I have tried low

fLODFadeOutMultObjects=.1
fLODFadeOutMultItems=0.1

and it eliminates massive fps drops when it makes everything invisible (obviously) but this makes the game unplayable.

For some reason simple gritty ground is generating massively stupid numbers of draw calls. Just looking straight up takes care of it, even if there is plenty of stuff above you. Even with tiny FODFade looking at close ground tanks FPS

Of all the things in the game, why would ground generate this problem?