Do I need a Graphic Card?

[codingman]

Hi friends,
I own a Dell Inspiron 14 inch laptop with 1GB ATI Radeon 5xxx series graphic card.

I want to buy a new laptop and I have certain queries regarding graphic cards.
I don't play games(puzzles only) and don't do video editing. Mostly I do development work (android development, web development), access internet, watch movies, songs and normal stuffs.

Recently I found issue with Kubuntu 12.04 that if I don't install graphics driver my system gets heated up, it was no big deal and I installed ATI driver by this tutorial.
Again when I tried to use same method in 12.10 I faced lot of issues, so right now I am using 12.04.2 only.

This made me think, whether I really need a graphic card or not? Till now the laptops I am considering are:
Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 and Dell XPS. (I really like Lenovo one, it is pretty powerful)
Lenovo is supplied with Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000s and Dell XPS is with some NVidia card (I heard that Nvidia doesn't support graphcis on linux very well).

Also what is the difference between two graphics cards I mentioned above? Are they just two graphics card from different vendors, or there is something more difference?

The graphics on them are totally different, Intel having an integrated chip in the CPU for graphics, and NVIDIA making a separate chip for graphics. The Intel one is much slower and makes the CPU heat up more, causing more load. The NVIDIA one, however, most probably has a faster clock and more cores, as well as not heating up as much. By the way, NVIDIA graphics cards work perfectly fine with linux, I have had a NVIDIA GeForce MX 2, GeForce 7600 GT, GeForce 560M, GeForce 550 TI, and a Quadro 2000 all work perfectly fine on Linux. I agree that if you don't really need to take the computer around much, then I would stick to a desktop or build.

[nwalkey]

The Intel one is much slower and makes the CPU heat up more, causing more load. The NVIDIA one, however, most probably has a faster clock and more cores, as well as not heating up as much.

A dedicated card + the same cpu will usually generate more heat inside of a laptop because there is more capability to generate heat in that small space.

[Yellow Pasque]

by the sentence that comes before, it seems that the laptop does have a graphics card, so why the unhappy emoticon?

..because the OP would rather not pay for a discrete card since the integrated Intel HD4000 meets his/her needs.

[c2tarun]

Wait a minute, what do you mean by, "I don't think I'll get any powerful laptop without graphic card"? Judging by the sentence that comes before, it seems that the laptop does have a graphics card, so why the unhappy emoticon?

Because I don't want graphic card

[mastablasta]

What do you mean by tool?

before in 12.04 the tool was called jockey. now it's additional drivers i think. and it is in software sources in software center.
for example in 12.10: http://itsfoss.com/how-to-install-ad...-10-quick-tip/

OK, I took your advice and started looking into Desktop-all-in-one's and...

if you go with desktop you can probably assemble one yourself a lot cheaper or with better components for the same money. and get a propper graphics card that is fully supported in linux.

btw all in one's are expencive and probably not worth it unless you are short for space or have extra cash lying arround. also if you have some frequent power cuts then maybe notebook is not a bad idea afterall or to get a UPS.

[c2tarun]

Hi mastablasta, thanks for reply:

before in 12.04 the tool was called jockey. now it's additional drivers i think. and it is in software sources in software center.
for example in 12.10: http://itsfoss.com/how-to-install-ad...-10-quick-tip/

I downloaded driver from ATI site and installed it and till now everything is fine as far as performance is considered. But recently I read somewhere that what I did is a bad idea and later at some security update it may break. I am pretty busy till 14th march and I planned to remove the driver I installed (don't know how) and install the one listed in jockey.

12.10 was way too heavy for my laptop, don't know why but my CPU temperature never comes down below 65 degrees and that is when I leave it idle. If I do some browsing then in case I use firefox and opera temperature increases till 70-75 degrees, if I use google chrome temperature rises till 85 and sometimes over 90 degrees, I have to shut it down then. All the time I have to switch on my laptop cooler.

I somehow figured out that this is because of the graphic card, so in my new machine I planned to go for an integrated card, also it'll save some money for me.

In my laptop I have i3 processor with 3GB RAM and mostly left side of my palm rest gets heated up.

if you go with desktop you can probably assemble one yourself a lot cheaper or with better components for the same money. and get a propper graphics card that is fully supported in linux.

btw all in one's are expencive and probably not worth it unless you are short for space or have extra cash lying arround. also if you have some frequent power cuts then maybe notebook is not a bad idea afterall or to get a UPS.

Between desktops and All in ones I am little bit confused. All in ones look pretty nice and decent but yeah you are right they are bit costly. Buying UPS is ok, they are not that costly around here. I haven't considered assembling a Desktop for me it seems to be a good idea and I will definitely save money by not buying Win8. Do you have some guide or tutorial where I can get some idea about assembling?

[mastablasta]

i see yesterday HP launched a nice All in one and relatively cheap ubuntu preloaded. no strong CPU though.

the overheating also depends on how the laptop is put together. for example i read that Acer with same CPU than mine was overheating. but i have HP and this model runs very cool. at best it gets a big warm underneath. so it's not just about CPU. but the way the air is circulating in the box and how good the fans are.

also in linux sometimes drivers are not really good and they (or rather GPU) cause the overheating or fans to go wild.

i think i3 or maybe i5 would be a good choice.

[Bucky Ball]

Do you have some guide or tutorial where I can get some idea about assembling?

There is a link in my signature which might give you some ideas. It is a little dated but the principals remain the same. It doesn't go into the actually 'assembly' - i.e. plugging it all together - but you should be able to work that out from the motherboard manual and any other manuals for the hardware you get. There is also a lot of info in cyberspace about building desktops. Good luck.

[c2tarun]

There is a link in my signature which might give you some ideas. It is a little dated but the principals remain the same. It doesn't go into the actually 'assembly' - i.e. plugging it all together - but you should be able to work that out from the motherboard manual and any other manuals for the hardware you get. There is also a lot of info in cyberspace about building desktops. Good luck.

Thanks for the link, its a good place to start.