Thinkpads Forum

Good Afternoon,

I'm looking at the Thinkpad T61 and wanted thoughts about the 15" integrated graphics with the Intel GMA X311 and the 15" Discrete Graphics NVIDIA Quadro. I'm not sure what the difference is and whether I need the higher cost "discrete" version.

3 yrs ago I bought a top of the line Dell Latitude D800 with all the bells and whistles. I do a lot of web site design for my non profits and play with photoshop (not a professional). I am NOT a gamer, but want a good graphic quailty for images.

Thanks

Welcome to the forum!

The video chip will not affect the quality of the display. It only affects how quickly the images are generated. Unless you're talking 3D, which you seem not to be, and the discrete graphics option would have much better 3D performance, and also take more power, shortening useful battery endurance.

Thanks. I have a T60 (work laptop) and it has a ATI Mobility and the graphic quality is great, but its not available on the T61.

I don't do any 3d rendering nothing more than photos and designing some web graphics with photoshop.

well as they said, the discrete graphics are for gamers or serious CAD work. Your normal Intel card will be more than fine for what you want as the LCD makes the difference in color reproduction, not the chip so much