3D Drafting/ Gaming Laptop? Integrated HD 4400 and Dedicated Graphics?

So I'm looking into getting a new laptop(something portable as I'm a Mechanical Engineering Student) that will be able to run SolidWorks(3D Drafting Programs) and some online firstpersonshooter games reasonably.

I understand that a dedicated graphics card will be the way and an i7 CPU is key but i'm curious to know if just an integrated card will suffice with an i7 and 8gb RAM?

This is because I really like the idea of the Lenovo Yoga 2 haha.
And when it comes to a dedicated card you usually have to add a pound to the general weight…

Any opinions would be appreciated!

Guest

I have seen (and held) plenty of laptops that have dedicated GPUs that are surprisingly light. Most of them were made by Asus. First of all, when you are buying a laptop, as you said, an i7 is important but check to see if its a quad-core i7 and not a dual-core. You can tell by the part number in the cpu. Quad-core will be 4xxxMQ or 4xxxHQ while dual-core will be 4xxxU. Makes a world of difference for applications with multiprocessor support. I think you would benefit from having dedicated graphics since it doesn't weigh down the computer that much and not having it would bottleneck the other components of your system. Here is a laptop i'm looking at being an Electrical Engineering Student myself: http://www.microcenter.com/product/421115/N56JR-MH71_156_Laptop_Computer_-_Black_Aluminum

That machine does WORK. One of the best mobile processors available and a current gen, top tier, mobile GPU.

Johnny