On-Board Graphics Ok for DAW?

I'm using the Intel CPU graphics on my DAW system.  I also use the PC for other things and haven't had any issues.  However, I have a newer CPU, an Intel i7 6700K.

abacabOr if you want to play 3D games on your DAW.

yes!

abacab
I have no issues running dual monitors with my integrated Intel HD 2500 graphics.
 
I tested a Nvidia GeForce GT 710 PCIe GPU and found no noticeable performance improvement over the Intel HD.  I would say use the money for something else.
 
Intel has really improved their graphics since the old days.  IMO, the built-in stuff is now as good as the entry-level discrete GPUs. 
 
You really only need to add a GPU if you select a motherboard or CPU without graphics support.  Or if you want to play 3D games on your DAW.

The OP is running an old board though. Not sure if that makes a diff, I've always used a discrete card.

I've never bothered to disable on board graphics even when running a discrete card, and never had a problem from it. From all accounts, on board graphics are fine. Very few plugins make use of video drivers directly, 99 percent goes through Windows and since there is no 3D rendering any demands on the video driver are really low.

Reasonably modern Intel on-chip graphics should be fine in a DAW. Most Macs used as DAWs and maybe most Windows laptops used as DAWs use the Intel chip gpu rather than a seperate one.

A seperate card can pay off by saving a little time if you use applications like Photoshop which can leverage the high-speed gpu to do calculations instead of the cpu, but there are very, very few - if any - audio related applications or plugins which do this. Perhaps because a dedicated gpu card in a laptop, though they are available as options, is still pretty rare because of the need to dump the heat somehow and their effect on battery life.

The only reason the PC in my sig had a dedicated gpu is for Photoshop/Lightroom and a few older 3D games - most of which will happily run on HD4000 or later graphics chips anyway.

If in doubt, try the Intel graphics and see what happens.

Beware of the ****ed WinXP "10 midi devices" limit. If you run a couple of virtual ports or even ASIO4ALL this can give heaps of trouble.

If you're running a recent make Intel CPU, the onboard GPU is fine for straight up audio production.
If you're doing video editing/rendering with Vegas Pro, Premier, After Effects, etc... then you'll want a GTX video card.

Folks working with video often use several different applications (3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D, Vegas Pro, Premier, After Effects, etc).  If you want to use something like Titler Pro (plugin), you can't do that with onboard graphics.
 
The clients we have that render a lot of video; they're running GTX-1080ti video cards.
For the casual user... not worth the cost.  For someone rendering video 12-hours a day, easily worth it.
 
A video client in Nashville recently upgraded from an older hex-core machine with Quadro video card... to a 7900x with GTX-1080ti.  What used to take an hour to render... now takes 15 minutes.  
The CPU is obviously making a huge difference.
Very expensive machine... but this particular guy is constantly rendering video.
Any significant time savings means more earning potential.  
Factored over a year, the time savings is enormous...

How do you switch over to onboard graphics when you have a graphics card installed? I have been suspicious that my graphics card may be getting wonky and, would like to try the onboard to see if there is any difference.

Thanks abacab!