Continuous Problems With My Dell Inspiron 15R SE Switchable Graphics. Someone help?

I'm currently (always have had) issues with gaming on my laptop. As far as I'm aware, a 2GB Radeon 7730M card shouldn't have lagging and low FPS issues when playing games on low-medium settings. When comparing my FPS on games such as Skyrim, to that of people who use Intel HD 4000, the FPS are the same on the same settings. 

Despite various clean installs of Catalyst Control Centre and the correct drivers, and setting everything to 'maximize performance' in the control centre, programs fail to show up completely in the 'Switchable Graphics Application Monitor' section, or show up as 'power saving' despite not being set to such. 

Currently, I'm trying to play The Elder Scrolls Online. I originally set this to medium settings, then had to further decrease the graphical settings while STILL experiencing lag. People with less powerful GPU's are able to run this game on high settings without experiencing lag. 

Another gripe I have is the disability to set certain programs to high performance, such as VLC and Google Chrome. I mean - what the hell? There's a whole section on 'video settings' YET I'm unable to utilize it. (not that setting it to 'high performance' would even work anyway)

I'm at my wits end and I'm pretty sure games have NEVER run on my dedicated graphics card. By the looks of it, I'm not the only one with this problem either.

I really regret buying this laptop. If it wasn't out of warranty I would get someone to look at it for me. 

Does anyone know how to solve this problem? :/