What kind of graphics card do I need for 3D programming?

Does a onboard integrated graphics card works? For example Intel® GMA 4500MHD, it support DX 10 and shader 4.0. Dose this works for me to finish the study? Or I must get one with a dedicated card? Could you give me some advice please, thank you.

This is a bit of a "how long is a piece of string question"

You need to seperate up what you are wanting to do, when you say 3d programming are you intending to do games development? movie effects, where "programming" and "3d art" are largelly seperate tasks?

For most "programming" work integrated graphics are fine. For creating 3d models etc it depends on how serious you are. If you are looking to create "movie" effects or professional quality 3d graphics then "workstation" cards like nvidias quattro series are what are needed.

For home study purposes you wouldnt need anything like that serious equipment. However I would probably still recommend an "gaming" level dedicated graphics card. However even that is dependant upon what type, how much and what quality work you are looking to turn out.

You could handle basic 3d modelling for home made mods for games on really quite modest hardware.

What "3d programming" are you looking to do what software are you looking to use etc etc?

hi dtq thank you for your help.
I am a student of computer games technology. I am not artist so i do not create 3d models. I just load models from our artist partners. I do programming with visual studio and Direct 9 now and maybe will use Direct 10 in the future. Does an integrated graphics card works for me?

what about this laptop

Processor
AMD Turion RM-72, 2.1GHz

Memory
4096M 800DDR2 2DM

Graphics
Onboard ATI Radeon HD3200