Amazing system, FFXIV taking FPS hit. Why?

[Archadius]

Ok, so I'm pretty baffled by this. I'm sure there are a number of you who are WAY more well-versed in the ways of graphics cards, etc, so I thought I would provide my information and maybe someone here could come up with some solutions. Any feedback you have is greatly appreciated!

System Specs:
- iMac Summer 2011 Model
- Intel 3.4GHz Quad-Core i7 Processor
- 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
- AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5
- Running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit through Bootcamp

This is a pretty powerful piece of equipment, so in theory, this system should be running FFXIV on max settings as smooth as a baby's bottom. It doesn't.

Tried on max settings for FFXIV and the lag was horrendous. So I dropped "General Drawing Quality" from 10 to 9, and turned off "Ambient Occlusion". Now the FPS hit is tolerable, but still not optimal. All other settings are being run at maximum and I run the game windowed at my screen's max resolution, 2560x1440. I haven't tested with Fraps yet, but I'm sure my FPS are sitting at 30 or less. What am I doing wrong?

Things I've considered trying:
- Overclocking using Sapphire TriXX (I am not experienced with this but am willing to learn)
- Installing ATI Catalyst Control Centre "Bootcamp" drivers package for Windows 7 64-bit
- Installing ATI Catalyst Mobility Utility for Windows 7 64-bit (My GPU is considered part of the mobility chipset family)
- Reducing screen resolution to the next step down (1920x1080)

Some additional notes:
- Running the game fullscreen is out of the question, I need freedom of running multiple applications (at the very least, a browser and temperature monitoring program)
- I feel as though this system should be able to handle max FFXIV settings, so I'd like to avoid reducing settings wherever possible
- If graphic reductions are the only option, I'd like to pick the ones that will take the least visual effect hit with the best fps return (for example, turning off Ambient Occlusion)

EDIT: Here are some links to the drivers I thought were relevant and was going to install
- Driver 1: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...camp-win7.aspx
- Driver 2: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...-Bit%20Edition

I'll update this page with more information as needed. I am quite determined to find a solution to this, there were only two reasons I bought this upgraded machine, and one of them is FFXIV. Thank you for your assistance!