Does the Intel graphics chipset handle 3D well, or does it let the processor do the 3D job instead?
I was using a Macbook with Intel graphics, and Restaurant City on Facebook was quite smooth. Today I went to BestBuy to see the new Macbook with nVidia GeForce 9400M, and Restaurant City on it felt a little less smooth. Of course it might be due to the machine being on for many hours and many people using it over the course of that time, leaving the machine in a less-than-clean state.
Best Answer
On-board graphics acceleration is always going to be outperformed by dedicated hardware. The main reason is that the dedicated GPU will have its own memory and not have to share main memory with the CPU. The GPU will generally be faster as well.