For gaming, does a laptop for instance NEED to have a graphics card?

Or to play most games would the integrated graphics card work or is a nvidia graphics card needed...? I'm not talking super graphics games, but my biggest graphics game is Civ4 and of course new games that will come out in the future, any suggestions?

For gaming, does a laptop for instance NEED to have a graphics card?

Civ4 can run on integerated graphics, but a real video card would definatly help. And if that's your most graphically intensive game, you can run all your games without a graphics card. However, you're absolutly definatly going to need 2GB RAM if you are going to want to have ANY reasonably, sort-of, decent performance on above dual-sized maps. Espicially with Vista.

For gaming, does a laptop for instance NEED to have a graphics card?

each game is different.. best to check the requirements of the games you want to play..but yes, good graphics games usually require a decent graphics card. even movie editing....so it won't hurt.

For gaming, does a laptop for instance NEED to have a graphics card?

Yes you will need a dedicated graphics card. You most likely will be getting vista. I would wait till computer manufacturer's start offering direct x 10 graphics cards for laptops. Keep in mind that laptops are more expensive than desktops because of the size. Small equals more money.

For gaming, does a laptop for instance NEED to have a graphics card?

Usually the built in graphics card on a motherboard is only good enough to play Minesweeper. You definately should get a new graphics card if you want to play any "new games that will come out in the future". Hope that helps

For gaming, does a laptop for instance NEED to have a graphics card?

Yes, you need to have a graphics card in order to see the graphics from the video game. All video games have minimum system requirements, they will tell you what type of graphics card is needed.