Looking at one tier with two options (Fair), both motherboards have the VGA out, but one CPU specifies no onboard graphics, and the other has it. By the way, although I'm not 100% certain, I believe the P suffix on the processor number indicates the lack of an on-chip graphics coprocessor.įirst off, I haven't built a 'custom' system from scratch in quite a while, and I'm not building a system for gaming.īut I'm looking at http:/ Opens a new window / and, while their matrix is geared to gaming, I'm trying to use their recommendations for the rest of the components. I'm not familiar with AMD's processor line-up enough to know if all their processors include the graphics coprocessor onboard now, but with one exception, the Core i5-3350P, it looks like all of Intel's current processors include the on-chip coprocessor. This meant that if you bought one of those processors, you had to add an external graphics card even if the motherboard included the port because that port was only connected to the processor's onboard graphics which of course, didn't exist.

For instance, some of the high-end 2nd generation Core i7 ( Opens a new window) and Core i7 Extreme ( Opens a new window) processors didn't include a graphics coprocessor on the processor chip. Something to consider might be that even if you have a VGA port on the motherboard, you still might not have video.

Intel onboard graphics