So you were basically just going by feel then?
Probably. I don't remember whether I checked the actual number. I can give you my personal guarentee that it was not "20 FPS" with all things off when I tested it.
When I say "consistently" it doesn't really mean that it never goes below 30 FPS - but that ~30 FPS was the "average" I got - going strictly by feel and memory.
Maybe it was 20-25 sometimes - possibly lower even than that especially at the very first town that's notoriously demanding.
I didn't test it for more than an hour, and I never wandered far. But I had pretty much everything enabled, as I just wanted to see how the game looked.
I have certain standards for performance that I never, ever, accept going under. So, what I'm basing this on is that the game was fully playable and "smooth enough" for me to play if I'd bothered.
That means ~30 FPS on average, typically. I generally don't play games that go below 25 on average - because I don't enjoy sub-par performance like that.
My eyes and my brain "knows" when it's below 25 - and I don't think I've ever been wrong about that. Doesn't mean it's precise - just that there's a certain barrier I will always detect.
Our system specs are pretty similar. You have 2gb more system RAM, but I doubt that would be a significant factor for that type of program.
No, I don't think so either.
I'm just telling you this so you know it's possible to play it with most bells and whistles on your system. How to achieve it, though, is something you'll have to figure out by yourself