PCSX2 on a Samsung 550P7C

[Wilderwind]

Hello everyone...my last post here was on the late 2014 when I had a really poor performing laptop but recently I got a Samsung 550P7C but the GPU is dead (nVidia GT 630M) so I have to stick with the integrated GPU IntelHD4000. I must say, it performs far better than I expected...Final Fantasy XII runs smoothly with a stable 100% 50fps and sometimes it has a framerate drop but it lasts less than a second and then everything is back to normal. Dark Cloud 1 and Devil May Cry 1 are also running decently. The only game that gave me problems until now is Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec...In-game, the speed often drops  below 100% and it's very unpleasant since it gives a really annoying laggy sensation. Anyway I would like to ask few things:
1) what are the best PCSX2 settings for this integrated gpu? At the moment I'm running at native resolution since everything above that makes all games laggy...anyway notebook's processor is a third generation Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge. If I could make the games look just a little better, I'd be really happy.
2) since the GPU is dead (hw failure...state 43 in device manager, tried different versions of windows and both recent and outdated drivers..BIOS updated...nothing helped) I was thinking if upgrading some other parts of the notebook could improve performance. For example, buying a SSD or a higher quality RAM would improve PCSX2? And which one of them should I prioritize? Anyway if someone has got any idea for the GPU, every help is well accepted.   
If you guys need any other info, just ask.

[FlatOut]

1. It depends if you're running with one of the Direct3D renderers or OpenGL. My Intel iGPU seems to run the GT games smoother with OpenGL. You might be able to use 2x or even 3x native with OGL, where it struggles to do the same on D3D11 and 9.

2. If you replace a slow HDD with a SSD and get faster RAM, it will help. But I doubt it will significantly improve the performance of a game like GT3.

If you got the new laptop recently, can't you still replace it/get it fixed under warranty?

[Wilderwind]

1. It depends if you're running with one of the Direct3D renderers or OpenGL. My Intel iGPU seems to run the GT games smoother with OpenGL. You might be able to use 2x or even 3x native with OGL, where it struggles to do the same on D3D11 and 9.

2. If you replace a slow HDD with a SSD and get faster RAM, it will help. But I doubt it will significantly improve the performance of a game like GT3.

If you got the new laptop recently, can't you still replace it/get it fixed under warranty?

Thank you for responding! I've tried OpenGL as you said and performance improved quite a lot...but which one is better ? Software or hardware? 
With resolution 3x native Final Fantasy XII still runs smoothly but the framerate drops sometimes and it lasts a little longer than before. GT3 also runs better. Anyway on both OpenGL SW and HW the intel graphic driver crashes during the in-game loadings and i'm forced to reboot the computer to get pcsx2 working again. Any solution?
I'll upgrade my laptop's hw as soon as I get some extra money
Anyway the notebook isn't exactly new...a friend of mine bought it in june 2013 and last month he decided to buy an acer predator gaming laptop and gave me his "old" 550p7c. The GPU died something like a year ago while he was still using it but it was already out of warranty.

[Wilderwind]

Up...my GPU drivers keep crashing when I set OpenGL hardware mode...someone knows how to solve this?