What graphics card is necessary for Windows Aero Interface?

My dad has a small business and he's assigned me the task of replacing his old office computers with new ones.

I was planning on buying them from Dell since they seem to be the cheapest there.

My budget is around $500 per computer and that includes the monitor (less if at all possible). I tried building one on HP's website but they are pretty expensive when compared to Dell due to all the bells and whistles which my dad doesn't need for his office.

Anyways as I was building a computer on Dell's website I noticed something when I got to the graphics card section. Dell recommends, "a 256 MB" discrete graphics card in order for Windows Aero to run well. My question is will an integrated card work just fine and give him a decent WEI score? What about a 128 MB graphics card?

 

Any graphics card on a new computer will be able to run Aero.

 

discrete graphics will usually always perform better than intergrated graphics

i just ordered a dell xps with a 8400m gt 128 mb and will be using aero with it

 

I am using 'forced' Aero with a GMA 950. No lag/bugginess etc

 

CassilineKnight the best thing you can do is ignore WEI. Why DeLL makes that particular GPU recommendation I am not sure? Sounds profit driven.

 

Aero runs fine on my Intel x3100 integrated graphics.

But, as Lithus said, pretty much anything sold today should run it fine.

 

Yup, all current computers are fine with it. Intel, nVidia, and ATI cards are all fine.

Just avoid the others (SIS, Mirage) assuming you even see them. They'll probably run Aero, but they are horrible cards not worth their weight in silicon.

 

Are you talking about a desktop? Either way, any video card on a new computer will be able to run Aero.

 

You should focus on Getting like Core2 duo processors and around 2gb Ram the Graphics card can be really low performance basically anything can run aero built in the last 5 years, nothing worse than working with slow computers.

 

Does your dad want Vista + eye candy for the office computers? You might find that XP is the preferred software.

John

 

Thanks for all the feedback.

My knows nothing about computers...well basically nothing. I'm getting Vista cuz it's a good OS in my opinion.

I think what I'll do is order one computer with an Integrated graphics card just to see how it looks. If I like how it performs and looks then I'll go ahead and order 3 more of the exact same config 3 for my dad's office.

Once again thanks for all the opinions.