i'll check it out, but i'd be really, really surprised if it's approaching the slowdown threshold. i believe the 8 series cards run quite hot, but are designed to, so it's ok as long as you can keep the rest of your case cool. also, i'm running the bioshock beta drivers for my card, though that game is still giving me some visual problems - some of the shaders don't seem to be working properly.

anyways, i got kingdoms today, and so far i've been very impressed. i loaded up a few generic custom battles in the teutonic campaign (each one is a separate executable, which is kinda lame) on huge unit size with 2x AA and 4x AF at 1440x900, and it ran pretty well. there were a few choppy moments, but slowing things down - you can control time incrementally in kingdoms, and slow it down past real-time - seemed to help. this seems perfect to me, as i've always felt like i was juggling a million different things in really large battles, and dropping most of them. slow motion seems to be a bit easier on the ol' computer, so going down to 70 or 60% of realtime in a large battle not only makes it easier to orchestrate just the way i'd like it but also play a little smoother. thumbs up all around.

anyways, i'm about to start my first campaign as the english, so i'll be off. cheers!