2004 water colour issues

i dont know if its just me and my system but ive noticed that the water colour looks terrible in FS2004 for starters its too light at night & day for that matter but more importantly as the sim only renders a relativly small area around the aircraft so that at high altitudes you can clearly see the edge of the rendered area which goes from dark to bright green (day time water colour)and looks terrible and unrealistic!!!. Ive never heard anybody else complain about this issue so is it normal and has anybody else noticed it in fs2004, and if so is there a fix for this, is it possible to increase the size of the rendered area around the aircraft so you cant see the edge any more??ive noticed it on two completely different computer systemsthis issue is also there in fs2002 but hardly noticable due to more subtle water texture differencesi currently run an Antec tower1024 dual rampentum 4 3.2 hyperthreadASUS Springdale p4p800 deluxe motherboardherculese ATI 256 9800xt graphics card with latest driverI have also noticed low frame rates as low as 8 even with this high spec system when all sliders are maxed out and complex weather and scenery are present, i bought this machine so that performance would not be a problem but should i just accept the fact that its just not posible to have everything maxed out with any machine and expect decent framerates?? if there are any experts out there please advise.