First off, I want to preface this with how disappointing it is that we are forced to monkey with the settings and spend more time fiddling with sliders than playing the game.

Second, I am still having a good time despite the frame rate issues but I will not hang around after my free month if this is not fixed by then.

I'm running the following setup:
CPU: 2.33ghz Duo Core
RAM: 4gb 800 DDR2
GFX Card: Geforce GTX 275 896mb
OS: Vista 64 bit

I've disabled a crap load of things that Vista runs in the background, lots of trial and error. I've gotten my RAM and Proc. usage to a very reasonable level. On top of that I am running the Game Booster app. that was suggested in another thread. I've even gone so far as to disable my Virus scanner while I play.

My game settings are set to the recommended level.

I was reading another thread that mentioned turning on AA in the Nvidia control panel gives a slight performance boost. I tried this and did notice a slight increase in my fps. I started wondering if maybe turning on all of the Nvidia settings through the control panel might take some of the "choice" from the client and send more gfx processing to the GPU. So I went ahead and turned everything in my Nvidia control panal on (with a few exceptions, things I don't use). I don't know if it is just me or what but I actually noticed a 10-15fps increase while flying around in Canada.

My max fps is around 35-40ish but every now and then it does dip to 20-25, mostly while flying around. If I am grounded my fps is usually 30-40 unless there's a lot going on. I decided to play with a few more things. Following the advice in another thread, I turned off Ambient Occlusion and Threaded Optimization. I went back in the game and I'm now peaking around 50-55fps. Again, I still dip pretty low while flying around, mostly when other playings are popping on screen or when something is going on but if I am grounded and fight, my fps is around 45-55.

I then started playing with the game settings. I lowered the world detail, debris, and shadows. My peak fps is still around 55 but I don't dip quite as far as I was. I'm now dropping to only between 20-30.

There is still an issue when I am around a large amount of players in Canada, can't remember the base name but the main one with all the crafting NPCs and quest givers. I still drop to sometimes around 10ish but it comes back up after a few seconds to around 20, which is still better than where I was.

I don't know if this is just wishful thinking on my part or if what I did actually made a difference. I figured I'd post this and if anyone wants to try and out and see what happens.

It's a real shame it's come to this, I don't expect 70fps on the highest settings but I have more than enough system to see 70 at the recommended settings. Hopefully they'll get this issue ironed out pretty soon because it's going to get really ugly when the game is actually released if they don't take care of this soon.