Laptop video cards: the basics

Although video cards are primarily used for computer games, they actually have a much wider utilisation. They are responsible for all desktop visual effects like transparent windows, quick previews and transitional effects. They are essential for video editing, image editing, 3D modelling, video playback and can be used to accelerate data intensive tasks like image recognition, data-mining and scientific research.

However, a good video card tends to significantly increase the price of a laptop. The more powerful the video card, the more expensive the laptop. So it is important to choose a video card based on expected usage. For instance a laptop used mainly for office work will be fine with a cheap processor integrated solution, while a laptop for a teenager or college student who does some casual gaming will need a dedicated video card.
 
Before going into further details on how to choose the right video card. There are some basic technical information that need to be known.
A laptop video card has two major components:
– the graphics processing unit (GPU) which is the core of the video card and gives its distinctive name (ex. AMD RX 480M , Nvidia GTX 1080)
– the video memory which keeps all the video card’s data needed for immediate use

 
Today all laptop processors have an integrated GPU in them. These GPUs have no dedicated video memory and use memory from the main system memory, a method called shared memory. Obviously these integrated solutions only work for basic activities like office work, web-browsing, watching HD videos and some old or non-demanding computer games. But they have the great advantage of no costing anything. So for those who use their laptop only for office work or are on tight budget this type of “video card” is the ideal solution.

 
But for more demanding activities, like watching 4K videos or casual gaming, it is indicated to get a proper dedicated video card. In order to keep laptops thin and compact, most dedicated video cards are integrated with the rest of the laptop’s circuits (motherboard or main board), but have their own dedicated video memory and electronic components, offering noticeably better performance over processor integrated solutions.

Dedicated video cards can vary in performance from slightly more powerful than an integrated solution to almost as powerful as a top of the line desktop video card. Keep in mind that the most powerful video cards always require big, heavy cooling solutions, sacrificing portability and battery life.

Some top of the line gaming laptops have their video cards separated from the rest of the laptop’s electronics. These cards may come in a standardised form, called MXM, or may be some non-standard MXM variation. Keeping the video card separate from the rest of the electronics has the advantage that it is easier to replace, it is less costly to fix and leaves the door open for future upgrades. However, laptops with separate video cards are slightly thicker, heavier and a bit more expensive.

 
 
Deciding which laptop video card to buy is all about finding the right balance between price, performance and portability. Depending on budget and needs, a video card will fall under one of these categories:

*”casual gaming” is understood as playing most games on full HD with low to medium settings.
**price ranges are rough estimates
 
Since most laptops are used for simple tasks like web-browsing and document editing, the majority of users are fine with whatever cost effective solution they are provided by laptop producers. But for those who want to do more graphic intensive activities the market is diverse enough to cover all budgets and usage scenarios, all is needed is a bit of research.
 
Image source: ©Nvidia,©Intel,©MSI,©AMD