Integrated Graphics Processor

[Asuras]

Alright school is starting up soon and want to buy a laptop to bring with me. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of money to spend on a gaming laptop. Best Buy has this sale for this HP (no comment) Laptop for $499 which is the price I'm looking for.

Link to Laptop: tiny.cc/laptopinter (can't link cause of low post count, redirect link to best buy website)

Brand: HP
Model: G62-234DX
Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Processor / Graphics: 2.26GHz Intel Core i3 processor / Intel® HD
Memory: 4 GB DDR3 RAM
Hard drive 250 GB HDD 5400 rpm
Display / Resolution: 15.6″ LED high-definition widescreen with BrightView technology with 1366×768 resolution

Anyways base on the above info and link it appears to have a integrated graphics processor. I'm honestly don't know much about computers but from what I gather from google, integrated graphics processor sucks for gaming.

Again though, this laptop is pretty much what I can afford. So if I play with all setting a low settings with a good internet connection and a cooling pad (mat). Is this laptop be able to handle 25/10 Man Raids (ICC) and be able to play Cataclysm based on what is known with Beta?

[Cute Chen]

i raided on a laptop for about a year and a half or more. i am pretty sure that has cut down at least a few years of my lifetime. 25 man raids will be painful, 10's will be bearable if youre tough and maybe get a little drunk before raid-time. if you can get a better CPU you may be better off, but i can't say how things will look in Cataclysm.

not a technical answer to be sure, but just my experience from laptop raiding.

[Asuras]

How about this laptop?

Link to Laptop: tiny.cc/latopgate

Brand: Gateway
Model: NV53A24u
Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Processor: AMD Athlon™ II X2
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4250
Memory: 4 GB DDR3 RAM
Hard drive 320 GB HDD 5400 rpm
Display / Resolution: 15.6″ High-definition widescreen TFT-LCD with Ultrabright technology with 1366×768 resolution

[Cilraaz]

How about this laptop?

Link to Laptop: tiny.cc/latopgate

Brand: Gateway
Model: NV53A24u
Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Processor: AMD Athlon™ II X2
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4250
Memory: 4 GB DDR3 RAM
Hard drive 320 GB HDD 5400 rpm
Display / Resolution: 15.6″ High-definition widescreen TFT-LCD with Ultrabright technology with 1366×768 resolution

You've pretty much gone a step down. That's a worse CPU and it still has integrated graphics.

[Asuras]

The second one is still a integrated graphics? Some people on the wowforums (tiny.cc/wowforums) said it was it was a dedicated video card. How do I know if its a integrated graphics are not?

[Cilraaz]

The second one is still a integrated graphics? Some people on the wowforums (tiny.cc/wowforums) said it was it was a dedicated video card. How do I know if its a integrated graphics are not?

I googled "ATI Radeon HD 4250". The first result states that it's an integrated graphics chip.

[Asuras]

Also this is the laptop I was using before it "blew up":

Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
Processor: AMD Turion X2 mobile processor RM-72 / 2.1 GHz
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3200
Memory: 4 GB DDR3 RAM

Apparently its integrated also (i think) but I am able to play just fine (fps in Dala: 15-35, in 25m raid: 10-20 (Top dps / Heals just fine and able to stay alive during choppy graphic intensive fights).

Again not a lot of cash, so get what I can and play at low settings. =/

Edit: Well if ATI Radeon HD 4250 is intergrated and I assume the above (ATI Radeon HD 3200) is intergrated than I should be fine?

To highlight again the second laptop has ATI Radeon® HD 4250 Graphics which I guess is a integrated graphics.

On the Gateway site it says:
"ATI Radeon® HD 4250 Graphics with up to 256MB of dedicated system memory supporting Shader Model 4.0"

On the Best Buy site it says:
"ATI Radeon HD 4250 graphics
Feature up to 256MB dedicated video memory for lush images and vivid detail. Two built-in stereo speakers supported by high-definition audio for quality sound. HDMI port for flexible connectivity options."

ATI Radeon HD 4250 graphics:
notebookcheck[dot]net/ATI-Radeon-HD-4250.29664.0.html

"Because of the missing graphics memory, the performance of the card is a bit lower than of the HD 34x0. Theroretically, dedicated memory chips can be directly added to the chip, making it a dedicated graphics card. Because of pricing it is unclear if any manufacturer will add memory to the chip."

Does the 256mb dedicated video memory change anything?

[Wries]

Notebookcheck.net is pretty good when it comes to checking up on notebook-gfx.

256 MB of dedicated SYSTEM memory sounds like it reserves up to 256 MB of your system ram (aka slow memory when it comes to graphics card standards) so it won't be woho good.

EDIT: Sry, bad me. Now saw that your second source say dedicated memory. If that would be true, it might be of an advantage. Though I don't know if that processor will hold up in a 25 man.

I'd go with the first lappy you linked. The CPU will never (well.. currently) bottleneck you to unplayable fps, but graphics will need to be set to low in order to achieve something "playable" due to GPU bottleneck. (I've only found one test that shows some kind of hint of how the intel HD chip performs with WoW. Think it's referring to desktop version though. Does not look good.)

Comparing the two GPU's on notebookcheck shows little difference, while the difference in CPU is more significant.

[Asuras]

To beat the question even more, would he laptop I pick be a decent side / upgrade? Below is the LOL laptop I currently use. Got it near the start of Wrath of the Lich King and played just fine the entire expansion. Had to tweak Vista a bit to push it to its limits with certain in-game settings to low (able to play on medium settings just fine but choppy on graphic particle intensive fights) (with fps ranging from in Dala: 15-30, in 25m raid: 5-20 with 50-70ms connection). Only reason I wish to replace is because it had heating issues from just having Firefox open.

What I currently use:
Brand: HP
Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
Processor: AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-72 / 2.1 GHz
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics RS780M
Video Memory: Up to 1918MB
Resolution: 1440 x 900
Memory: 4 GB DDR3 RAM

Integrated graphics processor

From all the comments on this and other board, I am currently leaning towards:

Link to Laptop: tiny.cc/gatelap

Brand: Gateway
Model: NV53A24u
Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Processor: MD Athlon II X2 Dual-Core Processor P320 (2.1GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache)
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4250 Graphics with up to 256MB of dedicated system memory
Video Memory: 256MB (dedicated)
Resolution: 1366 x 768
Memory: 4 GB DDR3 RAM

Integrated graphics processor

Another Laptop someone pointed out to me which is $100 more but wiling to buy if that much better than the above.

Link to another laptop: tiny.cc/gatelap2

Brand: HP
Model: dv5-2035dx
Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Processor: 2.3GHz VISION Technology from AMD - Premium with AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile Processor P520 (2MB L2 Cache)
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4250 Graphics
Video Memory: Up to 2045MB total available
Resolution: 1366 x 768
Memory: 4 GB DDR3 RAM

Integrated graphics processor

Again, not a lot of cash available to me (paying for school and food) and currently in need of a laptop. The Laptop is intended to play only World of Warcraft, otherwise its for school use and watching movies.

[Moobious]

What is the most you can spend? A few hundred dollars can make a huge difference.