Question about video card for laptop

[MidwestTransplant]

I am buying a laptop and wondering if I should get a video card that is a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 TurboCache or Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950.

I use mostly for work related and recreation. Don't play many games on it but do watch a lot of movies. Also, does the NVIDIA card use more battery?

Thanks in advance

[LSK]

1. go with the NVIDIA

If you watch videos, you will want it. Movie encoding (DIVX) keeps getting more processor intensive and you dont want to be kicking yourself a year from now.

Also, see if you can find a M processor laptop and save a few bucks.

[Nickster]

2. Ditto on the NVIDIA. n/t

[frylock]

3. do not use the integrated graphics..

you'll need to increase your RAM otherwise. I'd buy the unit with nVidia2Go.

[meldroc]

4. NVidia is much, much faster.

It has its own dedicated memory, while the Intel steals some of the laptop's main memory, and has to share the memory bus with the CPU, which makes things very slow.

The NVidia will eat up a little bit of battery life, but personally, I can live with that. Certainly if you want to play games, go with the NVidia. The NVidia will also make movie-watching better - the GPU is faster at scaling movie images to full screen & such.

[MidwestTransplant]

5. Thanks all. Got NVIDIA!