So you're saying that increasing the internal resolution would give me the performance boost? Well I tried that, along with your settings in the previous page, however, the fps doesn't budge above 30 fps. Is there some setting somewhere limiting the fps output of the GeForce card?
EDIT: Oh my goodness... I made such a newb mistake.. didn't set the laptop to high performance while using the new SVN!! Now it works perfect, no missing textures or frame drops anywhere, even at 2x native resolution! Thanks a lot everyone!
To recap, if anyone else ever has this issue, get the newest SVN (pcsx2 5496), set the GSdx plugin to the discrete GFX card and make sure the laptop is in performance mode.
Aww yeah, now I can FINALLY finish FFXII after years of it being stored away..
thanks to everyone for their help