http://www.techradar.com/news/computing ... ant-707683

GPUs have been a bit ridiculous for a while IMO, but I think it'll be even longer before anything gets done about it...

While I agree that what I call "gaming cards" are an irrelevance to most people, I have no idea where he's coming from with the talk of UD.

"The algorithm takes point cloud data and files it in a certain way so that it can be quickly sorted and accessed... We only grab the atoms we need for each pixel... Thus, an impression of unlimited geometry is created."

"Point cloud atomic sort algorithm" sounds like mumbo-jumbo to me, but I guess time will tell. Basically, I'll believe it if I see it!

I don't see why they're pointless, I even prefer laptops with discrete graphics chips - the performance is second-to-none.

No one said they're pointless, but cards such as the GTX480 are an irrelevance to the vast majority of computer users.

They're most definitely a "specialist" product. The newer on-board graphics sets are more than capable enough for most people. Even for most addicted gamers, the serious cards are just too expensive.

It depends what your "game" is. If you're playing Peggle then sure, but don't expect to get very far on Battlefield/HL2/Bioshock et al with "Intel HD" or "Intel GMA" graphics.

The only reason, IMO, graphics chips are under-utilised is because no-one codes for them. They are far more suitable (not to mention faster) than CPUs for some tasks, and yet coders STILL insist on bogging the CPU down with unnecessary work (I'm looking at you, Adobe and Flash 10.1).

With that said, I'm still playing the latest games on an HD4870, so have no reason to upgrade yet.

That's not what I meant when I said "newer".

I was primarily thinking of ION, which is very much superior to the previous generations of on-board graphics. Most people are happy with 1080p video, and it manages playable frame rates in CoD4 and WoW for the occasional gamer.

Remember, well over half of computer users will never play a game more graphically demanding than Farmville.

The next PC I build will just have my old 8800GT or perhaps a low end current GPU, I find the only game I play nowadays is Football Manager. I would rather spend the extra £200 saving on a better CPU and more RAM.

I don't notice any performance problems on my work laptop (Toshiba Tecra C2D with Intel HD4500 graphics, the Core i3 and i5 models we now buy, with GPU on the CPU are even better). My personal laptop is a Core i7 with nVidia GT330M, to be honest, I don't think I've needed any of its abilities, over what the HD4500 can do...

My laptop's 2-year-old midrange GPU (ATI HD2600) handles most recent games at high settings, and my year-old midrange GPU handles every game I have at maximum detail (ATI HD4650, £46 + 3rd pty passive cooler).

Upgrading anything would only serve to hike up the power bills and make the room warmer and louder!

each to their own. as a gamer, id hate to imagine what would happen to my frame rate if i played on a system with integrated graphics, but that doesnt matter for the internet and music crowd

my system is looking a little under-powered recently as it is

Integrated against my Asus 3870x2
which still does Crysis with no problems

Just waiting for Crysis 2
to see if it will cope with that

so till a integrated thingie can cope with with that

I'm still on my ATi Radeon 9600XT

It works.

But you are in about 2% of the market that needs something more than integrated graphics...

At work, we have around 80 computers, 3 have video cards and they need them, because their on-board chipsets are too old and can't drive a 22" 16:10 monitor...

Driving a 1080P screen for everything from movies to gaming which I wouldn't want to attempt on integrated graphics, my HD4850 still just about holds its own

I was dual-heading my Toshiba laptop (1680x1050 internal, 1080p external) with an HD video running on the external 1080p monitor, while I was browsing and editing documents on the internal display, no problems with the Intel HD chipset.

Gaming is something else, but it is a very small market. They will always need a decent graphics card, because this 2% of the market needs 99% more power than the rest of the market generally needs in day-to-day use. The GT330M on my Sony Vaio is overkill and negatively affects battery life, but I had to accept that, because the rest of the spec wasn't available with an integrated graphics chipset.