Intel's HD Graphics 3000

Hello Fellow Civ Fans,

I am currently looking at picking up a HP laptop computer. I am looking at the i7 Core Chip and it has 8 gigs Ram with 1tb hard drive. I am not worried about the above but what is new to me is that rather than a Radeon or AMD or NVidia video card / chip the laptop comes with Intel's HD Graphics 3000.

I currently have a ATI Radeon HD 4600 for graphics with a i7 chip...2 years old. I am primarily only a Civ IV and Civ V game player want to know from the hard core Civ Fans how does the Intel HD 3000 would compare or if anyone has this with their pc or laptop and how does it far with other video cards etc. I have been told in the past when posting similar questions that Civ does not take up or use a whole lot of video? or demands a lot from the computer to operate at high intense levels. If that makes any sense?

Any Pro or Con feedback would be great.

Thanks

Brew God

Moderator Action: Moved to tech support

That is the Intel graphics chip that is integrated directly on the processor die. It isn't meant for any kind of gaming at all. I haven't used it, I'm not an expert at all, but if I recall correctly they can barely run world of warcraft at medium settings. CiV might be processor-bottle-necked on any respectable gaming PC, but I would be really surprised if it ran well on integrated (non-gaming intended) graphics. I have read that the graphics part you are talking about is awesome for standard desktop or HTPC use, but they are tuned for video decoding rather than games. I could be wrong, maybe someone around here has tried.

I have a laptop with a Core i5 2520M processor, including the Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated graphics, paired with 8 GB (4GB x 2) of RAM. It is capable of playing Civ V on the lowest graphics settings using the laptop's built-in 1366x768 display.

If your laptop has a display with a higher resolution than 1366x768, I suspect that Civ V will be unplayable.

Civ V works fairly well for me even though my laptop is below the required specs. Scrolling around the map can be a bit choppy, and there are some long waits between turns, especially in the late game. The game runs extremely well using "strategic view" which shows only the simple map, but of course that's not the best Civ V experience.

I haven't played Civ IV on this laptop, but I suspect it could handle that game quite well, with "medium" or maybe even "high" graphics settings.

Best of luck with your new system.

Civ V runs fine on the Intel HD 3000 at mid settings @ 1366x786. Higher res will require low settings.

I have:-

Intel i5 2410M
6GB Memory
Intel HD 3000
Win 7 64bit

According to FRAPS in Civ V with everything set to mid I get a steady 25 - 30 FPS. For a tbs that is very playable.

The Intel HD 3000 is suprisingly good considering what previously came from Intel. It is the first graphics solution to be directly placed on to the CPU, and is allowed to use the same memory caches as the CPU. This has also decreased memory latency. The other key thing about the Intel HD 3000 is it has turbo boost and operates at a much higher clock than other GPUs. The let down is in driver support.

This means however that it is roughly equal to a 2010 discreet entry level GPU. It will play most games out now at low settings (first person shooters will be a struggle mind).

I can play at reasonable FPS @ 1366x768:

Civ V (mid settings)
Star Wars: The Old Republic (mid settings)
Shogun 2: Total War (low settings)
EVE (mid settings)

Edit: I used to play WoW at mid settings. Turns do get slow towards end game in Civ V, but I dont think that is a graphics issue.

I just bought a new Laptop before Xmas; an Acer Aspire AS5755G-9417- 15" Laptop. I Don't know your budget, but this one was about $1000.00 and runs Civ5 like a champ. I sometimes plug it into my 4 Yr Old 1080p 24hz Sharp Aquos and it runs it on high-medium graphics on the T.Vs full spec like nothing. The GPU on this Laptop if anything may be Overkill though, its a Nvidia GT540m with 2gb dedicated video Ram. I'd highly recommend this unit to anyone looking though, its super quiet, has good graphic, though the Screen is only 720p, 1TB HDD, i7 quad core with turbo boost.

Hello Fellow Civ Fans,

Would the following video card be better than the Intel HD 3000:

1GB AMD Radeon™7470 GDDR5 Discrete Graphics.

Any feed back would be great. Here at least you have a dedicated 1 GB of video for Civ.

Brew God

Not enough difference to be worth it, if any difference at all ...
The worthwhile stuff starts with HD 6670 and GT 440 GDDR5, unless you are struck with a 200W PSU.