I have a new computer and I was asking myself....

[KarlHeinz]

Originally Posted by Feuerfalke

Forests=3 add an additional forest-layer that causes a drop in fps with barely any visual difference at all. It even does not make the forest more visible from the sides, where I'd really like to see some more details

Water=4 causes artifacts on my machine

Effects=2 causes pink FlaK-Puffs and flickering 3D-smoke

Specular=3 has no effect, as there is only 0,1,2 supported to my knowledge, but I'd be glad if you can show me a link that defines the difference.

I don't have such problems, probably you have installed an old or too new driver
-->artifacts on water=4

Since patch 4.03:
2 = this mode corresponds Water = 3, however it runs also on ATI graphics cards with chipsets 9800, X800, X1800 and later models
3 = quick Render mode with vertex shader 3.0
4 = improved display quality with vert Shader 3.0

forests=3: "barely any visual difference" true
effects=2: immense difference in the explosions, very recommendable!
specular=3: the game doesn't alter "specular" 3 to 2 as it is always the case if anyone enters unacceptable values, therefore, there is specular 3