Are you running 3.21 or 3.92 gears?
This gearing contributes to a huge part of what you're indicating.
I previously had 3.21's on my 19' and the shifting from 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5 hugely differs from my new 23' with 3.92's on the same shifting.
I also run 35's for my summer set up, but...