In general, do laptops need dedicated graphics? Or are there other more important features?

[RenaKry]

I would like to preface this by saying that everyone's needs are different and that some people may need a laptop with better specs than others. But judging by what is common or mainstream in the laptop market, would it be fair to say that dedicated graphics is largely unnecessary? I currently have a laptop with 940M graphics, and while that is not necessarily anything impressive (it can run Fortnite, but so can Intel integrated graphics), it can safely fit inside a reasonably thin mainstream laptop and have adequate cooling, minus the power throttling on battery, but I digress. For a practical laptop, such as something you can take with you in a bag that doesn't take up massive amounts of bag space and/or isn't so heavy that it's uncomfortable, for that market, and I am overly generalizing here, is it within many shoppers' interests that a laptop contains some sort of dedicated graphics? I've read that some people, particularly students, take advantage of dedicated graphics when doing CAD, but assuming that the average buyer of a laptop computer isn't messing with 3D for work or school, are other features such as display and audio quality or touchscreen or the ability to fold backwards into a tablet more important to the average user than dedicated graphics alone? 

 

tl;dr, would you rather have dedicated graphics (MX150) or some other feature, such as a convertible touchscreen laptop if you cannot have both? and what are your needs for a portable computer, for context?

 

extra: if you want a convertible laptop for pen support, do you insist on getting one with pen pressure sensitivity? I know I do.

[PlayStation 2]

I'd argue that there's far more important features on a laptop than a dedicated GPU for the majority of users. Personally? I'd rather have a Ryzen 5-based laptop with an SSD and a 1080p screen than something with an MX150, mainly because what I'd play on that laptop would literally only be TF2. An SSD to me is far more beneficial than a dedicated GPU.

[GoldenLag]

Decent rez 3:2 aspect ratio screen with touch is more important than a dedicated GPU

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

I would take a minimum 1080P display, SSD, and more RAM (it's pretty to reach 8GB RAM usage these days) over a dedicated GPU any day. Heck I would recommend a quad core over a dedicated GPU even if most people will be served fine with a dual core. As much performance can be had in a laptop with dedicated graphics, I don't find even a 17" display is enough for me to even have a decent gaming experience. Everything in game ends up being too small to even see. Which is why I gave up doing anything that is more than a casual L4D2 match on my laptop. It's just too frustrating with such a small display to play anything that's slightly competitive like a proper FPS. 

[vanished]

I'd say it's absolutely necessary if, but only if, you play games and/or do other work that uses the GPU.  So with that in mind this questions shifts to "how many people play games?".  I'm sure those numbers are available somewhere but I couldn't really hazard a guess.  My gut tells me that it's the minority, but idk for sure.

[handymanshandle]

31 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

I'd argue that there's far more important features on a laptop than a dedicated GPU for the majority of users. Personally? I'd rather have a Ryzen 5-based laptop with an SSD and a 1080p screen than something with an MX150, mainly because what I'd play on that laptop would literally only be TF2. An SSD to me is far more beneficial than a dedicated GPU.

and to add for a lot of people who already play games. They're gonna have a decent desktop so a really high spec laptop generally isnt all that necessary.

 

 

Now I just wished there were more 13-14" Ryzen 5 laptops, I'm finding mostly 15" ones.

[genexis_x]

10 hours ago, nelsonpong said:

would it be fair to say that dedicated graphics is largely unnecessary?

Depends on usage