I was thinking about buying this computer. It says that it has an integrated intel HD graphics card. The games that I may play are Savage 2 and Minecraft

 

Savage 2 Requirements

Minimum:
Processor - 2.2GHz Pentium 4 / AMD 2000+ or faster
RAM - 1GB of RAM
Video Card - 128MB fully DirectX 9.0 compliant Geforce or Radeon
Windows XP, Win2k or Windows Vista
Network Connection Required 

Recommended:
Processor - 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo / AMD 3500+ or faster
RAM - 1.5GB or higher
Video Card - 256MB Geforce 7800+ or Radeon X1900+
Network Connection Required (Broadband) 

 

Minecraft

Recommended Requirements: (game should be running at least 60 fps, or 30 fps when it is loading chunks)
CPU: 2.0+ GHz multi-core processor, 2.5+ GHz single-core processor
RAM/Memory: 2.0+ GB for Xp, 3.0+ GB for Vista/Win 7/Mac OS, 4.0+ GB for all 64-bit Operating Systems
Graphic Card: ATI/Nvidia independent card that support OpenGL 2.0 with 128+ MB of dedicated G-RAM
Hard Drive Space: 256+ MB of free space

 

I do not know how to compare different brands of graphics cards; will this laptop meet my needs?

I can't speak for savage 2, but minecraft should run perfectly well, it does with no problems on my Corei3 4Gb RAM Dell Studio, so I dont see any reason why it shouldnt be better on yours

 

as for graphics cards, since basically allll laptops come with the annoying integrated ones, I dont think theres any great way of knowing before you buy it/test it.

One little note, my brother bought a pretty good laptop a year back (dell inspiron) with the usual 4Gb ram, and quad processor, but the graphics card wouldnt even do anti-aliasing.

Maybe look up how good acers tend to be performance-wise in general? Should give a good idea of what you can expect

No it will not meet your needs at all.

 

Minecraft will run properly, but a real gpu could prove to be even better, and its certainly needed for Savage 2.

 

I'd go for a quality Asus laptop with any Nvidia graphics card.

Integrated graphics cards will work well for Minecraft, no doubt, but if you want to play anything advanced (I can't speak for Savage 2 because I've never played it), you will need an actual graphics card and not an integrated one.

How can I tell if it is possible to upgrade the graphics card?

 

What about something like this StarTech USB VGA External Dual/Multi Video Adapter.

In laptops, it is very hard if not impossible to upgrade graphics cards. I would agree with the above posters and get a laptop with a dedicated card if you're looking to game.

How can I tell if it is possible to upgrade the graphics card?

 

What about something like this StarTech USB VGA External Dual/Multi Video Adapter.

 

All that does is add an adapter to hook an external monitor to your laptop. When buying a laptop you pretty much have to expect that you won't be upgrading any components besides the RAM. A decent laptop would be one similar to this one as it has a Nvidia graphics card which should be able to play the games you want.