laptop graphics card help

[boggs]

im in the market for a new laptop since mine crapped out. I have a few things i would like to do. One is use hdmi to connect to my tv and stream divx or just surf the web. previously i had been doing this with svideo on my old laptop and doing anything else while streaming video was near impossible. Will newer integrated graphics do this? or should i try to get dedicated. I'm also an EE student but I don't think matlab and spice programs are too graphics intensive since my old laptop ran them.

I've been looking at a Lenovo Y550 with an nvidia G 130M, and 2ghz core 2 duo for about 600, but i can easily find hp, acer and msi laptops with better processors,7200 rpm hdd, and faster memory for the same price, but with integrated intel graphics.

Has integrated graphics improved at all?

 

[MADMAT]

Integrated graphics have improved a little. I don't think that was your bottleneck though. So you were hardwired in (not wifi) and you were streaming and multitasking and it was acting sluggish?

 

[boggs]

well if i tried to play anything high quality it was useless. wouldn't even dream on 720 p with it. yea alot of times i had downloaded divx videos and wasn't even really streaming but it would get skippy.

 

[AtomicPunk]

for what you are doing I would get the dedicated graphics card, upgrade the RAM (cheap) and definitely get a 7200 RPM drive.

 

[MADMAT]

What was it? I would say any laptop in the last few years can play a movie and surf the net smiultaniously. Even the cheapies.

 

[boggs]

well the problem with mine is it would bog down when i was attempting to use my hdtv as a dual monitor kind of deal.

 

[MADMAT]

Yea I can't imagine anything old handling that. Look for spotless used XP lappy with a 256 dedicated vid card.

 

[boggs]

so an nvidia card with 512mb would do it with ease? that seems to be the most common card i see. i've seen a few 1gb atis but they are few and far between

 

[AtomicPunk]

512 on a lappy is pretty stout....