FSX-SE FSX:SE Stops updating scenery during flight

[SpeedbirdCanada 0]

ASUS Sabertooth FX990 R2.0, AMD FX-8350 oc 4.5 MHz w/8Gb DDR3 1866Mhz, ASUS GeForce GTX 1050Ti, Windows 10 64-bit Pro

FSX:SE, DX10Fixer, NVInspector, AS16 w/ASCA, Pilot's FTGlobal NG (latest one for FSX), Orbx (many incl BASE, Vector, PNW, NRM, OLC, Buildings, Trees, Chaseplane and Volanta).

Two weeks ago, without adding/removing any addons or changing settings, FSX:SE started to not only show blurry scenery but no terrain resolution (literally a blue flat brownish ground no features). The sim would load perfectly at my starting airport and everything sharp as a  tack with steady FPS locked at 30 fps. takeoff, climbout look great but after a short cruise of about 20 minutes, the distant horizon looks like the ground from an 80's video game. FPS remains steady.

I suspect hardware failure since no software changes occurred (to my knowledge) so I began testing components (RAM, GPU, HDD, SSD) with not reported anomalies. Other games/programs continue to run flawlessly.

Let's assume a setting was perhaps changed automatically with DX10Fixer or ORBX Central but, I am unable to locate the problem. Again prior to 2 weeks sim was smooth and sharp. My settings are not maxed and I have reviewed the AVSIM config, CTD, and other tweak guides (none of which I usually mess with since I've been down that rabbit-hole before ending in a fresh install). That said, I did reset my settings (del FSX.cfg), I also verified files in all ORBX addons.

I descended to my destination and paused the sim. (start timer) I also monitored my CPU in task manager bouncing between 80 and 99% load and GPU (initially around 20-30% but when the scenery started getting blurry the GPU load drops to 5-10%)... while paused the CPU remains over 94% while GPU now climbs to 20% suggesting that scenery will start catching up. Temps are steady CPU 37C and GPU 41C. UPDATE: So 8 minutes paused the scenery is once again sharp as ever. Why is this happening when 14 days ago, my sim remained sharp for duration of flight? I realize the variables are too great to answer definitively however, I'm sure others out there have experience similar anomalies and a list of suggestions would be appreciated. Again, I stress that my system ran moderately detailed settings for years without this issue. I have no interest in going through a fresh install again (I'll just shelf the sim until I have the patience to sift through the tweak noise again).

[BUFFERPOOLS]
UsePools=0     --------------------> Played with this before but so many sites have conflicting suggestions.

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=254   -------------------> Placebo? tried 14, 84, 252 with no noticeable change. 

[GRAPHICS]
AC_SELF_SHADOW=1
AIRCRAFT_REFLECTIONS=1
AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=1
COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1
D3D10=1
EFFECTS_QUALITY=2
GROUND_SHADOWS=0
IMAGE_QUALITY=0
LANDING_LIGHTS=1
NUM_LIGHTS=8
See_Self=1
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=2048
TEXTURE_QUALITY=3
Text_Scroll=1
SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED_10=1693751040
SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED=1693751040
MultiSamplesPerPixel=4
MultiSampleQuality=8
HIGHMEMFIX=1   -------------------> Many sites indicate FSX:SE doesn't need this yet a *few* users suggest leave on. I've tried with =1 and =0 no noticeable difference in the issue at hand

[TERRAIN]
AUTOGEN_DENSITY=2
DETAIL_TEXTURE=1
LOD_RADIUS=3.500000
MESH_COMPLEXITY=80
MESH_RESOLUTION=23
TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=29
WATER_EFFECTS=5

[Display]
ActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=0,28,140,64
ActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255
BLOOM_EFFECTS=0
ChangeTime=4.000000
ForceVCShadowMap=1
InfoBrakesEnable=True
InfoLowerLeftBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128
InfoLowerLeftTextColor=255,255,255
InfoLowerRightBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128
InfoLowerRightTextColor=255,255,255
InfoOverspeedEnable=True
InfoParkingBrakesEnable=True
InfoPauseEnable=True
InfoSlewEnable=True
InfoStallEnable=True
InfoUpperRightBackGroundColor=0,0,0,0
InfoUpperRightTextColor=255,0,0
NonActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=24,33,87,64
NonActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255
SKINNED_ANIMATIONS=1
TransitionTime=4.000000
UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=21  ------> normally 30
WideViewAspect=True
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400   ------> 40, 80, 120, 160, 400   no change

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.0.0]
Mode=1920x1080x32
Anisotropic=1
AntiAlias=1

[Main]
HideMenuFullscreen=1
HideMenuNormal=0
SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes
SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats
SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals
SimObjectPaths.5=C:\Program Files (x86)\12bPilot\SODE\data\SimObjects
SimObjectPaths.6=C:\ProgramData\12bPilot\SODE\SimObjects
SimObjectPaths.7=SimObjects\IVAO_MTL
SimObjectPaths.8=SimObjects\UGCX
SimObjectPaths.9=C:\Program Files (x86)\Addon Manager\Simobjects\Misc
SimObjectPaths.10=C:\Program Files (x86)\Addon Manager\Simobjects\Legacy
User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter
ProcSpeed=6983
PerfBucket=7
Maximized=2
Disable_Preload=1
FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.11   ------> 0.11, 0.15, 0.2, 0.33, 0.5 no change
Location=440,129,1480,908,\\.\DISPLAY1

 

Thanks for taking time to read. I'm off to work to make more money to buy a XP11 or FS2020 computer system LUL