The above mention of Normal / Disp maps would work, also, ( i cant tell from that ref) if those insets are holes completely through the surface, you'll probably want to mix a transp map in there too to get the correct effect.

Another thing, if you want to keep the heavy geometry but your computer cannot handle the model, Try going to Shading in your view port, Then interactive shading, Select the options box, and you'll get a drop down that offered a few selections High quality rendering, Wireframe, Bounding Box, Shaded, and Points...
I would suggest selecting "Bounding box" it is the fastest of them for moving in a dense mesh, you can also try wireframe, it will give you a closer approximation of your actual mesh, but will tumble slower int eh view port.
Be prepared to wait a second or two for the viewport to rebuild your mesh in its entirety, ITs a small price to pay if you're working on a very very dense mesh.

g-man