Just updating the thread with my steps so people with similar issues know what works or doesn't.
I had reinstalled windows 7 recently and forgot to go in and unpark processor cores. After changing this Pro Tools still responds about the same, although I can see the load shift around a bit more when changing processor affinity. Still showing system CPU usage of less than 40% when Pro Tools is spiking to 100%+.
Been reading up and seems like there's similar issues across all versions of 11 and 12. My iteration of the problem is probably just exacerbated by using VI's exclusively with no live audio.
Should have my other DAW by tomorrow. Not a move I wanted to make but in addition to confirming the issue is unique to Pro Tools I've been wanting to learn the other DAW so collaborating will be easier.