Intel HD graphics - OK for gaming?

[illbenooneelse]

Greetings: First, my apologies for the noobish question, but I'm having some difficulty finding the information I need. I recently purchased a brand new Dell Laptop with the Intel Core i3 (with built-in "Intel HD Graphics") and 3Gb of RAM. I want to purchase Starcraft 2, but I'm reluctant to do so for performance reasons. Blizzard's official minimum system requirements call for either a 128 MB PCIe NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT or ATI Radeon 9800 PRO which seems fairly accessible.

Any and all information would be well appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[rocky41]

intel hd graphics are really poor for gaming and might not be able to handle starcraft 2, but there is one option i.e. going with the external graphic cards that are available for laptops
here is some info abt an external gc
http://www.villagetronic.com/vidock2/index.html

 

[illbenooneelse]

Thanks for the information.

@rocky41: Intel "HD Graphics" is an integrated graphics solution (e.g. part of the CPU). That said, is it even possible to use an external graphics card?

 

[rocky41]

yes you can use an external graphic card for your laptop as these external graphic card are for those laptop only that have an integrated graphics....if a laptop already have a dedicated graphics than what's the use for this graphic card

 

[jk47]

Well, I'm going to chime in and say I recently was out of a card, and tried a number of modern games - most were entirely unplayable on Ivy Bridge integrated graphics.

Starcraft 2 would run on all lowest settings, but with painfully low FPS

 

[jk47]

Well, I'm going to chime in and say I recently was out of a card, and tried a number of modern games - most were entirely unplayable on Ivy Bridge integrated graphics.

Starcraft 2 would run on all lowest settings, but with painfully low FPS

Which version of the HD Graphics do you have? If you are on a Desktop and it is Intel HD Graphics 2500 it may be a bit slower than its laptop counterparts - Intel HD 3000 and Intel HD 4000. It's very important to play on a reasonable resolution, too. For example my laptop with i3 2310m CPU and Intel HD Graphics 3000 runs Diablo 3 on 1280x720 and low settings at 50 FPS, which is perfectly fine and smooth.

I had played on HD 4000, while my graphics card was away on RMA. Im aware certain things can be playable at low settings and low resolutions, but that level of performance takes away the fun of PC gaming.. you'd get far more out of today's 7-8 year old gaming consoles. Or even a $100 graphics card today.

Anyways I just chimed in because I saw your comment that integrated graphics are good, and I strongly disagree. But as I said, it's all about opinion/perspective anyways. Those who are accustomed to and expect cutting edge video quality will have a hard time with integrated graphics.

 

[Xavier Tan Sync]

Intel HD graphics is really poor for gaming, it is use for watching video , editing and so on. So go get a good gaming laptop or gaming desktop to game deal with it.

 

[greedisgood00]

I currently playing sc2 and D3 with Intel(R) HD Graphics Family on my 3 years old laptop.
I set all settings to low, cannot handle med/high settings...
Sometime gettin too high temperature and will auto shut down, mayb it's bcoz dust problem inside my laptop.

Video Card Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Manufacturer Intel
Chipset Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Dedicated Memory 64 MB
Total Memory 1.7 GB
Pixel Shader Version 4.1
Vertex Shader Version 4.1
Hardware T & L Yes
Vendor ID 8086
Device ID 0116
Plug and Play ID VEN_8086&DEV_0116&SUBSYS_21ED17AA&REV_09
Driver Version 8.15.10.2401
Memory 5.0 GB

 

[anwarshaik]

This is an old thread, but its main question is still unanswered, so I'm going to answer just in case someone else gets on it, too:

Yes, Intel HD Graphics are good for gaming (not as good as mid and high class dedicated graphics, of course), they can even run most of the new games, as long as you play on low settings and reasonable screen resolution. You can improve Intel HD Graphics performance even more, here's a list of the methods I have found to work best:

4 Ways to Improve Intel HD Graphics Performance

can i play fifa 13 or la noir on intel hd graphics?

 

[WhiteSnake91]

I could play any game on low 720p settings which was fine for me until I waited a month to get my gpu. Looked about the same as xbox 360 graphics lol. Basically any game can be played on 720p low on hd4000 graphics, I wouldn't go any lower than that though.


Supposedly haswell integrated graphics could play stuff on 1080p low pretty well.

compared to a gpu it's garbage,but, if you're not picky it'll do

 

[nipunmaster]

A little off topic, but some people buying new desktop core i5 or i7 processors are experiencing problems in playing games, even though they have latest high end graphic cards. The problem is that the Intel hd graphics is being used for gpu processing taks instead of the pcie graphic card. The solution is to disable the Intel hd graphics from the bios, and select the dedicated graphic card as the main gpu, by doing this the windows experience index on my friend's computer increased to 5.0 from 4.3. Step by step instructions can be found here:
http://virtual-lexicon.blogspot.in/2014/03/improve-gaming-performance-fps-intel-bios.html

 

[Guest]

u could play it at med settings.....

 

[Shadow the hedgehog]

Intel HD graphics isn't for gaming this graphic card can't play Sonic generations . Need for speed .Minecraft .Sonic unleased .
Xtreme Rally . Far cry . Grand theft auto IV 4 -5 and driver san francisco
You can play Small game like Midtown madness. Need for speed hot pursuit .Megaman x8 .mega man legends 1-2. any classic games .
Grand theft auto 3. Grand theft auto vice city. Small problem with Grand theft auto San andress. Pink Panther.Ballance. Zuma . Luxor 1-2-3-4.
Choose gaming card like ATI and NVIDIA also best NVIDIA CARD is NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX series

 

[cpubuilder]

my thinkpad with intel hd 5000 graphics runs minecraft pretty well, at least 30 FPS, just keep antistrophic filtering off

 

[Shadow the hedgehog]

my thinkpad with intel hd 5000 graphics runs minecraft pretty well, at least 30 FPS, just keep antistrophic filtering off

 

[Shadow the hedgehog]

my thinkpad with intel hd 5000 graphics runs minecraft pretty well, at least 30 FPS, just keep antistrophic filtering off

Yes intel hd 3000,4000 and 5000 good for gaming