There's a couple things to understand first:
I myself have an Asus Windows 8.1 Laptop with an i7-4500U mobile cpu which has the integrated Intel Graphics 4400 GPU video GPU. It's a combination CPU with built in graphics processing, negating the need for a dedicated graphics card. One main caveat is that the video processing has no actual onboard memory but uses the system's shared DDR3 / DDR4 memory instead. Which is fine for desktop browsing, youtube / dvd movie watching. It does have 3d acceleration capabilities like a dedicated nvidia or ati/amd graphics card but without the dedicated onboard memory wich can play certain games fine, and the other game types not so well.
Now, in addition to the i7-4500U cpu / Intel 4400 Graphics, my laptop also has a dedicated nvidia 740m graphics card with 2gb onboard dedicated ram, much like a desktop system with a nvidia or ati/amd PCI-e graphics card.
The benefit here with the 2gb nvidia card is windows can switch back and forth between either video card solution as per needs and requirement. Generally it uses the intel 4400 graphics for desktop, youtube/dvd uses, and if i fire up a game like Diablo III or even Mechwarrior Online or Star Wars: The Old Republic, I can play those games quite comfortably with a usb 3button mouse attached. Hence the reason why I opted for a laptop with a dedicated graphics card system.
Unfortunately I havn't gotten 3ds max running on this laptop yet (had a goof up with forgetting to export the license from main computer first), so I honestly i can't comment whether Alias or 3ds max would make windows use the cpu/gpu or dedicated nvidia card.
As per your original question of choosing a laptop with or without a dedicated video card for this exact purpose; I can't give you a proper yes / no answer regarding Alias (i don't have Alias) or in my case 3ds max. At least I was able to explain a bit of difference between your 2 choices. Software requirements can be quite fickle at times; either it works within a general list type of hardware or else it requires hardware exactly within a specific list.
By direct tested example: with this laptop when i'm away from home I can run other software such as Daz3d's Daz Studio, Carrara, and Hexagon perfectly fine, no different than how they run on my desktop with an AMD R9 290X video card, sans the 3x 27" IPS 2560x1440 res panel screens; making due with a 15" TN panel 1366x768 laptop screen instead (with a choice of using HDMI out to any size 1920x1080p res tv screen if/when available).
Yet when it comes to Eovia Vue Infinite / xStream edition (using my desktop as actual referance; i tried the PLe editions before settling on buying xSteeam 2015) the 2014 edition did not support or like my AMD R9 290X graphics card and would only use the Software mode dsiplay rendering which was slow to refresh / update while going about working in my scene. BY the same token, the 2015 version of the same Vue xStream PLE , runs quite fine in the Hardware Pipeline Graphics acceleration mode, which makes a huge difference in navigating around in the display ports, especially when theres textured items. Both VUE's also has an optional OpenGL 1.4 Accelerated mode, but I think this only applies to video cards such as AMD FireGL and NVIDIA Quadro profesional line of graphics cards with registered and certified OpenGL drivers. The FireGL and Quadro cards also have certain hardware optimizations geared towards professional programs such as anything offered by AUtodesk.
My general rule of thumb is laptops are severely limited in upgradability features (both windows and mac o/s platforms, even though the choice of cpu Intel and AMD is the same between them). What you buy is exactly all you get. Therefore when I buy a laptop, I try to get all that I can on it within a set price point. When possible I do opt for the extra / dual dedicated AMD/nvidia graphics video option just because of the added performance boost if/when a game or application calls for it. Unlike a custom built or value priced off-the-shelf desktop that may come with just the cpu/gpu integrated video that will allow upgrade by adding a dedicated grahics pci-e card; laptops don't have that luxury.
It would be nice if couple other people were able to chime in, both that have just the cpu/gpu integrated type laptop and those that have the cpu/gpu + dedicated type laptop.
I hope my reply was at least somewhat helpful and informative.
