Inspiron 7460 vs Lenovo Y720

[LuisRivasD]

I'm deciding between these two, I now they're quite different but hear me out.

I'm about to go into a heavy 3D modeling course in college, and was looking for a laptop with a discrete graphics card, hence why I found the Inspiron. After talking with some classmates they suggested the Lenovo for being more capable due to a better graphics card. The thing is that I'm unsure if it's worth exchange the beautiful borderless display and ligthweigthness of the Inspiron for the power of the heavy and chunky Lenovo.

Here are the specs of each:

Inspiron 7460:

14" borderless IPS Display
Intel Core i7-7500U
16 GB RAM DDR4
1TB 5400 RPM HDD+ 128 GB M2 SSD
NVIDIA GeForce940MX 2GB GDDR5

Price(From my currency to USD): $1050

Lenovo Legion Y720:
15.6" IPS
Intel Core i7-7700HQ
8 GB RAM DDR4
1 TB HDD 5400
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5

Price(From my currency to USD): $1200

 

[GreyCatz]

Generally speaking, I'd say for "heavy 3D modelling" you need a quad-core more than you need massive graphics power. If these are your options, the Lenovo seems the obvious choice. The 6 GBs of VRAM is a bit overkill, but nice to have if you ever decide to play sophisticated AAA games.

The Dell is a capable, dual-core productivity machine with generous specs. The Lenovo is designed to be a gaming rig - hence the 1060 card and chunky design. It does not necessarily make it a great choice for professional 3D modelling. My advice is to check the kind of software you'll be using during the course - it may be that a dual-core CPU will do the job just fine, in which case I can't see any reason to shell out $150 more for a powerful graphics card that you don't really need.

Best of luck,
GreyCatz.