Greetings all.  I am new to SINS, having picked it up in the store a few weeks ago.  My play is basically focused on single player, so that is the direction my question comes from.  I hope I'm posting in the right place.

I am a fan of large scale games, so when I started it up I chose a large map with two allies and two enemies so I could get a feel for what the game is like.  For the first hour of play it was enjoyable and smooth, and I then began having signifcant slow down and choppy framerates.  I saw the Beta patch addressed this somewhat and downloaded it.  It has certainly improved it somewhat, but my game still suffers significant slowdown after getting about an hour into it, although now it is at least playable.

My computer is an IMac dual core, 8 GIGs of ram, with a 256 MB video card.  I run the game in XP using bootcamp.  Most any game I throw at it runs great as long as I tone down the graphics generally to around medium.  I have tried toning the graphics of SINS way down but still get the lag after playing a while.

My question then is, for those of you experienced with the game, are there any hints to reduce lag in later gameplay?  Should I use smaller maps?  Set fleet sizes to small?  Keep graphics turned way down? Play only with myself and one opponent?

I would appreciate any insight you guys have to give.  Much thanks.  I am still really enjoy the game.