FF X-2 Battle Issues

[Kollstag]

Recently tried to play FF X-2. Looking everywhere online, they said FMVs are going to be super slow (which I don't really care about, have already played the game), and that they might not even show up without hitting F9 to switch to software rendering (which I did, just to look at something, even if slow). Additionally, it was suggested that if you have an i7 processor, that you turn hyperthreading off, which I'm using Process Lasso to do. The game, while running around, not really doing anything, runs at 60 fps, no problems at all. The problem is that whenever I get into battle, the speed drops down to 20 or so fps, sits at 40ish for the duration of the battle, then drops to 20 or so again, then after all is said and done and the battle is fully over, I get back up to 60.
In terms of computer specs, I am using a laptop, so I know I can't expect the best, and the processor is a little tiny, only 2.4ghz, 3rd gen i7. I have a dedicated graphics card, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M. 8 gb of RAM. I know these aren't the best, but I figured it should at least let me play through the game at a bearable speed for the most part.
Was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for the battle issues. I'm using Direct3D11 (hardware), but have tried pretty much everything else, knocked it down to native resolution (had it at 3-4x, but no change when I put it down to native). Anything else that is needed I can post.
Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions. Sorry if this is being posted in the wrong place.

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

You didn't mention to have used speedhacks, VU cycle stealing works nicely with this game, try it at 1 or 2 and this should solve the speed issue. Alternatively you could advance EE cyclerate as well but that should not be necessary really with this game.

PS: You can keep the 2x or even 3x upscale.

[Kollstag]

Thanks! Helped a ton. VU cycle stealing on it's own helped a little, but advancing EE cyclerate as well helped much more. Still slows down a little in battle, but only to 45-50, which isn't bad at all. Thanks so much!

[Dante3hs]

Wierd. Your i7 is probably the 3630QM which is slightly more powerful than mine, and should turbo to 3.2GHz, ane on my 3610QM while using the integrated HD4000 I am getting 50 fps (pal) at all times, and having no slowdowns with fmvs at all (with the gamefix to switch to SW mode automatically when an fmv starts). I havent disabled hyper threading or anything else. Its literally just recommended speedhacks, FMV gamefix, and 3x native resolution. Your 650M should have no issues running at 4x native (my 610m can handle 2x without slowdown).