I had MSI Afterburner and was using it simply to change fan speeds for games as the card got hotter. I also had CCC running at the same time. After making the changes (disabling CCC , setting 2 profiles up for MSI AB), my FPS jumped from ~40 to ~90. I was stunned at how such a little tweak made a huge difference. It also increased the FPS in a couple of other games i tested ( Eve and SR3).
However, i still have shadows set to low ( because i don’t care much for shadows) and reflections set to ‘terrain and sky’. Every other item is set to high.
Thank you very much for the tips.