Oh no! Not integrated graphics Vs Cards again

rleishman · **29th July 2008, 08:32 PM**

Does using a graphics card make the onboard graphics features of a motherboad redundant?

Say (for argument sake) I wanted to TRY a motherboard with integrated graphics (ie. no card) and bought an Asus P5E-VM HDMI or a Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H.

Then I decide that it's not fast enough - or I want to do some 3D gaming - and I buy a graphics card with HDMI.

Have I done my dough? Would I have been better off buying a motherboard without HDMI, but WITH something else I fancied (like DDR3)?

For example, the Gigabyte mobo supports Dolby Home Theatre. Does that still apply when I use the graphics card? What about the onboard 1080p support?

krypto · **29th July 2008, 09:16 PM**

If you switch to a graphics card you will loose use of your onboard graphics, unless you use it in crossfire mode. You can add a cheap HD3450 to do this. There are some reviews around on the various configurations on previous versions of this board, but they didn't have sideport.

The onboard is ample for 1080p, but probably not much chop for gaming.

vlad · **29th July 2008, 09:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by krypto

If you switch to a graphics card you will loose use of your onboard graphics, unless you use it in crossfire mode. You can add a cheap HD3450 to do this. There are some reviews around on the various configurations on previous versions of this board, but they didn't have sideport.

The onboard is ample for 1080p, but probably not much chop for gaming.

I still maintain some childish addiction to powerful GPU's

I had some problems with 6600GT and since only use dedicated cards, like 9600GT now.
Effortless, and good 1080i, which is according to our resident expert meronvingan is more challenging then 1080p
There are some motherboards coming with dedicated video memory, like GA-MA78GPM-DS2H.
Makes more sense to me.

logifuse · **30th July 2008, 11:55 AM**

As has been touched on, the latest AMD & Nvidia onboard video chipsets (780G & 8200/8300) have the ability to offer hybrid crossfire or hybrid SLI, but only with a select few cards (may have more down the track).

ATM, there aren't any Intel CPU motherbaords with this graphics option, but Nvidia are launching a version of the 8200 for Intel sometime in the next few months.

Justin