Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - Technical Issues Framerate grows poorer and poorer further I get

I'm still in the Cyseal area, though it looks as if I've uncovered at least 75% of the map. My characters are at level 6. When I started the game, I could run it with every setting maxed out at 1920x1080 at 60 fps (vsync always) and never drop below that number for any reason. This was true even in the Cyseal market area. Once I started uncovering more of the map, I noticed my framerate would start to dip into the 50-55 region, though only in the Cyseal market. Once a little more of the map was revealed, I would drop into the 50-55 region while in more areas of Cyseal town, mainly in the tavern and other crowded areas. Turning off shadows made it so that I could stay at 60.

Now I'm in the northeast portion of the Cyseal map. I've uncovered the majority of the map, though some of it is still fogged out. The more I unfog, the more my framerate drops. Though now, I can't maintain 60 anywhere except for underground areas. I'm right around 50 mostly everywhere (SMAA, high settings, no shadows, no AO). The weird thing is that the only graphics option that has any barring whatsoever on my framerate is shadows. If I turn shadows on, my framerate will drop by about 5-10. However if I turn every other setting down to very low and set my resolution to 640x480, my framerate will be exactly the same as it is at 1920x1080 and all settings maxed out, minus shadows.

If I load a save game from when I first entered Cyseal town, I can run into the market district with everything at max, ultra shadows (with light shadows on), ambient occlusion, etc and not dip below 60 fps. Then I load my current save with the same video settings, and I'm at 45 in the same area.

I know someone will tell me to start over from the beginning, but I'm not going to do that. If that's my only option, and this framerate is only going to get worse, then I'll have to put this game on the shelf for a while until (hopefully) whatever problem is causing this is fixed. When I play an RPG like this for the first time, I get invested in my character and I'd rather not play at all than discard my characters and the choices I've made on them.

PC: i5 4570 3.2 ghz, GTX 760 2gb, 8gb ram

Edit: I have generated a report.zip file and am emailing to supportdos@larian.com right now.