yeah that 2gb limit is what it was for me. i turned down the resolution (1600x1050) and kept all the effects maxed, made it through a whole game, but had an issue /w a starbase i made: it had no textures. it just glowed blue. which was kind of cool for a min or so. You should be doing your testing on small maps to reduce the memory footprint.
now, i have had it do that thing where you cant set the resolution. basically, sins can't figure out any info about your monitor, so it wont let you change it. Try getting a driver for your monitor. if that doesnt work, try this (you might need to enable hidden files/folders):
go to c:\Users\yournamehere\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting
where yournamehere is your windows user name. then open a file. /w diplomacy, its diplomacy.user.setting
use notepad to open it. Not too far down, there are the following settings:
VideoFullScreenWidth VideoFullScreenHeight
Change the values to the screen resolution you would want to use. I know it sounds like a hassle, but I did this once, then never had the lack of settings again (unfortunately, it tends to list every possible resolution... even those your monitor cannot do, so be careful). Remember, this is due to sins not recognizing your monitor. Other games might have similar issues. You should find a driver for win7 x64. If you cant, try swapping monitors, if you have another. If you have an old old monitor, consider a replacement, they aint to bad in price right now. I just bought a 27" for $300, which is freaking awesome (though, as i said, for sins i am forced to turn it down)
