I also use Studio One, but it's version 4, which has been optimized quite a bit compared to V3. Plug-ins like Helix require a lot of CPU; with all due respect to PreSonus, who include some very fine plug-ins with Studio One, their amp plug-in is not on the same level as Helix. Fortunately, Studio One has a couple different ways to do what's called "track freeze" in other programs, so after recording a track, you can bounce it to processed audio, and save CPU. You can also preserve the pre-bounced state in case you need to revert, and edit the plug-in later.
Unfortunately for guitar players, a fact of life is that lower latencies - which give the most comfortable playing "feel" - stress out the CPU the most. Amp sims like AmpliTube, Waves G|T|R, and Guitar Rig can select "lower resolution" modes while tracking, and then when mixing, you can increase the resolution because you can also increase the latency while mixing - you won't notice the change in feel compared to playing. Consider using some of the lower-latency amps in Helix when tracking, then going for the heavy-duty ones when mixing.
As to the spiking, that could be something else, and you just hadn't noticed it because it didn't matter until there was something else draining the CPU. Not sure which platform you're using, but for Windows, Latencymon (which is free) will show what's drawing CPU power. For many people, just turning off the wi-fi made a significant improvement in performance. I also found some "HD Audio" drivers that graphics cards install can give a really big performance hit, because they prioritize video over audio. Some will even basically stop your hard drive if needed, so they include a big audio buffer. Disable any unused audio drivers (but note that when there are updates to Windows, you may need to dig in and disable again - they're often turned back on as a "favor" to you).
Finally, I've had some mysterious "all of a sudden the program starts crackling" issues when using multiple Helices. Saving the project, closing Studio One, and reopening solved the problem for at least the next several hours, providing I wasn't trying to do a zillion other things on the computer.
Good luck! You'll find the same issue with other CPU-intensive plug-ins. You might want to become friends with Studio One's internal performance monitor, which shows CPU drain for plug-ins and what they contribute to increased latency. It can be quite revealing about what's dragging down a project.