When is integrated graphics enough?

If you’re buying a desktop or laptop computer, you’ll be faced with the option of paying for a dedicated GPU or settling for a GPU that’s integrated into the CPU package. In the past, these “iGPUs” would be good for little more than office work and some light web browsing. But things have changed dramatically from the bad old days.

Now, there’s a pretty good chance that an iGPU will not only meet but comfortably exceed your graphical requirements, and yes, that can even include traditionally “heavy” workloads such as video editing, CAD, and video games.

How are iGPUs different?

The actual GPU part of both an iGPU and dGPU (integrated and dedicated) are the same thing. It’s the same basic technology. However, iGPUs have some important differences when it comes to how they’re integrated with the rest of the system.

First, they are built into the same processor package as the CPU. They share the same pool of RAM instead of having their own dedicated VRAM, and they obviously share the same cooling and total power allocation. As you might expect, iGPUs share the available memory bandwidth with the CPU as well. There are numerous cost, power, and design advantages to this, particularly in mobile systems like laptops where iGPUs allow for a simplified design. However, this also constrains the maximum performance. An iGPU can’t match the performance of dGPUs of its own generation simply because dedicated GPUs generally have access to more space, bandwidth, power, and cooling.

How iGPUs have become better

The thing is, there’s a difference between iGPUs not being as powerful as dGPUs on average, and iGPUs not being powerful enough. As with any computer component, what matters is whether it can serve its purpose.

AMD has been at the forefront of improving its integrated graphics ever since it purchased ATI, the graphics company originally responsible for the Radeon series of GPUs. This culminated in the APU, or Accelerated Processing Unit, which is simply a CPU with a relatively high-performance GPU built in. Since then, Intel has been hard at work to improve its iGPU performance with its Xe and, more recently, the Lunar Lake Arc GPU architecture.

It’s not just x86 CPU makers that are concentrating on this. Arm-based system-on-a-chip products use iGPUs, too. It’s the same basic principle. Mobile GPUs have come up by leaps and bounds, and these days the integrated GPUs found in tablets, phones, and laptops like the Apple Silicon MacBook series are more than capable of handling heavy GPU tasks such as gaming.

With fast modern memory, and much more overall bandwidth to share, the traditional limitations on iGPUs are less of an issue, especially at the intended target resolution and detail settings they are designed for. CPUs and GPUs are becoming more power efficient, which makes it easier to give iGPUs enough power to perform at their full potential or, alternatively, offer good performance on battery power without reducing your runtime to minutes.

Consoles, handheld PCs, and ultrabooks show off the power of iGPUs

All the current major gaming consoles use an integrated GPU design today. As recently as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (and earlier), consoles used separate CPU and GPU packages, each with its own memory and buses. Now, it’s all neatly sewn up in a single package, which means that most of the AAA gaming experiences people are having are run on iGPUs.

Of course, the iGPUs (actually the aforementioned APUs) in modern consoles were designed from the ground up for gaming. Which means cutting some superfluous things, adding bits that help with game performance, and, most importantly, cooling and power much higher than mobile iGPUs can achieve. Likewise, there are no desktop APUs that can compete with a PS5 or Xbox Series X, but there are plenty of desktop APUs that work well enough to obviate the need for a low-end GPU in many cases.

Similarly, powerful ultrabooks (particularly Apple Silicon, but x86 competitors are here too) that are capable of video editing, 3D modeling, and the like use modern iGPUs. Handheld gaming PCs similarly use iGPUs to bring previous generation console performance to handheld devices running full-blown desktop operating systems.

Of course, again, none of these implementations can compete with dGPU solutions, but they show us that dismissing iGPUs automatically doesn’t make sense, when they are capable of doing the job within reasonable expectations.

Figuring out whether you really need a dGPU

The most important thing is not to get hung up on whether a GPU is an iGPU or a dGPU. Instead, focus on whether the performance you’ll get is good enough or not. Benchmark results are the best resource for this, and when you do an internet search for a specific iGPU, you’ll often find many benchmarks that will give you an idea of how it performs.

This decision is easiest on a desktop system, because you always have the option to add a dGPU later, barring mini PCs or other niche desktops that don’t have this option, of course. Even then, with the rise of Thunderbolt and OCuLink connections enabling eGPU connections, there are always options when sitting at a desk.

For laptops that need GPU power on the go, things are a little more complicated. Just as with laptop dGPUs, iGPUs and the CPUs they are paired with can be power-limited by the laptop manufacturer. So it’s important to look at benchmarks and the wattage the laptop will be allowed to use, rather than the maximum performance the iGPU can reach when power and cooling aren’t an issue. Likewise, since the iGPU depends on system memory, having a faster and larger RAM allocation can improve graphics performance. If the system doesn’t have upgradable RAM, you’ll have to make sure you have enough at the outset.

Finally, you need to compare the iGPU you’re considering against a dGPU solution that is within your budget. Is the power, battery life, size, and heat tradeoff worth it for the extra performance? Only you can decide, but if an iGPU can cover your needs after considering all the factors, you can save money, weight, heat, and power by opting for the simpler of the two setups.

You probably don’t need a discrete GPU

Except for hardcore gamers and those working on truly high-end professional workloads that need exceptional GPU power, I think that most people these days are adequately served by modern iGPUs. I’m not suggesting that you should somehow favor an iGPU over a dGPU, but that you should include an iGPU in your considerations based on your use case. If you’re never going to need the performance of a dGPU in your laptop or desktop system, it just makes sense to try the simpler and more affordable solution instead.