bandwidth can effect frame rate...Right? If your sever is dropping 10% packets all the time that has to effect frame rate....
If you go into the clip-board in advanced view options and get rid of ground detail/clutter, and water detail, this will take some load off the GPU.
I think the point that's trying to be made is that some people (regardless of their machines) were running the game maxed out on settings, Hi Res, sliders to the max, shadows, detailed water and terrain and so on, and were getting FPS's of 59-60 consistently. Since the lattest series of patches, those same people have had a tendency to disco more, increase in FPS drops, stutters and overall just not a lot of fun playing the game in it's current state. That's what I think has led people to comment about their leaving.
I have also seen FPS drop offs where I never had them before, at least not to the extent I seem to be having them now from time to time. We're talking an FPS drop from 59/60 to a frame rate that approximates a slide show. Not to raise a stink or anything, but it was getting pretty bad. I have since gone in and reduced my background processes so that when I'm in game, my running processes are about 46 to 49. It helps, but I do think something needs looking at.
Nutz