I am in the market for purchasing a laptop but not sure, stuck between 2. Both are Dells with 3rd gen I7. Only difference is one has the intel 4000 graphics and the other has NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics. Is there a huge difference between those two?
I'd say the GeForce is worlds better than stock Intel graphics. Basically, the Intel is integrated into the processor, whereas the 650M is a dedicated graphics card. NVIDIA's driver support for gaming is also more robust.
Yes, even though the new 3rd Gen i7 chips (Ivy Bridge) have significantly better intergrated GPUs it's better to get a dedicated card. The GeForce is the way to go, as Red Omen said Nvidia is great for gaming drivers.
The 4000 is an excellent integrated gpu that outperforms many older nvidia models (including my own geforce 330m lol), but considering the 650m performs more than twice as well as the HD 4000 I'd recommend the second laptop. You'll get better battery life out of the HD 4000 though if that's a concern.
mg: