Have to keep in mind also that this game is currently still coded for DX9. Which means heavy emulation for all OS's past XP, and partial emulation for XP. Until it gets the newer DX overhaul, there are going to be issues with sub-optimal coding. It's mostly with how characters, mobs, and certain structures are being rendered. It's a similar issue with how XI was rendered--there was a way to disable specific layers of the rendering in XI, and you could very easily see what was causing the problem when you turned off certain things and watched your framerate. Haven't discovered a way to do it here, but there is a way you can sort f see it in action.

Go to Hawthorne Hut, and stand near the crystal with the hut to your back. Look around in different directions, waiting a few seconds for your framerate to somewhat stabilize at each viewing angle. Notice how bad it gets when you are looking down through the tents, towards the hut. Now, move down and position yourself so the hut itself is filling most if not all of your view and let your framerate stabilize. Now, turn around and look away from the hut--get it completely out of view. Notice the marked jump in FPS?

Now... here's the real kick in the pants. Go somewhere else on the map. Little Solace, or maybe even a little further away. Do the same tests--- keep the hut to your back, then turn your view so you are facing the hut (can verify which way you are facing by pulling up the map). Whenever you are facing towards the hut, FPS drops considerably, and it recovers when you look away.

Hopefully, when they make the move to a higher DX level and can actually start coding more directly towards our GPU's capabilities and relying less on the thunked layer to DX9, we will see things considerably more optimized and balanced.

As for the whole back and forth about the PSU... there is an important point that needs to be made. Quality. You need to use a certifed SLI/Xfire or 80+ model. These are tested and guaranteed to provide 80% of rated output under harsh conditions. The uncertified, generic ones... not so much. Just because it may appear to be high enough by it's ratings, it may not necessarily be able to hold up. Some PSU's can only reliably put out 50-70% of their rated output when things heat up. This is why we started seeing the absurd ratings like 900W and up years ago. They were sometimes necessary to make sure you were getting a good solid 500W at all times.Generally speaking, you may only need about 380-430 good watts in a PC to keep it humming along in a game, and at first a 650W may tote the load just fine. But, as it ages, weather gets hotter, the case gets hotter, and if you don't have adequate ventilation for your PSU it can wear down at a rapid rate and start providing less and less power. If the back of your PC starts to smell kinda funky--guess what, your PSU is likely straining to keep the thing running right.

So, yes.. your PSU CAN be an important thing to be mindful of.

As for the whole power bar and plugging into the wall thing... you need to run it off of a decent UPS. This is for several reasons beyond the obvious of protecting your system if the power goes out. It monitors and corrects power dips/surges to some extent, providing more consistent voltage which helps keep your PSU healthy longer. It also provides a handy way to monitor your PSU's health (in most cases). If you have a smart UPS, the software can actually tell you how much power you are using. This is common with the higher end units (650+). Sometimes you'll find it in the lower end ones, but you need to avoid those. There's some funky math invovled to find an actual targetted run time, but seriously... if you have a 700W PSU, what do you really expect to happen when you try to sustain it on a 380W UPS---that should be pretty simple math to compute. If you are pulling more than 60% of your PSU's rated power... you may want to reconsider your PSU if it's a generic one. An 80+ is designed to handle such a load--but a generic model may actually be getting taxed at that point.