So there is definitely something funky either with my hardware or MSFS optimization or both. Doing a quick search for CPU intensive settings in MSFS, I came to this article:
So according to it, it looks like the LOD settings for Terrain and Objects are pretty important in MSFS to the CPU.
I bumped them down to 10 (the lowest) and immediately saw the different, as the CPU usage has dropped to around 60-70 percent and I got a nice smooth framerate without touching any of the other settings which are mostly on “High”.
Unfortunately with the 10 in those settings the draw distance of the objects and the pop-up is atrocious.
So I gradually bumped up until I got to what I think is a limit for my hardware which is around 50-60.
I’m still getting a relatively smooth experience and the draw distance I can work with, with minimal pop-up.
The weird part is that as I get up in the air, my CPU goes to around 90% but never peaks at 100% and after a minute or so in the air, it all stabilizes and CPU actually drops to a cool 60-70 percent utilization. I’m guessing the higher I go, the lower LOD is on the buildings (I’m flying in a phogrametry city for these test) and CPU usage decreases.
However something went horribly wrong and upon landing, my picture in VR started to stutter something horrible. CPU usage increased but to standard 90% without peaking, GPU barely even showing any strain.
Making a full 180 degrees on the runway got the stutter so bad that I had to take my HMD off my eyes but I kept it on my forehead so that it didn’t turn off, and observed what was happening via the monitor while continuing to turn the plane around on the ground. It gotten worse and worse, and finally sim crashed…
CPU stayed at 80-90 utilization, RAM usage stayed steady and never peaked above 100 an GPU didnt even break a sweat according to windows resources manager at least.
No idea what the hell is happening with this thing now.