Q:
A: Usually, no. Onboard cards have gotten better, but do not beat add-in cards. If you are looking to buy a motherboard, get one that doesn't have onboard graphics at all. This will prevent any graphics issues when you buy an add-in card. However, there is a rising interest in 'hybrid' SLI where you have the onboard graphics and the add-in card working like regular SLI, which removes the need to buy two cards. I haven't read much about performance, but I would imagine it is simply a gimmick and not a probably solution, especially when upgrading.