PC Game Running Choppy?

I'm not a big pc gamer, but I just bought Fable 3, and I'm having an issue. I'm playing it on my laptop, and the scenes are playing super choppy, as well as the game play. its like some kind of really annoying lag. Is there something I can do to fix this without purchasing hardware? If i need hardware, what should I buy? Also if you could dumb down the technical talk for me, I would really appreciate it.