Those machines, however, also rely on a discrete graphics card from Nvidia, and those take up space.

FORBES: The Duel For The Heart Of The MacBook Air

Citrix XenServer with HDX 3D Pro enables the virtualized workstation environment with a dedicated discrete graphics card per user or virtual machine.

ENGADGET: Dell Precision R5500 lets four graphics pros work on one PC, we wish it did gaming

What's more, the automatic graphics switching in MSI's GPU Boost technology kicks them over to discrete graphics card mode to kick graphics processing up a notch or two.

ENGADGET: MSI formally unveils 14-inch CX480 laptop, stops short of naming a price

Better still, battery life didn't seem to take a hit even with the extra performance, though high-end, high-res gaming was still a lesson in futility when working without a discrete graphics card.

ENGADGET: Intel's Arrandale and Clarkdale CPUs get benchmarked for your enjoyment