Gaming laptops forum: Intel Graphics vs. ATI vs. NVIDIA

I am a student too, and I just bought a notebook. My biggest priority was portability, so I bought the Dell 700m. It is a 4 lb light weight laptop, and uses intel built in graphics. I mostly used my laptop for internet, but I have also used it for things like 3d modeling. The graphics card can handle CAD programs like solidworks with relative ease (however, realtime shading can bog things down a bit). Before this system, I had an old Dell desktop with an ATI 8500LE graphics card. Now for things like burning dvds or backing up data, the most important things are processor and hard disk speed. Graphics come into play when you need rendered graphics (like 3d modeling or video games). The most intensive game I ran on this laptop was GTA3, which worked OK untill I put resolution up all the way. The biggest differences between regular video cards and intel cards is not just memory, but built in features for rendering specific objects (like smoke) and powerful graphics processors which are neccessary for advanced games (you will never run Battlefield 2 or Doom 3 on intel graphics). If you have a little extra cash, I suggest you look at the Asus w3v (http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=5&l2=61&l3=0&model=600&modelmenu=1),
which has an ati card but is still around 5.5 lb. However, if you do not think you will ever want to play cutting-edge games, then there is nothing wrong with intel graphics. (btw, although adding a lot of memory will greatly improve overall system performance, it will not bring intel graphics to the ati or nvidia level.)