I'm also have a laptop with double gpus. And I game the same way you do, but I happen to use my hd graphics somehow a lot more. The fan noises on the nvidia card began to annoy me since it's so hot in here now :P

Well I do believe Feral and Virtual Programming should try to adapt to integrated graphics since a lot of big and tiny new devices - like the ones on that intel video I posted earlier - have these gpus inside, including a steam machine which will be available next month. And that's what amazes me the most: I'd rather have a tiny pc/smart all in one/thin notebook at any place at home than a desktop pc.
Personally, I like to (as a soviet dude once said) swim against the current, so that's why I like over something obscene (:P) like [url=http://hothardware.com/newsimages/Item12940/cyberpower-pc-1.jpg]this ;)

edit: I'm poor, also :(

well if you're gaming on a laptop you're not missing much anyway. mobile gpus tend to be far less powerful and overpriced for what they are. I just figured, if you spend a shit-ton of money on an expensive laptop when you do buy one, it might be worth it to you to spend the extra 400-500 to get something with a mobile gpu.

since Haswell though Intels GPU is recognized as competent. I'm not familiar with Skylake's GPU, but it's likely that Intel's GPUs even if they slow down improvement, will only ever go in one direction.

I swear by Intel graphics, first and foremost because their drivers upstream are open source and most reliable compared to the open source nvidia or amd hacks. My desktop mainly runs OpenBSD, so proprietary drivers aren't even available for me, and I wouldn't like to use them anyway (I have terrible experiences from using these on Linux in the past).

And yes I care about low power consumption and (more importantly) silence. Currently I run three PCs, all of which are fanless. And all have intel graphics. Small size is a plus (all three computers are on a smallish desk), although I'm annoyed by the fact that most slim or mini-itx cases won't take two or three 2.5" drives. Come on, they're small, and you could make a reasonably small case with room for more than one disk. But no, it's either a tiny case with one disk, or a big box with room for ten disks...

Oh well.

My most powerful PC at the moment is a Shuttle DS57U7, with Broadwell Core i7-5500U (HD Graphics 5500):

http://dmesgd.nycbug.org/index.cgi?action=dmesgd&do=view&id=2809

I just hate it when lazy developers discriminate against intel graphics chips under the false pretense that they lack the power or features required for gaming.

Am I satisfied? Well, more or less. Thank them for the open source drivers -- no other vendor comes close to providing this. I believe the performance is as good as it will get given the power budget (15W TDP CPU). Oh, sometimes I do wish that I had a little bit more graphics performance. But with Intel graphics I *could* get plenty more performance, if I allowed for a higher power consumption and went for a desktop CPU.

The only thing that annoys me is that Intel tends to put weaker graphics in the i3 & i5 CPUs and most performance in i7. Of course it makes sense, in a way, but most people who spend the money on something as powerful as an i7 would also spend the money on a powerful discrete graphics chip (if they care about graphics performance at all). Whereas the people running i3s or i5s are often looking for cheaper hardware and/or lower power consumption and therefore are more likely to benefit from having a good integrated GPU, so they don't need to spend more money (and watts) for the graphics performance.

Yep. I gotta agree on that, ain't missing much. I could say with no lies that even if I could, a soul crushing desktop isn't an all time favorite. It's something I don't need, much like cars, tech and other stuff.
It all comes down to pricey stuff, I believe. Where I live, a gaming laptop is something so out of the ordinary in terms of price it makes powerful desktops cringe. And scavenging parts for desktops is literally a pain. Even online.

But I'm happy with HD graphics, much like my 4000/4600 ones, even knowing they provide basic experiences if compared to dedicated ones. But there are (not in here) lots and lots of new devices with Iris gpus and performance is on par with several other cards, considering new AAA games. I guess one could save on gpus and spend a little more on display quality... who knows.

I only have the one laptop, and while it has a good processor (i7 quad core) the graphics card (Intel HD 4000 I think) does kind of drag it down. Usually I can coax my laptop in running heavier stuff on low settings (maybe because of the processor?). For instance, I can play Dragon Age: Inquisition on this laptop even though the graphics card is way below minimum requirements. It's not pretty but it's playable.

