Frame rate drop while engaged?

[Forbidden16]

Hi, I have a Dell laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT operating on Vista Ultimate. Everything runs really smoothly, Windowed FFXI and World of Warcraft, and Aero theme turned on. My FPS is usually 26-29 in most places where there aren't crowds so the game runs pretty well I'd say but the problem is when I'm engaged in battles the frame rate will periodically lower to 8-13 FPS then return for a short time to the normal 23-27 while in battles. I also noticed it happening where other people are fighting as well, what bugs me is the fact that the game can run very smoothly with all the battle effects going on but it will however drop the FPS in that periodic time to then return.

I downloaded the latest NVIDIA drivers for laptop cards and everything besides that is running perfectly, anyone has a clue what might be causing it? Any tips?

Machine specs:

Model: HP Pavilion dv7 1175-nr
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 2GHzx2
RAM: 4GB
HDD: 300GB

[hagun]

FFXI is just retarded. I want to say your problem is caused by background programs. Try shutting down all non-essential ones especially torrents and P2P programs. Also, make sure you are using full power instead of saving energy settings. Could also turn off battle effects and see how that goes. I rather play the game in black and white than drop more than two FPS.

Otherwise I dunno. I swear sometimes FFXI FPS behaves in magical ways because there really seems no logical reason.