Discrete Graphics card

[golem]

A 5450 with 512MB of GDDR3 really isn't any better than the inbuilt Intel chipset on an 8200.  In the Control Panel on Windows 7 there is an item named Performance Information and Tools.  On my system this results in this:

 

The Graphics score is actually lower than the inbuilt Intel, which scored 5.1, if I recall.  Selecting the detailed performance selection:

The reason it scores comparatively low is that it only supports DirectX 10, and DirectX11/12 (which the Intel chipset provides) is needed for the Aero effects (transparency etc.) to run in hardware, i.e. directly in the graphics card's address space.  Newer games will run into similar limitations.  There's a lengthy discussion on GameSpot from about a year ago where someone is trying to add gaming capabilities to a refurbed SFF Dell, but most of the discussion is still relevant.  Bear in mind that you will rapidly run into power and cooling constraints if you try to shoehorn a powerful graphics card into what is essentially a business desktop.

Tony.

[Jonah_loya]

So what you're saying is that the integrated graphics is better than the 5450?

[golem]

What I am saying is "it depends".  If you buy a refurb, as I did, you get a single 4GB memory stick, and the inbuilt Intel graphics processor parasites off that for whatever it needs to do, so even if it can do Aero effects in hardware, performance is going to be pretty lame.  All of those pretty textures have to go somewhere, and some processor somewhere has to be rendering them at X frames per second at some resolution or other.  My 5450 has 1GB of it's own DDR3 memory, which is a nice bump on the original 4GB.  But as you can see, I've maxed out the memory in this thing to 32GB, because I want to do development on it, not play games.  If I wanted to play older games that needed DX10 or lower, the 5450 is an OK card.  For newer games the built in chipset is probably adequate so long as there is enough memory in the machine.  The big problem with these machines when it comes to upgrades is the power and cooling.  The PSU in this thing is good for roughly 250 Watts.  More memory eats some of that and I intend to add disks.  You can get stronger PSUs for these boxes, but any GPU that needs > 400 Watts will shut the machine down if you try to use it to its limit.  If I wanted a gaming rig I wouldn't start from this chassis, for power and cooling reasons.

Tony.