Did you try setting all graphics to medium or lower? Sins is a 32-bit program so there's limits on how many resources it can actually use regardless of your system's hardware. It'll run its self into the ceiling pretty fast if you dun't balance your graphics settings out properly. Although you can mix them up a bit, just setting them all to medium is probably the easiest way to fix things.

For the record, this is not something that can be fixed unless Sins is rewritten entirely from scratch, and in doing so it would become incompatible with some older systems and almost every current mod. They'd probably need a new game engine too, so the game wouldn't even look or play the same.

EDIT: Then again, looking at how you said it crashed, it seems /your system/ is at fault. If any program dies like that without an error message (Not even a "This program has stopped responding" or "Windows had to close this program" message), then there's a severe issue with your hardware. This happens on my systems when I'm trying to overclock it since my processor's suffered some damage (Overheated in the past, it's a miracle it survived).

First make sure there's no dust in your system. A layer just 1 mm thick can blow tempetures out the roof. Second, you might want to invest in a new system. Seems yours is in bad shape.

The screen freezes and to get out of it i have to press enter which closes the "this program has stopped responding" message (i have since discovered).

I have a NEW Dell XPS 17 laptop latest drivers and windows version here are specs (it can run skyrim npbs)

Windows 7 home premium 64 bit

Dell XPS L702X

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz

4GB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GT 550M

It crashes usually later in the game when more starts happening like medium to big fights etc (+20 mins into game)  i can reload game and continue playing for a while before the inevitable recurrent crash but ive noticed if im in a mid-late game and i try to load another game whilst playing it produces a guarenteed crash.

MY SETTINGS ARE ON MINIMUM

If its because the game engine/design isnt up to scratch well, I would have liked that information before i spent $40AUD on an UNPLAYABLE game. No excuses for that sorry bro. (yea I just bought this sweet sports car... WTF!... it has a 2hp engine in it and will only move at 5km p/h!?) BUYER BEWARE MUCH??!?!? Aus govt consumer affairs would have a field day in court under implied warranty laws if i brought a claim against the company that sold me the game... and i wouldnt have to pay a cent (be a good oppurtunity for american privatisation addicts who really want to put a government funded PUBLIC consumer protection scheme to the test... cmon I dare you!)

Still to date every single/multiplayer game has ended via this crash. It makes multiplayer completely unplayable which personally, makes the game useless to me (makes singleplayer extremely frustrating aswell). It's not just on huge 8 player games either, 1v1 will still crash in roughly same amount of time its quite random but will always happen.

If it isn't fixed by or very shortly after release ill want my money back, fair enough dont you think?

You might as well cancel your pre-order now.

I havn't got a single desync and very few minidumps.

neither have I, only ever got mini dumps with trinity and never with rebellion. Never seen a desync. This CTD is completely different.

I would think id be even more eligible for a refund after release, at least with beta they can say well game isnt finished yet which is completely fair enough.

I KNOW im not the only person with this problem and the attitude within the forums seems to be"oh well thats just the way the game was designed you can't help it".

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/421858

Im trying to be nice and factual, it makes it hard though when u feel as tho u have been scammed and sold something thats doesnt work

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/425045

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/424435

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/423664

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/423050

This next thread completely blows me away... a dev saying to fix lag (and what i suspect to be my crashing problem) you should "play with less ships". Srsly? That comment leaves me speechless and is part of the reason i expect the problem not to be fixed.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/407192

Im still open to suggestions and will put my time into helping to fix the problem - free of charge.

I totally understand...hell, only reason I'm still around is because they make this game really easy to mod...

The implication often is that you need to mod the game to accomodate for such things...as an oversimplified example, each ship has doubled stats but uses twice the fleet supply....