1520 video card?

I am about to order a 1520 and am trying to decide whether or not to select a video card. I am mostly going to be using the computer just for internet and word processing and occasional DVD watching. I will rarely, if ever, be doing gaming. I have heard vista works better with a video card but will I notice a diference? My concern with the video card is not the price but rather its effect on battery life. I don't want another comonent that will draw power and sacrafice battery life if it will not increase performace.

 

If you are only going to use it for only word processing and internet you should be fine, but the aero interface will use memory from the graphics card, so instead of a integrated graphics you might want to pony up an extra $100 for some dedicated memory.

It should not drain to much on the battery.

Hope this helps,

 

Aero will work just fine with most current integrated graphics chips including the GMA 950 and the newer x3100. Yes, it uses a little bit of the system memory, but buying a dedicated card to avoid this is just silly! For the price of a dedicated card that would save 50-100 mb of system memory, you could buy a whole extra gigabyte of system memory!

And yes, dedicated graphics does drain the battery significantly faster than an integrated graphics chip.

So, unless you're gaming, just stick with integrated.

 

Be aware some games require a dedicated video card, no matter how good the card actually is. This is the case on my Titan Quest game, it will not boot up even if you have the best integrated video card. It will boot up on a cruddy dedicated though.

 

Thanks for your help

 

I would get the 1420 if you are a very casual gamer. Why get a 1520 unless you want the 8600GT. Its a bit smaller and lighter, and I think its a bit cheaper overall then a 1520.

 

Ummm... some people prefer a larger screen.

It depends how much portability you need though.