Looking into getting a laptop for playing games on and I was curious if integrated graphics are good enough to play WoW TTW, or are designated graphics cards a must have?
I understand the graphic settings would probably be extremely low, but just curious if its even possible or how bad it would be if there wasn’t a designated graphics card.
I played on a laptop with integrated graphics for a while back in BFA and I struggled frequently
Short answer: No
Long answer: There are different integrated graphics solutions and they are not all equal. Some are only really suitable for web browsing and office work and will be completely unsuitable for gaming while others will be capable of gaming but will just be very slow - like 30fps even with near minimum settings. Only you can decide if 30fps is acceptable for you or not.
I’ve found integrated graphics to not be good enough for WoW these days.
The Acer Predator Helios is a great gaming laptop, though. I get better performance out of it than my desktop. LOL They aren’t that expensive, either.
Get a gaming laptop, I’ve got an Acer Nitro 5 with an RTX3070ti that does fine.
they are not.
Dependant on what integrated card you use.
Most new Macs have their GPU integrated but have an insane amount of graphics cores which should be fine. Then again, Mac support exists but is kinda poor.
Middle ground are AMD APU units. I could probably see you getting LFR/non serious content done on it.
Anything less might run the game but you’ll have a bad time as you go higher.
Yes
I can personally verify this because my laptop just so happens to use integrated graphics (AMD Ryzen 7 5700u). When I don’t feel like sitting/being chained to my desktop, I simply grab my laptop and use it on the kitchen table or next to my recliner while watching TV
Retail WoW runs fine on low settings with integrated, seems to run between 20-40 FPS for the modern TWW zones. I find that the Classic versions of WoW run fairly smooth at 50-60 FPS even with no dedicated graphics card
That really depends on you, you could play classic on low @24fps and just pretend it’s 2004 again, if that’s good enough for you then you don’t need dedicated graphics. Odds are this isn’t you though, and a laptop won’t cut the mustard regardless of having dedicated or not thanks to the magic of thermal throttling so you get to spend extra on a cooling pad and just play in one place forever, kind of like you had a desktop all along but worse.
I had a similar issue when shopping for a mini-PC, the way I look at it is you might not need a “high line dedicated” graphics card, but even a low end one will be better for WoW then integrated. So my suggestion for you is find out what you can get for one with a dedicated within the budget/price range you set.
My laptop struggles and wish I purchased a desktop instead.
How cheap are you trying to go?
A laptop with an nvidia 3050 that will run wow fine goes for under $700 on amazon, I’m sure you could do better if you watch deals elsewhere.
Personally I just can’t justify a laptop for gaming at all. Price to performance ratio just isn’t there for me, and their longevity is usually far lower than a desktop as well, which further hurts the value proposition in my book. Portability isn’t a big enough draw for me to pay more for less and on something I’ll likely have to replace after a couple years because something wore out.
You’re not wrong, but sometimes space is an issue. Not having a room/home office to put a desktop. I’ll play in different rooms depending on time of day and who else is at home. Packing up the family and moving house to accommodate my gaming is the far more expensive option.
I work out of town…but with that said, I had an Asus gaming laptop that never died out and still works to this day without issue that I got in 2012. Ofc it is drastically outdated now though.
Fair enough point if it’s a matter of choosing between a laptop or nothing at all, I suppose. My first computer purchase was a laptop for similar reasons. But my experience with it soured me on them pretty much for life and I’m glad that I can stick to desktop now. 
No, get a real motherboard and an actual video card, don’t skimp… get parts that can be replaced properly
It’ll buckle/bottleneck when you least expect it, or join a flex raid that gets maxed out. Also what if you wanna mine Etherium??
In 2025 I would be confident enough to say this:
I do not recommend a SINGLE system with anything integrated for any kind of gaming.
It’s just not worth it for a long list of reasons.
Definitely a no.
You could get by with integrated graphics for gaming in like 2010-2012.
You can’t do that anymore and have a good experience. Unless you’re only playing retro / indie games that don’t take any amount of performance on your PC’s part.
Gaming in general takes more power than it did a decade+ ago. It’s much more of it’s own dedicated thing now in terms of hardware requirements.
That includes WoW.