You are joking? this game has been plagued with performance issues with random FPS drops when questing and even stuttering when at 50-60 FPS sometimes.
WZs for most ppl have always been poor for performance, even with the highest end rigs, there are tons of threads on the officials forums and other forums complaining about FPS and general game performance.
Might just be me but i think the game's graphics look more vibrant as well ?
Even the fleets feel better, dont get me wrong there is still FPS drops but that is expected with over 250 ppl, but its improved thats for sure
Ive played since Beta Nov 2011 and this is by far the best the game has been in performance, my guess is they have got Textures loading better and have optimized animations which where proven to effect WZs frames.
However i can confirm that shadows still effect performance as with most games tbh, i have always had it set to off.