Are laptop integrated graphics finally fast enough to play video games

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve probably asked this before, but the technology changes every few years.

Anyway I may need a new laptop soon because mine is doing some weird stuff. The one I’m using now, I got in 2011.

Several years ago I bought a different laptop with integrated graphics, but I couldn’t play my games on it. My games aren’t even that advanced. I think the newest, most graphics intense games I own are things like Orcs must die 2, Fallout Vegas, left for dead 2, counterstrike, etc. Basically games that came out 5-10 years ago.

However I bought that laptop probably in 2014, and it was a $300 model. But at that time, at that price, it couldn’t play my games without graphics issues. But ever since that blunder I’ve been wary about integrated graphics.

My current laptop (the six year old one that is about to break) has a dedicated graphics card, the Radeon HD 6750M. According to Passmark’s G3D mark (whatever that means) that is a score of 935.

I don’t know what all the numbers in graphics cards actually mean, I’m just putting the cards into passmark and seeing how they rate.

Many new laptops today come with Intel HD 620 graphics. That gets a score of 934.

So it appears, from passmark at least, that the integrated HD 620 graphics that come with laptops in 2018 is equal to the dedicated graphics card that I have on my laptop that I bought in 2011.

So basically, is integrated graphics all I need? As I said, my newest games are from 2012 or so.

For my purposes, is an I5 CPU sufficient?

2

No, you probably need a dedicated graphics card. There are laptops with discrete graphics cards though. I have a Dell XPS 9560 which has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 with 4GB GDDR5. I imagine that’s good enough to play 5-year-old games in most cases.

3

This article was on Gizmodo recently. It doesn’t answer your question specifically, but it does indicate the future.

4

my Toshiba satellite while I don’t remember the exact graphics card could run all the online games as of last year …

5

Its confusing because I can find youtube videos of people playing Overwatch on Intel HD 620 integrated graphics. Overwatch requires far more graphics power than the games I play.

But when I look at the minimum requirements for Overwatch (which came out in 2016), it says you need a far better graphics card than the rating given for the 620.

6

Do you need a laptop? Would a desktop or XBox One X be a better solution?

7

One thing to watch out for - a laptop with dedicated graphics that isn’t specifically a ‘gaming’ style laptop (i.e. chunky to accommodate adequate cooling, and with poor battery life as a result) may underperform on the graphics front anyway - it’s not just a case of GPU model, amount and type of RAM, etc - but power consumption - laptop GPUs are often throttled back to a level below their on-paper capabilities just because of heat and power management concerns.

8

Most requirements are given for running at 1080p at 60 frames per second (fps). These people may be running at lower resolutions, which require commensurately lower GPU power. Indeed the top video on YT says he’s running at 1366x768 with everything at low or off and at 75% render scale and regularly dips down to 40 fps.

Compare the video mentioned above using the HD 620 with this one using the Titan XP. Note that on the second video the settings are maxxed and the game is running at over 170 fps at 1440p - nearly 4x the resolution.

And just for giggles, here’s Overwatch at 8k, getting 30-40 fps.

9

It needs to be a laptop. My laptop is starting to act weird again, and I’m worried it’ll collapse. But I have over a hundred Steam games on my laptop so I want something that can play them.

10

I’m running a 2 year old Alienware with integrated video and it runs everything I need.

Processor: Intel(R) Core™ i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
Video Card #2: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530
RAM: 8.0 GB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 (build 16299), 64-bit

Do you have specific games in mind? I can check my system against them on Can You Run It

11

Too late for an ETA, but I checked the games you listed in your OP and they all checked out fine for hardware, though some had question marks about Win10 since it’s not officially supported for them. I’d do some quick research before buying a system with Win10 on it.

I can personally vouch for Fallout Vegas though. Let me know if you want me to test any other titles.

12

Doesn’t it run everything you need because you have a discrete GPU in the form of a GTX 980M? Have you tried running your games on the Intel Graphics 530 only?
Wesley, you can look at integrated graphics benchmarks that benchmark actual games instead of abstract scores. Here is one for a few games for the HD 620: https://technewswith.me/intel-hd-graphics-620#nbspnbspnbspnbspIntel_HD_Graphics_620_Gaming_Benchmark

TLDR: A 620 can get ok to good FPS with reduced resolution and low graphics settings.

13

The Ryzen APU is going to be your best bet for an integrated solution. I’m not in love with the Gizmodo article listed above because no one is running stuff at 4K with an integrated graphics solution. And you’re almost certainly not running 4K on a laptop unless you have some super-duper Razer laptop for $3,500 or something. At most you’ll be running 1080 and more likely 720 for laptop gaming and the Ryzen APU looks like it will excel in that arena for the price/power.

However, the Ryzen APUs are just launching so I don’t know if there’s a laptop using them yet.

If it’s running an Intel processor and an Nvidia GTX 980M, it’s not integrated. The GTX 980M is a discrete (i.e. stand-alone) GPU. It might be soldered and non-upgradable but it’s not relying on the CPU to process the graphics.

14

Apparently there’s laptops available (I’m not in the laptop market so haven’t looked) and here’s a review of the Ryzen 5 2500U – I would stick with that or the Ryzen 7 2700U.

15

The 980M and its RAM are mounted directly to the mobo and aren’t an addon module that can be upgraded or replaced. Up to the OP how he wants to classify it I suppose.

16

Integrated means that the CPU is handling the graphics. There’s a bit of the CPU that’s doing it but there isn’t a an independent GPU. All processors (for our purposes) have some sort of integrated graphics just to display the OS and cat pictures but they usually aren’t useful for gaming.

Discrete means that there is a GPU on a separate module dedicated to handling the graphics. Discrete GPUs are much more powerful than integrated solutions.

That’s not really up to the OP; those are the definitions he needs to use if he’s researching the topic because they’re the definitions that every tech site is going to use.

Very often with laptops the discrete GPU is permanently attached and not meant to be removed or upgraded. Regardless, since there is still an independent GPU it’s considered discrete.

17

Granted.

My reading of the OP was whether or not a laptop could play the games in his Steam library with an acceptable level of performance. I have confirmed that yes, he can, provided he is willing and able to pay for a laptop with sufficient power to do so. Whether he wants to be a stickler on the question of integration is entirely up to him.

18

That’s fair. I doubt the OP has a solid leaning for integrated graphics aside from wanting to know if the processor will play his games without needing an additional GPU.

Since the OP asked about the HD 620 integrated solution from Intel, this article might be helpful. It sounds like it would probably work for older games at 720 and without cranking the options but I hate to plan around games from six-plus years ago. You might want to play something made after 2010 some day. My recommendation would lean towards the Ryzen APUs or a discrete GPU in the laptop.

19

I thought the proper terms were ‘integrated’ and ‘dedicated’ graphics card. Is ‘discrete’ the correct technical term for a laptop with its own graphics card not on the motherboard?

The reason I’m asking is because laptops that have integrated graphics start at $350 or so, but the ones with dedicated graphics cards start at $600 or so.

I want something with a 1TB or more hard drive that can play games that are 5-10 years old. If possible, I’d rather only spend $400 than $700 on it.

20

I really don’t know which of my games are the most graphics intensive. I assume Fallout new Vegas is one of the most graphics intensive games I own (since it is one of the newest, it was released in 2010)