Is this graphics card enough?

[Maa Kuu]

Hello,

I'm planning to buy a new laptop, preferably a refurbished one. I've used Lenovo Thinkpads for a long time, and plan to stick with them, if possible.

Photography in SL is something I'd like to focus on, and I would need a laptop with a suitable graphics card so that I can use all the advanced shaders etc. I'm using Firestorm.

I'm looking at used Thinkpad X250 or X260. They have

Intel® HD Graphics 5500

or 

Intel^® HD Graphics 520,

respectively. 

Are these graphics cards enough for Firestorm and all the advanced options?

If not, I have the possibility to get a new Thinkpad, E495 that has

integrated AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics. 

That certainly should be enough for SL, or?

thanks for your help

Edited August 14, 2020 by Maa Kuu
spelling errors

[Lillith Hapmouche]

None of the mentioned ones are a dedicated GPU. They are all integrated graphics, so more or less part of the CPU.
In short: they will quite likely run SL. But you can scratch off the "all advanced options" part.

The worst should be the low-end 5500. The 520 as its successor seems to strongly depend on the CPU and RAM performance its paired with.

The specific Thinkpad E495 is known as a cheapskirt solution of Lenovo, just to have a Ryzen laptop at the time of release. It comes with a built-in, annoying power limit, and has less than ideal RAM configuration, which severely limits the graphic unit.
In comparison, Notebookcheck suggests to look for a Thinkpad E490 with a real card, a Radeon RX 550x. No idea if that's within your unnamed budget.

But a Thinkpad is generally no gaming rig for shiny graphical fanciness. It always was and probably always will be an office allrounder.

By the "refurbished" comment, I assume that the budget is limited? No chances for a decent desktop? The link in my signature shows a rough guideline for new parts suitable for budget solutions. Well, depending on the budget limits, of course.

[Maa Kuu]

Thanks for your informative answer. Yes the budget is limited, and I need to rethink this. Thinkpads are def not gaming laptops, but for me they have been reliable all-rounders. I now use a X201 for SL.

[Nalates Urriah]

Intel's HD Graphics and UHD Graphics will run games. But not well. The system is designed for streaming media. Think movies.

A quick way to figure out which HD Graphics is new and better is to look at the CPU. A i3, i5, or i7 comes in generations, 1 to 11. Each generation has a better graphics engine. You can tell which generation by the chip designator, i5-6600k. This shows it is the i5, a mid-performance model often considered as giving the best price-performance ratio for gaming. The 6600 tells more about the chip with the leading 6 being the generation designator, so 6th gen. The 'k' suffix tells us it can be overclocked.

With even the best UHD Graphics you'll likely run SL on a Medium or Medium-High setting. Above that and you'll likely pull frame rates into the single digit range.

[Maa Kuu]

Hey thanks! Much appreciated