Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology has enabled increased performance of wireless communication devices. The increased complexity associated with MIMO devices requires more realistic testing environments to ensure device performance. This testing can be accomplished by either very accurate but expensive anechoic chambers, less accurate but inexpensive mode-stirred chambers, or the newly introduced reconfigurable over-the-air chamber (ROTAC) that combines the benefits of both anechoic chambers and reverberation chambers. This work focuses on efficient optimization methods to quantify the performance of the ROTAC. First, an efficient optimization technique that combines convex optimization and a simple gradient descent algorithm is developed that can be applied to different ROTAC performance metrics. Plane wave synthesis is used to benchmark performance versus chamber complexity, where the complexity is defined in terms of chamber size and the number of ports in the chamber. Next, the optimization technique is used to study the spatial channel characteristics (power angular spectrum) of the chamber and the generation of arbitrary fading statistics inside the chamber. Lastly, simulation results are compared with practical hardware measurements to highlight the accuracy of the simulation model for the chamber. Overall, this work provides a comprehensive analysis for optimization of different ROTAC performance metrics.