Freezing.

[Sneaksie]

Hmm, something with video driver maybe.

Did you turn Sandy Bridge graphics off in BIOS or your PC alternates between it and 550 Ti depending on load? Try to turn it off.

Set up a profile for the game in nVidia control panel. Force VSync on, turn AA off, set max prerendered frames to lowest setting (0 i think).

Change \AFFINITY 0X3 in Steam to \AFFINITY 0X1 to run the game on only one core, maybe this would help.

Dunno why it freezes in menu, there is basically nothing active there - no large textures loaded, no heavy CPU load, nothing.