heh tried that already...shadows look a lil better but the fps is the same...tried everything I could find so far...came to the conclusion that if I want better frame rates from my current hardware I a) have to set shadows to 1/2... or b) get the game to run in SLI...so if there is no way to use SLI I will have to go buy that gtx580 I been looking for an excuse to justify spending $500 on...thanks tho