Oh, I've tried Vulkan a few times and the results were all over the place; I've managed to find a few more favourable tweaks with the Nvidia control panel since then that have collectively helped, so maybe I'll try Vulkan again tomorrow, I know Vulkan works like a dream when I want to run Swords 'n Magic and Stuff.

Honestly though, I'm still thriving quite well at 10 FPS, it was the dropping to 5-6 or so that was really causing me issues; this latest patch has resolved some of that quite handily.