Core 2 Duo question

entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
edited June 2006 in Hardware
So these suckers are coming out, and the E6600 looks to be just about right for me. They could overclock to 3.1ghz without even touching the vcore, so it's looking super promising.

Now, my question is an odd one. I was thinking about it, especially while reading many of the posts around here, and I realized that an insane graphics card isn't what I need or even want. I rarely play games anymore. So my question is this. Do motherboards now still come with built-in graphics? I want to make my upgrade as easy on the wallet as possible, and it's not going to be cheap, making an entire platform change (yeah, p4 2.8c + ddr + 9800pro = wayyy outdated).

I would by the processor, motherboard, and DDR2 first. I don't think I could justify spending another $200/$300 dollars immediately.

Comments

  • rapturerapture
    edited June 2006
    The better motherboards don't (thank god) but there are plenty of cheap PCI-E video cards on the market.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited June 2006
    I'd stay away from integrated graphics if I were you. My friend has integrated graphics on his inspiron E1505 with 2 gigs of ram and a t2500 core duo and the thing cant even run cs source at 800x600 with low settings. Although its a laptop it still has a good amount of power and has trouble running it.

    As for desktops though, I dont think many new mobos come with integrated graphics. Like rapture said, higher end mobos dont have integrated graphics mainly because theyre intended for gaming. You can get some cheap pci-e or agp videocards which can run most games fine.
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited June 2006
    I think you guys misunderstood my question. I don't need to game. I need it to run a resolution of 1680x1050 basically for my desktop, and whatever DVDs/videos I watch. I will upgrade to a more powerful video card at some point (stock 7900GTs look okay), but I don't want to do it all at once. Also, I think getting a PCIe card ($35, at the cheapest) that I'm going to use for a very short amount of time is just a waste.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited June 2006
    I understand that you dont want to game, but I'd still at least get a cheap pci-e or agp card just incase something comes along that you want to play. This is guarenteed to be 100x better than integrated graphics and its $60 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814141027

    You can get by on integrated graphics if your just on the internet and that kinda stuff.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Hey Entropy Nvidia makes Mobo's with the 6150 Graphics chip which use onboard memory and extra resources from your ram slots, it supports all the new tech and will run most games at 1280 x 1024 on low and some medium settings. Now if you are looking for once inawhile gaming at 1680 x 1050 and want it to look good.. something in the 7600GT range will do or an ATI X1800. ATI's onboard support sucks vs Nvidia's offerings. I guess you could even roll back to a 6800GT and still get good performance.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    You pay $35 for a cheap PCIe card, or you pay $35 over a non-integrated board to have one on the mobo.

    You and I both know that mobos with integrated video are worse than their non-integrated counterparts. Stop trying to short-change yourself.
  • rapturerapture
    edited June 2006
    You pay $35 for a cheap PCIe card, or you pay $35 over a non-integrated board to have one on the mobo.

    You and I both know that mobos with integrated video are worse than their non-integrated counterparts. Stop trying to short-change yourself.

    Exactly. I understand what you're saying but buying a lower quality motherboard is never a good idea.
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