Best Game Without Graphics Card: Dedicated graphics cards and gaming go hand in hand, although neither is required to enjoy the other. Despite the fact that gaming on integrated, or onboard, graphics may not be as simple as when using a high-end graphics card, it is more than possible.
From well-optimized MOBAs designed for a wide range of players to popular titles from years ago, those whose computers aren’t quite up to the task of playing today’s top titles can still enjoy gaming without too much difficulty.
Black Mesa
AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600G is a second APU that offers exceptional value for money. With Radeon 7 graphics technology, a GPU is no longer required to run many of today’s games. Black Mesa is an excellent illustration. This official Half-Life fan remake is playable with decent framerates on a 5600G.
The majority of APUs and integrated graphics processors require graphics settings to be reduced to Low, but Black Mesa is capable of higher settings. If the inbuilt video processing is enough, there is no need to purchase a costly video card.
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is arguably one of the most celebrated multiplayer games of all time, having been released in 2007. Team Fortress 2 is a difficult first-person shooter that requires players to master the intricacies of its various classes. The game is a seminal hero shooter that influenced later games like Overwatch and Valorant.
While teamwork and communication can sometimes determine success, PC performance will almost never be a factor. Team Fortress 2 is a hardware-friendly game due to its ability to function without a dedicated GPU.
Overwatch
Surprisingly, this wildly popular first-person shooter does not require a dedicated graphics card to run, which is good news for novice Overwatch players. According to the minimum requirements, it can be played on a chipset from the Intel HD 4400 series, which is as low as it gets. This is excellent news for Overwatch players who wish to take their laptops on the road.
Due to its inability to be played at higher settings, the game will not win any awards for its graphical fidelity, as expected. It is possible to slightly exceed the low settings, at which point the tradeoff between FPS and playability begins.
Fortnite
Fortnite continues to amuse players with its fantastic gameplay and a series of earth-shattering events that keep the game fresh. It exemplifies how a modern game can look and run on Intel’s integrated graphics hardware, which eliminates the need for a GPU.
Fortnite’s minimum system requirements are 4GB of RAM and an Intel HD Graphics 4000 chipset. That is more than acceptable in terms of fluid gameplay while maintaining beautiful visuals. However, heavier sequences will result in a drop in FPS, which is still tolerable.
Darkest Dungeon
Darkest Dungeon debuted in 2015 as a relatively simplistic horror roguelike, but it eventually grew into an ultra-complex strategy game suitable for the most diehard genre enthusiasts. In this tale of desperation and depravity, players wage a brutal war against a Lovecraftian horror against long odds.
Despite the fact that the game is not for everyone, it was designed to run on virtually every PC. With OpenGL compliance being the only real requirement, this game could run on any device with more processing power than a toaster.
League Of Legends
The video game community has a running joke that League of Legends can probably run on a 486 computer from the 1990s. While this is a bit of a stretch, it demonstrates how adaptable the game is on a variety of system configurations. League of Legends does not require a specialized GPU, either now or in the future.
The structure of League of Legends has benefited Mac users in particular, and it can run smoothly on even the most modestly powered Macbook Air. It is still a highly addictive classic with a massive fan base, and Riot Games remains committed to enhancing its visuals with minor adjustments.
Portal
Fans of Portal will be pleased to know that Valve’s Source 2 engine can now be operated with relative ease on low-powered computers. For those who have never read the series, now is the time to start. Not only is it hardware-friendly, but it is also one of the coolest and most inventive first-person shooter puzzle games ever created.
The simple gameplay of Portal consists of a gun that can create two different types of dimensional portals, allowing players to traverse a series of puzzle-themed rooms. It is a game that tests the mind but not the computer it is running on.
Rainbow Six Siege
This popular first-person shooter is compatible with multiple system configurations that lack a GPU. Even the Intel Core i3 CPU platform can run it, but framerates will suffer. Thankfully, Ryzen APU processors from AMD are available to save the day.
A Ryzen 3 3200G Vega APU integrates graphics processing technology directly into the CPU, providing the best of both worlds. This is comparable to the minimum system requirements for R6 Siege, which require either an Nvidia GTX 460 or an AMD Radeon HD 5770, which are both quite outdated at this point.
Valorant
Valorant is a relatively new first-person shooter, having been released in June 2020. Nonetheless, it can run on an Intel HD 4000 or AMD R5 200 architecture without requiring a specialized GPU to handle the visual workload. This game relies more on the CPU than any graphics hardware, which is advantageous for gamers without a GPU.
This gives players a great deal of leeway to adjust their graphics settings and find the optimal balance between framerate and image quality. The game’s brilliant and crisp visuals are a testament to how integrated graphics can power a deceptively simple first-person shooter.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
Sid Meier’s Civilization series helped popularise the notion of 4X games. The games often cover the development of a society from the Stone Age to the distant future, frequently drawing inspiration from actual history.
Civilization VI, released in 2016, is one of the most well-praised editions in the series and one of the most significant 4X strategy games to be released in the recent decade. Surprisingly, the game is compatible with the standard integrated graphics cards used in laptops and Chromebooks.