The Alienware M17x does not sell with soldered video cards. It comes with a single or dual option video card offering either AMD or Nvidia video card(s).
Those above speak correctly that a graphics card and video card are essentially the same thing. The difference above is that the Intel HD graphics 4000 graphics processor (GPU) is combined with the CPU creating what the industry now refers to as an APU (accelerated processing unit). Its what comes with the i-3,5,7. Its basically an alternative to buying a video card. A video card is separate from the CPU and is its own entity with its own memory and GPU and allows the system to run the calculations for the video and alleviates the burden from the CPU.
Your video card shall be able to play Sim City with no hiccups. Can you upgrade your video card? certainly, do you have 1 and want to upgrade to 2, sure. Do you have a less than top-notch video card and want to upgrade up to a better mobile video card? Sure, but be mindful that if you have 2 video cards you will need to upgrade both (that's costly). Having 2 low-end video cards and upgrading just 1 while taking out the other because they don't match will not do you any good. You can find Alienware video cards reduced price on eBay.
Its probably best that you just find the solution for your game rather than messing with your internal hardware. Only when your cards begin to crash on you is when you should look to upgrade them for that system. I can provide pictures of an Alienware video card upgrade if any of you wish to see.
Also, yes the Fn + F7 switches between the Intel 4000 and the Nvidia graphics. If you are not running on battery, feel free to leave this on all the time.
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