No, they don't. They recomend it but I tell them no. They have a bad habit of trying to update my DcDiag though which doesn't need it.

I have the exact same specs as the OP. I tried downgrading drivers but that didn't help. I'm running 195.62 again with these settings and the hitching has been gone for almost a week:

- Slider on Recommended
- Shadows to Low
- Antialiasing to None

Now obviously there is a visual quality hit by running on recommended and then having to turn shadows and AA down, but at least the hitching is gone. I don't know if I should be expecting to be able to run this game at full settings. I can run WoW on Ultra with constant 35+ FPS in dalaran. GTA IV, another noted performance hog, runs briliantly with all options on Very High (benchmarked at 45 fps avg). SO I would think I should be able to at least run it on the default Recommended slider, which has AA on High quality and Shadows on High.