Integrated graphics vs Discrete vid card- Does it matter?

[Viper69]

As a PC owner I've always had a discrete video card.

However, as a laptop owner, there are many w/out a discrete video card. If I don't use the laptop for gaming how much of an issue is this? My uses primarily general multimedia, web surfing and word processing. The CPU would be a core i5 or i7.

Thanks in advance

 

[wingman99]

Unless folks are gaming they don't need a dedicated GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Video will run just fine with IGPU.

 

[Mjolnir]

For general use, doesn't matter. However I will say specific programs like AutoCad etc will benefit from a dedicated GPU over the IGP.

 

[Viper69]

Unless folks are gaming they don't need a dedicated GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Video will run just fine with IGPU.

I won't be gaming w/this laptop.

For general use, doesn't matter. However I will say specific programs like AutoCad etc will benefit from a dedicated GPU over the IGP.

About the only software I MIGHT run, and it's unlikely for this laptop is Paintshop Pro, again very unlikely.

I was pretty set on getting the ASUS UX303UB. Then I learned that ASUS has its "Ambient Light Technology". Which automatically changes the brightness of BOTH the screen and backlit keyboard. I need a backlit keyboard very often. One can turn off the ambient light sensor, but there is no way to turn it off and go into a "manual" mode. What a dumb idea they came up with...

Building a PC is so much easier than picking out a laptop, jeez.

Thanks guys!

 

[Theocnoob]

For average desktop use, IGPU vs discrete is unnoticeable. The only time when discrete GPU comes into play is with programs that are able to leverage it such as photoshop, games, etc.

For what you describe, iGPU will be fine.

Have you taken a look at the HP Spectre? I find it impressive.

 

[Viper69]

For average desktop use, IGPU vs discrete is unnoticeable. The only time when discrete GPU comes into play is with programs that are able to leverage it such as photoshop, games, etc.

For what you describe, iGPU will be fine.

Have you taken a look at the HP Spectre? I find it impressive.

Thanks!

I haven't looked at that one just yet in detail. I started looking at the Lenovo T460s, couldn't figure out if the extra money was worth the CPU updgrades, what do you think? Of the ultrabooks I've looked at so far, there's always at least one thing that is missing.

Processor: Intel Core i7-6600U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.40GHz)

• Intel Core i5-6200U Processor (3MB Cache, up to 2.80GHz)[subtract $225.00]
• Intel Core i5-6300U Processor (3MB Cache, up to 3.00GHz)[subtract $165.00]
• Intel Core i7-6600U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.40GHz)

 

[Woomack]

Something with lower Nvidia series like 920M costs not much more than fully integrated while is giving additional features and higher performance in some applications. Above that is a big gap and are starting gaming series - something like 960M or 1060M. 940M is not much faster than 920M.
Next thing is that all i5/i7 without HQ/QM in product number are 2 core+HT. There are series with 6500HQ and lower graphics which are designed for office work while still have 4 cores and price isn't bad. I think it was DELL Latitude.

 

[Theocnoob]

Thanks!

I haven't looked at that one just yet in detail. I started looking at the Lenovo T460s, couldn't figure out if the extra money was worth the CPU updgrades, what do you think? Of the ultrabooks I've looked at so far, there's always at least one thing that is missing.

Processor: Intel Core i7-6600U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.40GHz)

• Intel Core i5-6200U Processor (3MB Cache, up to 2.80GHz)[subtract $225.00]
• Intel Core i5-6300U Processor (3MB Cache, up to 3.00GHz)[subtract $165.00]
• Intel Core i7-6600U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.40GHz)

"multimedia/web surfing/word processing" is what you said you use this machine for so any of the CPUs above will be fine for this. As was mentioned these are all dual cores (as you can probably tell by the small cache)

 

[NiHaoMike]

Nvidia GPUs, even lower end ones, can upscale video very well. You'll definitely want one if you (for example) often play 720p content on a 1080p display.

 

[wingman99]

I have no problems with the Pentium G4400 up scaling Video to 1080p.

