http://www.pcworld.co.uk/...9-pdt.html
As a laptop to have for 3ish years.
As you can see it has a top of the range i7 processor, however no graphics card.
My question is: Is the i7 alone enough to compensate for the lack of graphics card?
I will be using it for GCSE schoolwork as well as Gaming on steam (TF2 etc.) and Minecraft
The processor can't overcome the lack of a graphics card. Many computers today don't have a dedicated graphics card, but use integrated graphics which share some of the computer's memory. If you are into heavy gaming, you will need a dedicated graphics card. I don't know if it's possible to add one to your particular lap top.
Laptops are made to be cheap and use low power, and the graphic chip sets in them are good enough to watch videos and play older games, but that is about it. The ones that share memory with the system will never perform well. Period. You need a dedicated graphics card, like Gary said, if you want gaming performance.
No, you can't
it should be graphic card over processor, even you have i3, game will run if you have decent card albeit slow, but vice versa the game won't even run