Gosh, I wish this forum had an Edit button!

How can I tell what my computer has, of the two mentioned above?

The simplest way to tell if you are able to get at the rear of the tower easily is to look for the video plug. If it is in the vertical column with all the other plugs you have a shared video. If the plug is lower down and seemingly isolated from the others you would have a separate video card plugged into the motherboard.

If you bought this computer new and never specified anything to do with video it would be fair to assume you have a shared system. What make and model is your computer? Most mass produced computers today use a shared system to help keep costs lower. What this means is that your have the video card built right into the motherboard along with sound and USB ports. For most people this is totally acceptable.

Those doing serious photo editing or heavy duty gamers a separate video card is a huge asset for 2 reasons. It allows the buyer to select a much higher quality video card restricted only by needs, knowledge and cash available for the purchase. (A good video card can cost as much or more than a budget computer) Plus it allows them to use all the onboard memory for the running of the computer because a separate board has it's own memory and sometimes quite a lot of memory.

To muddy the waters a bit we now have to consider DVI video plugs too. These are for digital monitors. If you look at the link I found about half way down it shows the connectors on a modern video card. You have the blue 15 pin analog connector and next to it is the DVI digital connector.

Here is a link that might be useful: Video explained

If your computer is a laptop, GPUs or Graphic Processor Units are not replaceable, you have to install a new system board

Thank you.

I haven't crawled back there yet but had this pic in my files of it. Have to compare with the real thing.
{{gwi:1480997}}

Urlee...
When computers first started being made for the public, they would install a "mother board"...which computed data...and everything else was a plug-in card. ie: Sound, Video, Modem etc.
As time went on, manufacturers found they could "Integrate" all these separate functions on the mother board, and save space and make the computers smaller.
Works fine to a point...but overall performance can suffer.

You can get 'sound cards' and 'video cards' which have lots of memory on them and boost performance of those functions. They plug into availble slots in the computer.

If your computer is just a few years old, chances are good that the video is integrated.
Pop off the side of the tower..and look to see if you have a video card plugged in. If your monitor is plugged into the card, you do NOT have 'integrated' video.

If you have 'integrated' video, there are ways to plug-in a video card, and over-ride the already installed video. Just check with the manufacturer.

Hope this helps...
txKen

Urlee...
I almost forgot to address "Dedicated" and "Integrated".

Integrated is video installed with the Mother board.
Dedicated is a video card, which only handles the video functions.

Thanks Ken!