I'm not sure about this, but it seems like AH2 is drawing items on that are not visible on the screen.
While sitting in the tower, I started out with a good frame rate and suddenly without any change in what was visible the triangle count rocketed up...
Then a few seconds later it returned to normal.
And then a few seconds later it shot back up. It's like it's drawing the drones circling the field even when they aren't visible.