920xm ES and intel hd graphics?

I have a laptop with an hm55 mb, intel hd graphics. I was planning on purchasing an ES 920xm but see some of the vendors note that a discrete graphics card is required. I could not find any similar info online nor at Intel ... the CPU should be compatible with the hm55 and I was under the impression the HM55 did not even permit a discrete GPU. Are the vendors correct or is this a mistake? Thanks

 

There is no integrated graphics in the 920XM.

If you have no GPU, it won't boot.

 

Your best CPU upgrade options are i7-620M or i7-640M. Both are dual cores, both have integrated GPU, and both run at relatively high clocks.

 

I thought the HM55 chipset had integrated graphics (and did not support a discrete graphics card) -- I am not understanding why is the 920xm listed by Intel as compatible with hm55? What am I missing?

 

HM55 is only that, the chipset. The IGP on all core i CPUs is integrated on the CPU. For the first gen core i, the i7s do not have the IGP so you need a dedicated GPU regardless of your chipset and hm 55 definitely supports dGPUs.

The desktop P67 chipset doesn't support the IGP though, but i'm not aware of a similar case for laptop chipsets for either arrandale/clarksfield or sandy bridge.

 

Nowadays integrated graphics is built-in the CPU, not in the chipset, both AMD and Intel wise.

My laptop has HM55 chipset, yet it comes with a discrete GPU. What is more, it doesn't support integrated graphics, even if I put a CPU with integrated GPU in it. This option is disabled in BIOS.