Sophisticated, 3D graphics, formerly the domain of high-end workstations and basement-dwelling gamers, are now moving solidly onto the enterprise desktop. Windows Vista's hefty graphics requirements are reshaping traditional assumptions of basic hardware requirements for business graphics. Built-in, low-end is out; it's time for even basic knowledge workers to get some serious graphics in their machines.

Simplicity No Longer Rules

It wasn't so long ago that the basic business PC could easily get by with the built-in graphics chipset. Although the embedded graphics capabilities were woefully incapable of supporting real-time 3D applications, they were more than adequate for everyday knowledge worker tasks such as word processing, messaging, and Internet browsing.

Continued evolution of the corporate desktop is shifting this dynamic somewhat. The arrival of Windows Vista heralds a major change in the minimum graphics requirements...