GPU

Bro, do you even game? GPU's (Graphical Processing Units or simply Graphics) aren't just meant for gaming. If Photoshopping, "After-Effecting", "Premiering", "CADding" or 4K video watching is on your to-do list, then have a serious look at the GPU. Integrated or Dedicated? These are the two types of GPUs available. But what do you need?

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Types of GPUs


  Integrated GPUs (iGPU)

  Dedicated/Discrete GPUs

Integrated GPUs   Nvidia GPU

Integrated GPUs do not have RAM of their own but share RAM from the system's main memory. Hence, they are generally slower than dedicated GPU's. Both Intel and AMD provide integrated graphics. Intel HD Graphics is present in Intel's core line of processors while AMD provides the R series of iGPU's.

Though the performance of integrated graphics is obviously lesser than that of a dedicated GPU, thanks to Intel's improvements in the fabrication process, the Intel HD GPUs are more than capable of running the latest AAA games albeit not at HD resolution. The various models of Intel's iGPUs depend on the generation of the processor. For example, all the 3rd generation Intel Processors come with the Intel HD 4000 GPUs. The clock speed of the GPU depends on the model, with the i7 iGPUs have the highest clock speeds and the Pentium/Celeron processors have the slowest clock speeds. The latest MacBook's have a faster version of Intel HD graphics called the Iris Pro which has the capacity to rival entry level dedicated graphics cards. If Mac is your thing, have a look at it.

AMD provides its integrated Radeon G and R series graphics for its mobile AMD APUs. Most of AMD's iGPUs have dedicated cores which AMD terms as compute cores and so, they are faster than Intel's Hd series but still do not match the performance of the dedicated ones.

Dedicated GPUs

Nvidia GeForce AMD Radeon

Dedicated GPUs have their own cores and memory thereby being miles faster than any of the iGPUs. If you want to play all games on HD resolution with features like AA turned on to the max, or if you want to edit and render HD/4K videos on your laptop, you will need a good dedicated GPU. Both Nvidia and AMD offer dedicated GPUs with Nvidia's GeForce and AMD's Radeon Graphics. Drawback of using dedicated GPUs is the noise and heat emissions as they are noticeably more than the laptops not using discrete GPUs but with Nvidia's Optimus technology allowing to switch between iGPUs and dedicated GPUs based on the workload, efficiency is less of a concern now.

Tl;dr

If your work does not involve graphic intensive applications like rendering and playing games at ultra high resolutions, an integrated GPU should more than suffice. Within the integrated ones, AMD has a better offering than Intel but you can't interchange the iGPU and the processor as Intel CPUs come with HD Graphics and AMD with Radeon graphics. But, if all you crave is for 60 fps in games like Minecraft and the PC Master Race crown, then dedicated graphics is the road to take.

Recommendations

When choosing Intel's HD Graphics, go for the Broadwell Intel HD 6000 or similar series as they are the fastest Intel GPUs on the market (excluding the Iris Pro Graphics which is available only on Apple's laptops). If you're an AMD guy, Carrizo-L architecture is the way to go as the Radeon GPU offerings of the Carrizo APUs are decent enough for an integrated GPU. On the dedicated side of things, Nvidia's latest architecture is the Maxwell architecture and the GT/GTX 900 series is the latest in its GeForce line up. AMD recently launched its new line of dedicated Fiji GPUs and the R300 series seem very promising. Just be wary of the fact that some game developers are using Nvidia's GameWorks API which cripples performance on AMD cards and the AMDs also emit lots of heat and noise.