Hit the FPS Wall

Upon experimenting with unlocking gauges onto other monitors, my frame rate has begun grinding to a halt. I'm at 30 FPS, but the moment I click "undock," it drops to 15 FPS. I've tried lowering some non essential settings, with no effect. I then tried lowering all settings, with quite literally no effect. I have to use the gauges inside FS, because of the custom logic involved, so FSXPand and other external gauges are not an option. My current setup is a two-pc setup, with a powerful pc running FS, and an old pc running SIOC. I'm beginning to think that I should invest in another powerful pc to run the gauges. What are your thoughts?