First of all, my manties never get in a wad. I am trying to help. I feel like I am beating my head against the wall as I keep telling people the server does not have anything to do with your local frame rates and people keep coming in here telling me it does.
Stutters/pauses/freezes are almost always resource related problems. I have a full sticky post in this forum dedicated to that very subject. I went into a good deal of of detail describing it and how to deal with it.
Internet connection related problems are a different matter. They can manifest themselves in delays for comms, warps, and other minor ways.
Telling the difference between the two can be difficult. In the case where it is Internet related, the whole game is not effected. Portions or it are. Delays in text or voice updates are a clue. Wapring planes are a clue when nothing else is delaying.
When the game freezes/pauses/stutters in its entirety, then that is a resource issue of some type.
Identifing the problem is the first step towards fixing it. For Internet related issues, ping plots are very helpful. For resource issues, a DXDIAG output along with the current settings of the game are helpful. Actually, for resource related issues you can do a quick test yourself.
Try changing the "Maximum Texture Size" in the "Video Settings" to 128 and running the game. If the pauses/stutters clear up, then you know where the problem lies.
Just FYI, as of this moment, with over 400 players logged into the new server, it is running 95.8% idle. Yes, using less than 5% of the CPU's with over 400 players logged in.