 

[NiHaoMike]

Nvidia supports VDPAU and the advanced options that go with it.
https://mpv.io/manual/stable/#video-filters

vdpaupp

VDPAU video post processing. Works with --vo=vdpau and --vo=opengl only. This filter is automatically inserted if deinterlacing is requested (either using the d key, by default mapped to the command cycle deinterlace, or the --deinterlace option). When enabling deinterlacing, it is always preferred over software deinterlacer filters if the vdpau VO is used, and also if opengl is used and hardware decoding was activated at least once (i.e. vdpau was loaded).

sharpen=<-1-1>
For positive values, apply a sharpening algorithm to the video, for negative values a blurring algorithm (default: 0).
denoise=<0-1>
Apply a noise reduction algorithm to the video (default: 0; no noise reduction).
deint=<yes|no>
Whether deinterlacing is enabled (default: no). If enabled, it will use the mode selected with deint-mode.
deint-mode=<first-field|bob|temporal|temporal-spatial>

Select deinterlacing mode (default: temporal). All modes respect --field-dominance.

Note that there's currently a mechanism that allows the vdpau VO to change the deint-mode of auto-inserted vdpaupp filters. To avoid confusion, it's recommended not to use the --vo=vdpau suboptions related to filtering.

first-field
Show only first field.
bob
Bob deinterlacing.
temporal
Motion-adaptive temporal deinterlacing. May lead to A/V desync with slow video hardware and/or high resolution.
temporal-spatial
Motion-adaptive temporal deinterlacing with edge-guided spatial interpolation. Needs fast video hardware.

chroma-deint
Makes temporal deinterlacers operate both on luma and chroma (default). Use no-chroma-deint to solely use luma and speed up advanced deinterlacing. Useful with slow video memory.
pullup
Try to apply inverse telecine, needs motion adaptive temporal deinterlacing.
interlaced-only=<yes|no>
If yes (default), only deinterlace frames marked as interlaced.
hqscaling=<0-9>

0
Use default VDPAU scaling (default).
1-9
Apply high quality VDPAU scaling (needs capable hardware).

For the videophiles, there are even more options!
https://mpv.io/manual/stable/#opengl-renderer-options

For those who want a good starting point, these are the settings I use:

hwdec=vdpau
hwdec-codecs=all
vo=opengl:scale=ewa_lanczossharp:cscale=ewa_lanczossharp:dscale=mitchell:correct-downscaling:sigmoid-upscalingpengl-pbo:scaler-resizes-only
vf=vdpaupp:deint-mode=temporal:hqscaling=1
cache=250000
audio-channels=2
softvol=no

 

[Theocnoob]

While all that is true, I think that for the AVERAGE consumer who is not a videophile and just wants a basic-use PC (youtube, netflix, word, excel, etc) then any modern integrated solution will probably be good enough, unless the user has any extreme demands.

 

[Viper69]

Thanks a lot for the advice and video details as well. I don't think my demands are extreme. This is very helpful.

- - - Updated - - -

Nvidia GPUs, even lower end ones, can upscale video very well. You'll definitely want one if you (for example) often play 720p content on a 1080p display.

Thanks I actually do this quite frequently.

- - - Updated - - -

Nvidia supports VDPAU and the advanced options that go with it.
https://mpv.io/manual/stable/#video-filters

For the videophiles, there are even more options!
https://mpv.io/manual/stable/#opengl-renderer-options



For those who want a good starting point, these are the settings I use:

I've never used mpv, how do you like it? I've always been a VLC and some variant of the MS Media Player Classic user generally.

 

[NiHaoMike]

Mpv is yet another media player app. The UI is fairly basic but it was largely designed for the use case of double clicking a file to play it. To get the most out of it, you'll have to set options using the config file. The one I given above should work on any recent Nvidia GPU.

VLC supports VDPAU but I haven't looked into fine tuning the upscaling. Kodi also supports VDPAU and has a lot of options to tweak things. There are other apps that support VDPAU but those two are the most popular, the latter especially so for HTPCs.

I settled on mpv for my uses since at the time, VLC had poor VDPAU support (things have changed since) and I really liked the way options can be overridden from the shell, such as setting the buffer to 8GB to allow pausing live TV.