Jamie.monro: I have an i5-3570k processor and a Radeon R9-280X; however I can switch to the onboard HD4000; so I changed these settings:

i5-3570K - Set processor to 2.3GHz (this should match your processor or be slightly slower since it does not support hyperthreading)

Set DDR3 memory speed to 1333MHz (This is important, since this will be used with the HD4000, if you have faster RAM you should get better results)

Disabled R9-280X and switched to HD4000 GPU

Darksiders 1 - Crossroads - No Anti aliasing
1600x900 ~ 27FPS feels rather choppy, so I don't think this resolution is going to work so well

1280x720 ~ 35FPS much more smoother, but still a little choppy; recommended as it fits the aspect ratio of your display (16x9)

1024x768 ~ 44FPS the FPS on the HD4000 is greatly affected by resolution, smooth, but wrong aspect ratio (4x3)

800x600 ~ 54FPS obviously nice, but it will look pretty terrible on your display; also wrong aspect ration (4x3)

Darksiders 2 - Opening/the veil - No anti aliasing/lowest shadows
1600x900 ~ 21FPS Horrible framerate, increases to 27FPS is you disable Ambient Occlusion

1280x720 ~ 33FPS, increases to 37FPS when Ambient Occulsion is disabled. Recommended resolution, though a little choppy, however it is the correct aspect ratio for the display (16x9)

1024x768 ~ 37FPS, increases to 45FPS when you disable Ambient Occlusion

800x600 ~ 53FPS, increases to 64FPS when you disable ambient occlusion

Hopefully this helps. Overall these 2 games are very sensitive to resolution selection on the HD4000 integrated GPU.

The_Blog: Yes it has controller support. A controller is even recomended, though it can be played with m+ kb.

Jamie.monro: DDR3 is a type of RAM memory; the fast working memory that you use when you switch on your computer.

This RAM memory is much faster than a harddisk or even a solid state disk drive, so to help keep the processor busy and not waiting all the time, when you first switch on your computer, the computer copies important parts of the operating system into this much faster working memory.

You have not listed your harddisk (or solid state) drive specifications, but this will amost always be much larger than your RAM memory. For example you listed 8.1GB memory (this will be RAM memory and the type of RAM is DDR3 3rd generation which is now being replaced with 4th generation DDR4), a typical laptop harddisk drive will have around 750 or 1000GB of storage; many times more than the RAM on your machine.

The Intel HD 4000 is a graphics processor that is built into the same chip as the main processor (Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz).

High performance graphics processors are usually manufactured by Nvidia or AMD. People looking at laptops for gaming usually look into "Dedicated graphics" which means that in addition to the integrated built-in graphics that is usually included (like the HD4000), there is another graphics processor; usually a faster one that has its own dedicated high-speed RAM memory.

RAM speed in your case is pretty important, because your HD4000 graphics processor needs to share that 8.1GB of RAM with the operating system and any programs and games you run. DDR3-1333 is slower than DDR3-1600, which is slower than DDR3-1866, etc. Faster RAM speeds mean greater bandwidth (which means that the memory can send or recieve more information per second, resulting in things being done quicker).