How do Intel graphics chipsets compare to dedicated graphics cards for 3D performance

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Intel graphics chipsets are inferior to a dedicated card. The Intel chipsets generally offload a lot of the video processing to the CPU, where the discrete cards handle the bulk of it.

There are many many other factors that can contribute to the "smoothness" of Restaurant City, not the least of which is that it is a Flash game. Flash performance is largely dependent on browser version, flash version, full screen vs. windowed, etc etc.