HD-4000

[adgjlsfhk]

I am building a budget gaming pc. My budget is about $450. Will intel graphics HD-4000 be enough? I play civ IV, minecraft, and internet games. Other components are 8 gigs ram, a 450 watt power supply and a 500 gig hard drive.

 

[samuelspark]

Nope. Never use integrated graphics for a gaming computer. Save up some more money like $600 and then make a gaming computer there will be a huge difference.

 

[adgjlsfhk]

What is the cheapest graphics card that I need, then?

 

[samuelspark]

Check this out. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/335764-31-2012-super-budget-build-radeon-6790

 

[adgjlsfhk]

Isn't the better processor of the I5 and extra enough to make up for the lack of an external graphics card?

 

[samuelspark]

Uh nope. That's like saying you should have really fast internet if you have a $500 router and a super cheap service. Most games just need a decent dual core and good graphics cards. Games almost never rely on as much processing power as they rely on graphics power. An i7 at 10GHz won't do you any good if you're using integrated graphics. An i3 with a decent $100 dollar graphics card will always do better.

 

[samuelspark]

Isn't the better processor of the I5 and extra enough to make up for the lack of an external graphics card?

What I'm trying to say is that they are extremely different and you can't "make up" a lack of one in the other.

 

[adgjlsfhk]

I do not do any high end gaming and I have heard that HD3000 is good enough for low end games. HD4000 is suposed to be 60% faster than HD3000, so shouldn't it handle games on low quality?

 

[samuelspark]

What resolution are you looking at? And what games?

 

[adgjlsfhk]

I will be playing Minecraft, CIV IV, various internet games and web browsing

 

[chetorch]

Hey there! I plan on doing the same with my upcoming build, I'll be using the Intel HD4000 to do some light gaming until I'm able to buy a good GPU in the winter.

If you are doing light gaming, I think the HD4000 is ok. The games you listed do not sound too graphically demanding. I'd try them on medium to low settings. You'd definitely want to get a better GPU in order to play the latest and upcoming games at a high setting.

I use YouTube to look at HD4000 tests and it seem to work well with Just Cause 2 (for reference).

 

[polishboy1098]

Not sure about CIV IV but minecraft will be fine, when i got my i 2500k which uses HD 3000 it was great on the highest settings on 1680x1050

 

[adgjlsfhk]

Best answer selected by adgjlsfhk.