GPU at 99% on crafting tables

Win 8.1 update
Sandy Bridge i5 2500k @ 4.4GHz
8GB 7-8-7 24 1600MHz RAM
MSI Lightning 480gtx 1.5gb DDR5 800GHz OC

23" 1920x1080 LED

This setup has yet to find a 1080 res that kicks it's butt until now

Overland and crafting are 99% gpu

Regular adventuring is 55-85 depending on what's going on.

Tried Fastest and Auto settings to no avail.

Tried turning down totally all nVidia driver level settings. AA etc

Can't figure out why this thing is such a hog for the graphics quality.

Oh and I run a Crucial SSD and Asrock board with 16 dedicated PCI-E lanes via controller chip

Oh and I use RivaTuner for FPS, GPU stats and to hard limit frames to 60, as some games that was the issue when in menus etc

 

If you're doing it in Ardoris or any other medium/large city (anywhere in brittany, owl's head, etc) or any >=130 lot PRT, here's the issue:
The angle that the camera is placed, when using the crafting table, is the worst possible angle for performance. It points backwards through the player, and points just above the horizon. This is the absolute worst possible camera angle, that renders the majority of the scene and offers the lowest frame rate and the highest GPU load.
If the camera angle was literally ANY OTHER ANGLE, including (ideally) straight down from above, the GPU load would be less.
I have no idea what designer thought this angle was good, but at the moment, it's the worst possible choice.

There are workarounds, which just mask the core issue of having hundreds/thousands of dynamic lights, no pre-baked lighting in a scene and rendering that entire scene 100% of the time...
Go to soltown or some other smaller scene npc/housing scene.
Buy a basement. Buy all the crafting stations. Craft in said basement with said crafting stations. Of course, this will cost you 50k gold in crafting stations... *cough* and a house, and a basement.
Find someone else who has all their expert crafting stations in a basement. Craft there. (I know of no such location, but maybe one exists?)

 

I wondered, as it actually throws a filter over the background and smooths it out. Presumably to lower resolution.

I usually craft in Owls Head in Friends Only mode