Framerate unlocked but opens it up to kick me to offline mode?

[Lakan]

When I unlock the fps for Dark souls, I get a problem where random places in the game(usually where a lot of the map is exposed and viewable) spikes my fps, to the point where the game goes into slow motion(like, the real slow motion that is accompanied by the game itself that is sometimes used in boss fights)... Then the game will tell me I have "insufficient fps for online play" and kick me to offline mode.

HOWEVER, this never happens when I simply leave the fps locked, even when I still get those fps lag spikes anyways. I'd be fine with leaving my fps locked, but for some reason the game locks my game at 15 fps... I have vsync turned off, no AA, tried with motion blur off, I tried having the game upscaled from 800x600, even 640x400 at one point... I even had the unlocked fps set to be limited to 30 fps, still having the prompt telling me I have "insufficient fps", even though when it's locked it NEVER tells me despite having worse performance.

I would also like to add the fact that when I do experience this fps lag, it fixes itself sometime between a moment's notice to 10 seconds in the game. It never remains there, none of them do.

[Lakan]

Also, how do you lessen the draw distance???