It depends on your budget and what you're using it for. If you don't need the mobility from a laptop, a desktop would be better in general for intensive things like rendering. A lot of this comes down to what you want to spend and what you're willing to sacrifice.

The Intel HD Graphics line is okay, it would be an upgrade. The problem is it's an integrated graphics card so if you're doing high-processing work like rendering with Maya, it's not the best choice. It would run slower, so it would be better to get a dedicated graphics card, which would perform better as it's using its own memory rather than sharing with the rest of your computer. Meaning something from Nvidia or AMD.

As for which card exactly would be best, that opens a huge discussion ha... You'll have to do a lot of research yourself if you want to find what works for you. Look on nVidia and AMD websites and also google results and reviews of cards.

A starting point could be the Nvidia GTX series. I don't know/think it's necessarily the best, but it's very commonly used in the consumer range (moreso a gaming gpu) and works decently.

What's your budget?