The theory with the ubi video is two-fold; in that the codec used to play it back locks the display to a 'windowed mode' even after the game proper has started. Display drivers try to control heat/voltage for your video card and will 'underclock' it to use less power when it thinks you'll just putsying around in windows

On ATI (which I think is where people see improvements on this) you can use a utility to check this like GPU-Z, i.e. http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2120/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.6.0.html

The second tab shows the GPU core clock speed, which (dependant on card) show different speeds. The theory is that deleting the ubi video then stops it from playing, allowing your game to run at full clock speed.

Here's mine now - in a game it should run at 900 MHz or so, so here it is in Windows at 450MHz:



The second theory is that anything Ubisoft touches is cursed, which is why when you see the logo your game will run worse.

Option 2 is it, I think...

My money is on option 2 to Fearless

Ive a Nvidia card but saying 2

Nvidia as well, and no help/difference for me...was worth the try though

To open the console and pause game I use the shift+tab keys then write to show counter;
fps START SHOW
and the enter key shift+tab keys to close sonsole and continue game.
To open the console and pause game I use the shift+tab keys then write to hide the fps counter;
fps STOP SHOW
and the enter key shift+tab keys to close sonsole and continue game.

Respect minuscule and majuscules!

Remember the days when it used to be something like "Alt-F" <sigh>

Limiting FPS really helps me and my buddies and stops stutters and fps drops for some reason, i thought it was madness but it works.

try http://dxtory.com/ and finf the fps tab... i limit to 30-35 and it keeps my laptop cool. yes i play clod on high on a laptop lol.