Quake3World

P4 3.0GHz
2GB RAM
nVidia 6800 Ultra

Not a new computer by any definition, but playing against the computer or on a LAN, I get pretty good FPS even on high settings and high resolution. I can average around 60 FPS (or 30 on the capped computer play).

However, sometimes when playing online, my FPS takes a dip (20 FPS and worst case down to 4) even though ping times are still relatively good (usually between 40-100), so it's not exactly lag either. It seems to occur on servers with more players and especially on certain maps like Outskirts (which runs fine offline, but not online). Those of you who play with me online may have noticed that I do jack shit whenever we play outskirts cuz that's typically when I hit 4 FPS.

I'm trying to play with everything at the lowest settings and from what I can tell, the game's video setting aren't the cause of the problem.

Any thoughts?

I know what you're talking about. I have similar specs to yours and I get the same performance roughly. I turn everything to minimum though so that I can get the best performance. Graphics mean little to me in a multiplayer fps game. Outskirts should be playable for you if you do that at least.