Do I need a Dedicated Graphics Card for a DAW?

[McLilith]

Practically all the pre-built computers I've seen come with an AMD or NVIDIA graphics card, which can add a considerable cost to the system. I'd like to build a new Windows system from scratch next year, and the Ryzen 9 and Ryzen 7 CPUs I've been looking at have graphics built into the CPU. Can I just use that for audio work, and save a lot of money by not buying a dedicated graphics card?

I know, such a system won't be fit for gaming, but I'm not interested in that at all. I also know a good graphics card would help with video editing, but I'm not currently doing any of that. Am I correct, I don't really need the dedicated card for a DAW, VST plugins, basic web browsing, email, etc?

The way I see it, I can always add a graphics card later, if my needs grow.

[mjolnir]

i've been doing computer music since about 1993 and i never had to buy a graphics card except once, for a desktop computer, but i literally only spent 12 dollars for the cheap amazon graphics card and it was fine for a while. fast forward to these days. i think graphics cards are mainly for gamers or people who otherwise use texture mapping or 3D rendering. i can't think of any DAW that requires a graphics card.

however, in the early years, some people used to advise to stay away from NVIDIA hardware because of latency and IRQ or similar glitches.
i'm not sure if that's the case anymore. but i've always just gone with motherboard graphics or AMD. it's always been fine. i just wish i had opted for a larger screen for the laptop computer.

[thecontrolcentre]

My latest Audio PC build by SCAN Computers has no dedicated graphics card afaik.
They asked if I wanted one, but I'm not a gamer so apparently didn't need one.

[Lerian]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: if you use more than one screen, then yes - you mostly have just one hdmi output on the mobo. If you do video editing, yes. If you want to play with AI/LLM, yes, at least 16gb vram. If you have $500 to get a rtx 4060 with 16gb ram, you cover all of the above with flying colors. Especially in a few years when AI seem to become ubiquitous. Many will run it in the cloud, but some will also run local.

[jdnz]

Long answer: if you use more than one screen, then yes - you mostly have just one hdmi output on the mobo.

plenty of 'business' pre-builts come with NO discrete GPU and 2 ( and sometimes even 3 ) displayport outputs ( HP elitedesk etc ) - they'll run multiple monitors just fine, and are a good option if you value things like timely BIOS security fixes and professional driver support

modern cpu-embedded graphics are heaps more capable than they used to be ( well at least intel iris XE graphics - no personal experience with AMD on-cpu graphics ), even light openGL loads are ok ( which is good as I've seen an increasing number of plugins use openGL for scalable uis )

[Lerian]

Correct. In modern mobo you usually have 1 hdmi and 1 display port. And the chip can drive those just fine. It depends on the motherboard manufacturer if you can use both at the same time - some do, some don't.

[McLilith]

Thanks for all the replies. It seems I was right. I can build a custom system for audio work, and avoid the cost of a graphics card — especially if I only use one monitor. I might add a graphics card later, but this will save a significant amount of money for now.

[Lerian]

Thanks for all the replies. It seems I was right. I can build a custom system for audio work, and avoid the cost of a graphics card — especially if I only use one monitor. I might add a graphics card later, but this will save a significant amount of money for now.

Yes, without a doubt, you don't need one for a single monitor set-up. But even if you plan to use more than one, you can always buy a used gpu - even a RTX 1060 can handle up to 4 monitors, and that card costs around $50 on ebay.

[McLilith]

Thanks for all the replies. It seems I was right. I can build a custom system for audio work, and avoid the cost of a graphics card — especially if I only use one monitor. I might add a graphics card later, but this will save a significant amount of money for now.

Yes, without a doubt, you don't need one for a single monitor set-up. But even if you plan to use more than one, you can always buy a used gpu - even a RTX 1060 can handle up to 4 monitors, and that card costs around $50 on ebay.

That sounds like a good idea. I plan to start with one monitor at first, but I do want to upgrade to multiple monitors later.

[uOpt]

Thanks for all the replies. It seems I was right. I can build a custom system for audio work, and avoid the cost of a graphics card — especially if I only use one monitor. I might add a graphics card later, but this will save a significant amount of money for now.

It's not only the cost for the card you save. You also gain a lot of PCIe lanes that you can use for e.g. additional NVMe storage that is directly connected to the CPU.