Well, I wouldn't say that was the most important consideration. At the time this was just the laptop that seemed like I could get the most out of in my price range. When this one dies I'm planning on buying a dedicated gaming computer or laptop.

Like I said, I do play demanding games. My laptop can run the slightly older big games like Skyrim or Mass Effect 3 just fine, as long as I keep all the graphics settings turned down. I suspect this won't last much longer, though. I expect that stuff like Fallout 4 might not run on it at all. I did buy a cooler for the laptop, though, as it gets very warm when running those intensive games.

Out of curiosity, what do you do with your old laptops?

Heck, another fantastic story.
Oh well, now you got me curious: can you upload a pic of your pcs in here or something? :P

I'm stunned. For me, the whole reasons isn't power even though, as you've pointed out, better performance can be achieved under Intel HD graphics, but with "bigger" cpus. That can be a little space compromising and also aesthetically and distressful (not my case but I like to inovate sometimes, crap), but even still it wouldn't be as ginourmous as those pcs you see on Neogaf's Setup threads :)

So much potential. Here's a list of countless games that can be played with no hassles whatsoever. And some devs should really adjust their games in a time where pc gaming is so diverse, in terms of games and devices.

It all depends what you're doing. For the things I spend most of my time doing, I could probably hook a Pi up as a dumb client and have my computer somewhere else.

Personally, I wouldn't use a laptop for gaming unless I didn't have space for a desktop. But, that's just me, you just get so much more bang for your buck with a desktop.
I've never had a laptop last that long. They always wind up with significant flaws that kill them before their time. I always get the extended warranty plan and it always pays for itself within a year or two.

It doesn't seem to matter much whether it's a multi-thousand dollar laptop or a cheap one, they all wind up having issues of one sort or another.

Definitely invest in a dedicated gaming desktop as it will be cheaper then a gaming laptop and will last much longer since you will be able to upgrade components as required down the line.

In fact I already did: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/post_a_pic_of_your_gaming_station/post124

The two "desktop PCs" are both small Shuttle computers (on the left, behind the microphone, sitting atop a rack mount headphone amplifier). The third PC that is running is a white netbook, and you can catch a glimpse of it between the router (playing a bunny with two antenna ears) and the second monitor on the right. The netbook serves as my mail server for now.

There's actually a fourth PC in the picture -- the big black tower case on the floor. That has fallen into disuse. In fact it used to be my file & mail server, until I suffered a HD failure and came to the realization that I'm better off not trying to store so much junk on my PCs.

A sentence I stamped deep inside my mind long ago.
Same goes for cars (I've said that already) like "hey, it's not a Maserati but it's a Dacia Sandero" and lots more* :P

*not musical instruments, I'm afraid :P

Oh sorry if I failed to notice. Cool setup, man! I was once hooked to one of these shuttle slim barebones but couldn't afford one at the time.
And heck, fun's what matters the most! If I'm having fun I really don't care if it's running on integrated gpus, medium settings or what; gotta be playable, that's all. It's just simple fun, as it always was.
Thank god these gpus have progressed a lot and almost every device is equipped with one.

ps: can you name some GOG games you've been playing lately? I'm asking this since I'm having some trouble running some games on a HD 5500 at work and it's on an i7 as well. Wonder what's happening... old drivers, probably.

The only problem is that I travel a lot, which, if I owned a desktop, would mean that I would not be able to game during a large part of my free time. But who knows, that might change in the future.

Yeah, it's a big part of my life as well. There's a nice saying in Dutch which I'm not sure also exists in other languages, but in Dutch it's "als het niet gaat zoals het moet, moet het maar zoals het gaat" which basically means "if it doesn't work out the way it's supposed to it'll just have to work out the way it does" only it sounds a lot better in Dutch. :P I live by those words!

I enjoy building computers, thus I enjoy the thrill of buying a powerful CPU or GPU and making it go to work. Gaming on a laptop wouldn't really cut it for me. Kinda like a console. Doesn't feel as 'personal'.

Whatever floats your boat.

For the last 10 years i didn't had anything than laptops. The first ones were not that powerful, but lately i switched to gaming beasts.