Thinkpads Forum

I plan on getting a T430s, but I am still doubting about getting one with an optimus nvidia card, or just the Intel HD4000.

As I am going to be using Linux most of the time, and Optimus is not available on Linux, I would like to know what graphics chipset would use the laptop instead. Is it also a HD4000 or just an old style Intel GMA crap?

Thanks.

Intel graphics would be HD4000, which will work just fine with Linux. Your workload should let you know if you need the discrete card or not. I typically get an integrated card - particularly now that they are on die it also makes for a simpler cooling setup.

A good reason to get nVidia graphics is the quality of the drivers rather than peformance but if that's not an issue (this is, you just use it for basic stuff) I'd stick to integrated graphics. It's more power efficient and doesn't overheat the machine like discrete graphics does.