unit will create problems to play high-resolution games and movies. You can enable hardware acceleration on this.

The Graphics Processing Units perform various operations simultaneously i.e, it performs its operations in parallel. The Graphics Processing Units are used to process 2D and 3D data. The more the Graphics Processing Units are sophisticated the higher-performing it is. The higher-performing it is the smoother will be your gameplay. You can check your GPU for more info on its capabilities.

What’s Integrated Graphics Card

The integrated Graphics Processing Unit is often mistaken as the Integrated Graphics card is integrated on the motherboard or within the CPU. As you might have been acknowledged if you have read the previous portions of the article that a usual Graphics Card has several parts like the Output Interface, VRAM, RAMDAC, GPU, and many others. In the case of the IGPU, it uses the parts already present within the computer and gets the job done. It comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Features of Integrated Graphics Card

The integrated Graphics Card is placed within the CPU or the motherboard as it has been mentioned several times earlier. Thus, it shares various components of the CPU making it a more economical choice. The integrated graphics card can be programmable or nonprogrammable depending on its type. If you have 4GB the graphics card might end up using 250MB of the memory. You can also increase the VRAM of your integrated graphics.

Pros and Cons of Using an Integrated Graphics Card:

The advantages and disadvantages of the Integrated Graphics Card have it’s depending on who is using it and what is he using it for. For Gamers or Graphics Designers Integrated GPU is of no use whereas for a programmer or a journalist it is perfect. You can easily run a GPU stress test too.

1.  Pros: The Integrated Graphics Card is more economical than the Dedicated Graphics Card. It uses a lot less power than the dedicated graphics increasing battery life. Using this one can do low-end graphics processing like watching movies, editing videos, playing 2D games.
2. Cons: Using this you can’t play high-resolution games. High-end graphics designing is also quite impossible. Yes, you can play 3D games but you will have to tune the graphics down a little.

How to Choose the Right GPU for You

Choosing the right graphics card can be quite tricky for you, since most modern-day integrated GPUs have become so much powerful. When shopping for graphics cards, consider asking yourself the following questions:

What Types of Applications You use?

If you are a heavy gamer, video or graphics editor, crypto miner, you’ll need a non-integrated GPU. But for regular internet browsing, word-processing, casual gaming, integrated GPU should more than suffice.

What’s Your Budget?

External graphics cards are expensive, to say the least. Because along with the GPU, you need to buy more capable CPU and PSU for that. Without those, you won’t get much out of your shiny new GPU.

Battery life

Now if you are using a laptop with option to install dedicated graphics card, you should consider battery usage. Using a dedicated GPU will increase your power consumption by a lot, degrading your laptop battery faster than ever.

That being said, if graphics are important for you, there’s no other way but to go towards separate graphics cards.

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Can I run GTA 5 in 4GB RAM without graphics card?

To run GTA 5, you need at least 4 GB of RAM. Also, a graphics card of at least 2 GB memory is needed. Even if it is the integrated graphics, the game should work fine.

Is integrated graphics card good?

It depends on your CPU model. With higher generation CPUs, the integrated graphics is usually decent enough for daily tasks and even light gaming.

Which is better Nvidia or integrated graphics?

The only way integrated graphics is better than dedicated graphics cards like Nvidia or AMD is that it uses less power to operate. Otherwise, it lags way behind in capability.

Summing up

Graphics Card is logic chips that can render images to the output display. The integrated graphics card is one of the types of Graphics card which is integrated into the motherboard or the CPU. We have discussed briefly the different parts of the graphics card. Integrated Graphics Card features low battery life and is more economical. It has both pros and cons.