How good are Intel Graphics Cards?

I know for the most part they're good enough to do every day stuff, but for most Intel Graphics Cards that come with computers, how good are they and how do they sap power from other parts of the computer?

How good are Intel Graphics Cards?
just buy a nvidia 8400gs for $25 at tigerdirect.com if not a big game. if want to play games go for the nvidia 8800gs for $140 or like me get the nvidia 8800gt sc for $175
Reply:intel cards as in most integrated cards are mostly to get you by with basic usage, all the high end gaming machines of dell, compaq, gateway, all use separate cards for the machines. basic use such as movies and operating system look shininess


and some basic games.
Reply:Well it depends, if your running Windows 98 and are only using the computer for word documents and stuff of that nature, then your fine. If you're using XP/Vista, you will want a good graphics card like an Nvidia 8 thousand series and at least 2gb of ram.
Reply:They're fair for day to day surfing and light casual gaming. However most Intel onboard video shares system memory. Some give you the option to choose how much you allot.