Looked for more info on this and couldn't find it. It's a pretty system-specific question anyway, so it'd help to have your guys' take on it. My system specs are as follows:
Athlon XP 2800
Radeon 9700 Pro
NForce2 Motherboard
1GB PC3200 RAM
Win XP Pro
Catalyst Drivers version 4.something (4.9, I think)
Now the question. I've been playing 3.6.5 beta at 1280x1024 with pretty much all the graphical bells and whistles turned on, and I'm getting some serious choppiness at certain points in the game, usually when I have a large object like a capital ship in view. Is this just something to be expected because my system doesn't have the horsepower to handle all the purty stuff, or is there something I can tinker with or download to make it a bit smoother?
Also, if it's just b/c my system isn't powerful enough, what settings offer the best opportunities to increase performance but preserve general graphical goodness by turning them off?