Dragon Age: Origins maxes out CPU?

It's kinda odd, but the game is maxing out my CPU, even when it's at the main menu or at the character creation screen. I've currently limited the CPU affinity to one core, but it's still maxing out that core. The game used to stutter before this however, and setting the CPU affinity has helped noticeably.

I've seen videos of people playing this game maxed out (minus AA) on an 8800GT and with a much weaker CPU than mine; it runs quite smoothly from what I can make out. Is this some sort of hardware-specific bug? My hardware should be more than capable of running the game at 1440x900 on High or Very High detail setting without issues IMO.

Oh, and FYI, I've patched the game too, to no avail.

It's an awesome game, and I really wanna enjoy it to the fullest. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.