Notebook Video Cards -- Can You get One?Notebook video cards with dedicated memory are rare in the computers you will see on sale in electronics stores. I looked at about 50 different 15 inch laptop computers for sale in two of the big box electronics stores. Only three (that were not Apple laptop computers) had a laptop video card with its own memory. I counted different colors of the same model as a single laptop. The other laptop computers had graphics accelerators-- laptop video cards that use shared system memory. This type of graphics card can drastically reduce the performance of your computer. If you have an application that is graphic intensive open and you try to do anything else, there won't be enough system memory left to run the other application (program). At Dell USA, you can't get anything other than the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator in a 14 or 15 inch Inspiron laptop computer. In the more expensive models of the Studio 15, you can get a lower end video card. With the XPS laptops, you start there and can upgrade. The HP website will let you upgrade to laptop video cards with dedicated memory in any of the Pavillion laptops, other than "Special Edition" models. Apple laptops are basically all upper level computers so you would expect better components in them. Their price reflects these better parts-- including better laptop video cards. return to laptop-computers-wiz homepage
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