Big lag and freezing

[sundog]

Your SMP settings don't look particularly challenging, and you have a fair amount of memory available - so I'm not convinced SMP is the culprit here. However, I see you messed with the minimum and maximum cloud size settings. I would recommend setting those back to default, as they can influence how many clouds are created. Also, solid stratiform will perform better than sparse particles.

But again, I'd be really surprised if SMP is the root cause given your very modest settings and your system configuration. I'd recommend temporarily removing your plugins and custom scenery, and start adding them back in until you find what's causing the problem. A GTX970 shouldn't even break a sweat with your SMP settings.