I've been getting framerate stutters since the graphics package update about a year ago. At one point after the first patch, the game was completely unplayable for me, I'd have framerates near 0... even though my system resources completely blew away minimum requirements, the suggestion was to 'get a new computer'. Well, on the same computer, a couple patches later, this problem mysteriously disappeared and I was able to play fine without any changes to my system... wonder what that was all about? Anyways, since then, I now just get the occasional hiccup from the game that causes a freeze-frame. Near as I can tell, this has to do with the objects being loaded on the terrain. Older maps with less terrain features tend to hiccup less than larger newer maps...
The biggest difference in performance is that I used to be able to tell the game to load all the graphics on startup. This helped smooth out a lot of problems. Now it's a minimum startup and everything loads as needed, it seems to add to processor strain in order to free up RAM...
