I don't know if the framerates are better; haven't broken out FRAPS on it yet. That said, it feels smoother and less jerky than last year's version on the exact same hardware. I get camera switch slowdowns much less than with Live 2003 (I use Baseline High, so the entire arena has to rotate 180 deg on possession switch).
frame rate is a bit faster cuz of the new player models/gfx...
seems like they made the faces and headshapes more like
the real players, but the rest of them had been lowered,
a more cartoony look...