Hi Oilman Yes I chose the E8500 Dual Core as it's the best compromise for me for the forseeable future. Had it a year now and I would be prepared to overclock if I felt it needed more juice! So far as I can tell (I'm a 'tinkerer' not an expert) most games are GPU limited rather than CPU. I know all the trajectories and unit movements eat up resources BUT my previous PC had a P4 3.4GHz with NVid 7900 GTX and that ran Karkov well and (Basic original) TvsT (albeit jerky on occassions) with options turned down, so all is not lost. I just like to see all the graphic goodness
it helps with the immersion factor.
Of course ZeeWolf is testing the limits of the Game to see what is possible and playable and it must be a nightmare job, he has stepped up the units, objects and terrain and so the CPUs will take a bigger hit now, but I'm hopefull that with the developments we are seeing from Zee we will be able to keep pace with the programme and enjoy playing it for many years possibly (like Zee) upgrading slowly to take advantage of the progress. This could be monster and I hope ZW is around a long time' as for personal support and attention he is unbeatable.
All The Best - Mort