Unfortunately, when you're designing a game, you can't do it with the intention that only 5% of all PC owners will have the power needed to be able to play it, especially in the midst of an economic depression.  (Not everyone is rich and can afford a fancy-schmancy new 8 core computer and not everyone knows or has the where-with-all to order parts inexpensively from Newegg and build their own 8 core rig.).  Instead, you would hope that any computer with a lowly dual core CPU purchased after, say, 2007, could run it.

The nice thing about Sins is that the focus of the game's development can really be on the quality of the game play and not the eye candy.  When you're engaged in an intense real game (say 5v5, no AI's) who has time to drown themselves in eye candy anyway?  Some people never zoom in past being able to view small icons around the planets.

I'm on a rig that I designed in 2005 (parts ordered) and assembled in late January 2006.

CPU:   AMD Opteron 185 (dual core CPU overclocked to 2.8 Ghz from 2.6 standard)

Mobo:  Epox +9npa Ultra (nForce 4 mobo)

RAM:  3 GB of DDR 400

GPU:  nVidia 8800 GT

Of course, I'd love to have a more powerful quad core or octacore, etc., but this computer does everything I need it to do for now and there aren't any games out there I particularly want to play that I can't currently play.  (Sins is about 95% of my gaming time.)  Otherwise I just use this computer for Internet surfing and word processing.  So, I would hate to have to go buy a new rig simply to be able to play a new game who's only real virtue is enhanced eye candy.

I have enormous respect for your the 8800GT. The gem of the 8000 series cards for price and performance. 

I play small-medium maps on a (8200)9300m gpu with a centrino dual core at 2ghz and Its good with sins but lag kicks in late game -but as you say i just zoom out. I can comfortably watch large map replays so im really proud of having to travel anywhere and still be able to play than be on my PC and still have to use low settings to avoid lag. 

Pricing:

"I think its important for future consoles to adopt a wireless mouse and keyboard setup. For starters its an affordable box for the masses and is specifically designed for gaming in terms of multi-threaded gaming engines.

Current consoles have 3 to 8 threaded executions in there CPU cores. My laptop is more expensive than my console but significantly weaker. Ram on consoles is not a problem because of Blu-Ray streaming and the lighting data transfer rates on the ps3.

Current Pricing on ebay:: 8800GT $75, PS3 $268  with International free shipping.

If the ps3 could support sins then i would go for it any day for my larger map games.  

I see a future for rts where gaming would be affordable vai the consoles. It could boost sales for rts games beyond the current state. While assembling rigs would prove to be a good investment for performance and upgrade options then consoles could let the mainstream users play sins with all the eye candy.

Engine:

What we need is a game that is built from the ground up to be extremely multi-threaded to avoid lowering the graphics settings. On top of that: the ease of use and multiplayer community online needs to be built in the game. ladders, & tournament listings etc. 

Modding and customization:

We need more easy assets and making it easier to model like the game spore.

In fact we should be able to Pimp our rides as they say -  Additional parts, decorations, labeling, weapon effects and weapon effects colors- etc and be able to use those single player customization online. 

Putting normal folks through Maya for modelling is not going to work."