I just gave the game a shot after installing the first patch and one of my bigger issues was the lag and hitching in major cities that were very populated and I am glad to report that the majority of it is now gone. There were certain areas that would cause hitching, almost a slight pause in cities and in these areas it is now very smooth. I did notice some very slight hitching, but it is very minor. Compared the release state of the game, it is almost night and day difference on not having slight pauses every time you enter a city and try to go from one part of town to another. On the release version entering/leaving the wood crafting station in Glenbura for example would cause major hitching/pausing and in this area it is virtually gone. In this area this is slight hitch and even the music hitches as you get close the crafting table, but it so much better that it was.
Overall, I am actually surprised that ZOS improved stuff like the lag/hitching after the first patch. I came from the PC version and am not use to fixes with lag/hitching to be taking care of in the first patch. There are still a lot of other things that need fixing, friends list is still broken, still issues with not being able to stack items, they give you a way to split stacks, but no way to re-stack. So if you are managing a guild bank, it is a pain. I know there are a lot of other issues as well that I am not mentioning/forgetting, but this was big first step in the right direction.
So just wanted to say good job to the team at ZOS for addressing some of the issues, please continue to do so and make the game even better!!!