Framerate issues on monster system

[WhiteKnight]

Hi,

I think I have a system that is way more than capable of running this game at MAX settings. I can get pretty decent framerates with SSAO set to medium at 8 samples, however, if I set SSAO to High, there are mega framerate issues. When I run FRAPS, even though FRAPS shows the frames dropping to say 51 or 54, from 60, there is a noticeable chop which destroys the immersion. I especially notice this just after loading a game, but there are other times where the frames seem to drop also...usually occurs when I am turning the character one way or the other. I thought framerates above 40 were no different to the human eye than from 60 so why would a drop to low 50's make it chop? Please help.

Here are my system specs:

Intel i7 950 3.06GHz @ stock settings
EVGA x58 FTW3
Corsair Dominator 6GB DDR3 with 8-8-8-20 timings
EVGA GeForce GTX 480 1536MB
Razer DeathAdder 3500DPI 1000Hz polling
CoolerMaster HAF-X
OCZ Vertex 2 SSD Sata II 180GB 285/275
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium Professional Fatal1ty
ASUS 23" LED ML-238H 2ms
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit