i wonder if the OP is even running everything maxxed out to begin with?
Apparently not, I never seen Aces High with full graphics on for well over 5 years... maybe longer... until February of this year.
30 Inch screen with full graphics, I still get blown away by the skins.. Go from 1280x1024 to 2600x1600 - No graphics to full graphics.. You start to appreciate stuff quite more.
I used to always tank with NO terrain features on, no grass - can't see more then 1 mile or so? I mean it was horrible, pretty much I called it "arcade", and I didn't have a choice in it, if I turned terrain on my FPS would drop below 15 and It sucked.
I should dig into my laptop and get a few screenshots and show a nice comparison -its apples to oranges.