Is this a fine graphics card?

@mollythemaid  It's not really a question of needing a specific class of graphics cards for demanding cc.  A lot of cc out there is no more demanding than base game items, or only a little more so, and you wouldn't have trouble with it.  Some cc is so intricate that the game engine itself has trouble even if the graphics card can handle the load.  In between, there's sort of a sliding scale.  There's also a cumulative effect: using one high-poly cc item might be fine, but having eight sims on a lot where every outfit and a bunch of objects are all high-poly may drag performance down drastically.

That's why it's important to test out cc in-game before using it, and to add cc in smaller batches.  (For example, create one new outfit and see how it works in-game, or redecorate part of the house but not the whole thing in one go.)  This is true on any computer, and I would expect the Xe graphics in an i7 to be able to handle most if not all of what you'd want to do without any issues.  All I'm saying is, it's best practice to test instead of assuming everything works.

In case you're wondering, the next-higher class of graphics processing is the type of card you'd find in an entry-level gaming laptop, for example an Nvidia 1650 or 3050.  But then you'd be getting a gaming laptop, which you may not want.