Game crashing upon loading map

I've been trying to avoid creating a thread for this but my issue keeps getting buried so I guess this is the next step...

I've owned the game for a couple years now and always played with this laptop without any real issues. In 0.11 and the hot fixes whenever I try to load a map or scenario the game will crash with the error "fatal error, GPU failed to respond". Rarely it will also give an error saying "system ran out of memory to perform the operation". In 0.11.0 this only happened on loading WCUSA from the free roam tab, I was able to load it from scenarios without issue. The game ran fine on WCUSA when it would load. Steam randomly did a "first time set up" for the game and then everything was fine. The issue came back when the first hot fix was released. Currently I cannot load any map or scenario, including pure grid map. Today it gave me a message "failed to start graphics device" as well, which makes me wonder if the game is using my integrated graphics card instead of the dedicated card even though the game says it is using the dedicated card. No other signs of GPU issues at all, I can play every other game I have without any issues currently.

GT745M, i7 4500U, 8gb RAM. All software is up to date, verified integrity, ran in safe mode.

 

I'm also concerned: I am also having the game randomly crash, within 10 minutes or so of game play. I get an error which says that my GPU has stopped responding or something. AFAIK, there are zero hardware issues with my GPU; it works fine with everything else. Additionally, I'm having a huge drop in FPS, on certain maps. A couple updates ago, I could run East Coast USA basically on a solid 55-60 FPS (full settings, except for dynamic reflection). Now, it's more like 45 FPS, with constantly fluctuation. Cockpit view gives me 60 FPS, but external views give me lag.

So far, I've tried clearing the cache, re-installing the game, and then even updating my GPU's drivers. Neither one has helped. Nadeox1 had me open a case, so I'm waiting to hear back. The devs will check the code and see what is conflicting. Y'know, I feel as though I should try going back to Windows 7.

 

The performance tab says it's using the Nvidia card and in the past it has always correctly identified when it isn't. I'll get a ticket next time I'm at the computer.