I'm on an Aspire E 15, Intel Celeron N2840 2.16 GHZ 8GB (7.89 useable) so I feel like I should have no problem running games but whenever I try they're always laggy AF. Do I need to mess about with settings or something? Maybe try older games? Or are those specs just not good enough?
Thanks in advance!
just get a decent CPU and you're good to go.
that one is unfortunately too weak for pcsx2.
play your games on your PS2 console for now
Just to put what jesavlein said into perspective. Your Intel Celeron N2840 has a STR (single thread rating) of 553. The emulator requires a minimum of 1,600. Over 2,000 for the more demanding games. So, unfortunately, your CPU is nowhere near powerful enough to run pcsx2. If you want to look into getting a decent CPU, check out this website. It shows how each CPU rates & the cost of them. My guess though, is you'll have to just upgrade to a whole new computer.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html