Does My Office Rig Need Dedicated Graphics?

[thismafiaguy]

I'm looking for a graphics card for an office rig used mainly for Quickbooks and browsing. The motherboard has integrated Radeon HD 4200 graphics, but I sometimes wonder how good that chip really is. The rig will not be used for any gaming. Do you think it would benefit from dedicated graphics?

 

[Supernova1138]

If all you are doing is office work, you don't need to buy a dedicated graphics card, the integrated is adequate for web browsing and office applications.

You only really would need to look at a dedicated graphics card for that machine if you wanted to play HD video smoothly, do anything that requires 3D graphics rendering, or run more than 2 displays.

 

[thismafiaguy]

Ah, there I was just wondering about HD video playback. I have noticed some hiccups during videos. To what extent do you think the HD 4200 chipset can handle? And if I was to get a small dedicated graphics card, which one would you recommend?

 

[Supernova1138]

The 4200 can handle standard definition playback fine, but might struggle a bit with HD. Fortunately, HD playback is not a very GPU intensive task, and even a really cheap video card like a Radeon HD 6450 or a GeForce 610 would be adequate for that task. Keep in mind that if your office computer is a small form factor system, eg. a slimline case, you will have to look for a low profile video card.