An employer accused an employee of gaming during work hours. However, that turned out to be false.
The accusations against the employee were not just about gaming. Because besides the working hours, he was also said to have installed software on his government PC. How quickly this can go wrong by mixing personal and work matters was already shown by the email affair surrounding Hillary Clinton (via deutschlandfunk.de).
In the end, the accusations were proven to be false. Because the employee’s computer system couldn’t even get the game he allegedly played to run.
Our title image is a symbolic image.
Update, 27.01.2022: Information about cloud gaming added.
Graphics card in government PC is far too weak for gaming
Erik Strobl, the head of a labor union organization, was able to help the dismissed employee by pointing out an important detail to the employer (via twitter.com): Because the graphics card installed in the computer is not even capable of being used for proper gaming. He writes:
A member [of the union] was accused of playing video games on his work computer. I was able to exonerate him by conclusively proving that the graphics card provided by the employer could not handle the resource-intensive game that his supervisor claims to have seen.
What did the employee do instead? Instead of having played himself, the employee was said to have watched a video about the game during his break. And that is absolutely fine, and he did not lose any working time or misuse state property for his purposes:
He was accused of having installed unauthorized software from third parties on a government computer (which he did not do 100% and, as I have shown, could not have done). No misuse of time or state property.
Many office PCs do not have a proper graphics card
What is behind the discussion? Many office PCs often have a processor with integrated graphics unit. A graphics unit is necessary for the computer to output an image via the HDMI or DisplayPort cable. Both AMD and Intel offer solutions for office systems or simple gaming systems.
In addition, there are also small graphics cards for office systems, such as the GT 710 from Nvidia. These are completely sufficient for office work, but they quickly run out of steam for gaming. Such office solutions generally offer various advantages:
- They are significantly cheaper than systems with powerful graphics cards.
- They usually require very little power.
- In addition, office systems can be built very compactly because no large graphics card is installed.
- Such office systems are often also very quiet because they hardly emit heat. Often, passive coolers are also used.
In rare cases, such office systems really need the performance and power that, for example, an RTX 3080 or an RX 6900 XT would provide.
On the other hand, cloud gaming can now also be done seamlessly on a computer with weak hardware, as long as the internet connection is right. Because services like GeForce Now (or the now-discontinued Stadia) can now also be easily started and used from the browser.
What you should consider when buying a graphics card if you really want to game, you can read about in the following article:
What should you consider when wanting a graphics card – Buy now or later?
