Setting
/com_maxfps
Set it to 30 to improve latency
Usually 54
If 128 Megs Ram or more set to 70 or 95. Leave alone if you have less.


More Console Tweaks
[From I am Quake 3 ]

Changing these settings can improve your ability to see people before they see you or have a better chance of fragging them. For more information refer to I am Quake 3 and there Tweak List. Windows 7 free rar extractor. This guide is not meant to copy or 'steal' anything but just to sum up all the information. Content is owned by their respective owners.

Arguments or
Default
cg_bobpitch
set amount player view bobs forward/back while moving. set to 0 to reduce motion sickness and possibly increase FPS [Flags: A]
0.002
set amount player view rolls side to side while moving. set to 0 to reduce motion sickness and possibly increase FPS [Flags: A]
0.005
set amount player view bobs up/down while moving. set to 0 to reduce motion sickness and possibly increase FPS [Flags: A]
1250
set time to display ejected shells from weapons, 0 disables shell animation and may increase FPS [Flags: A]
1
enable display of ammo and armor items (currently disabled) [Flags: A]
1
cg_drawAttacker
enable display of attacking player name [Flags: A]
0
cg_drawGun
enable display of player gun model, setting to 0 (off) may increase FPS [Flags: A]
1
cg_gibs
enable gibs (0 will inclrease FPS slightly) [Flags: A]
0
cg_marks
enable display of decals (blast marks, etc.) setting to 0 may increase FPS [Flags: A]
1
enable client-side preditiction of items (powerups, weapons, ammo, etc.); 1 is best for net performance, but under bad lag items may jump around or disappear suddenly [Flags: UA]
400
set persistance time for railgun trails [Flags: A]
0.002
set amount player view bobs up and down while running [Flags: A]
0.005
set amount player view rolls side to side while running [Flags: A]
1
0 = no shadows, 1 = enable simple shadows, 2 = enable complex shadows (try: r_stencilbits 8; vid_restart; cg_shadows 2) [Flags: A]
0
disable display of rings and spheres around items (1 may increase FPS) [Flags: A]
100
set game view size as a percentage of total screen size; smaller will increase FPS [Flags: A]
30
cl_nodelta
disable delta compression (slows net performance, only use if net errors happen otherwise)
1
set number of duplicate packets to send; valid values are integers 0-5, try 3 [Flags: A]
0
cl_showSend
enable display of outgoing packet info
0
cl_timeNudge
effectively adds local lag to try to make sure you interpolate instead of extrapolate (try 100 for a really laggy server)
0
enable joystick input, setting to 0 may free up some memory [Flags: AL]
0
enable midi, seeting to 0 may free up some memory [Flags: A]
display memory usage info
restart networking system
display current ping (time in miliseconds that it takes to send data to/from the server), lower is better, higher usually means bad lag
1
enable detailed textures (0 may increase FPS) [Flags: AL]
1
off (0) disables rendering of dynamic lights through walls (the backsides of walls are not illuminated). 0 may decrease FPS. [Flags: A]
0
enable rendering of a sun in the sky (as staic lighting behind clouds) 0 may improve FPS [Flags: A]
1
enable dynamic lighting (0 will increase FPS) [Flags: A]
1
enable compiled vertex array rendering if video card supports it [Flags: AL]
1
r_ext_multitexture
enable multitexturing if video card supports it (may increase FPS if 1) [Flags: AL]
1
enable culling of brush faces not in view (0 will slow FPS) [Flags: A]
0
enable faster (lower quality) sky (will increase FPS) [Flags: A]
0
enable extra completion code necesssary for some video cards, may decrease FPS a bit if 1 [Flags: A]
7
set lens flare fading rate, higher may improve FPS, but flare effects will fade away faster [Flags: C]
0
enable lens flare effects (0 may increase FPS) [Flags: A]
40
set lens flare size (smaller will increase FPS) [Flags: C]
3dfxvgl
r_lodCurveError
set allowable error in curved surface rendering, higher may increase FPS [Flags: A]
5
set level-of-detail scale modifier; higher may increase FPS [Flags: C]
3
set video display mode (resolution), use listmodes for list of options, use -1 to set custom resolution with r_customwidth/height; using lower resolution will increase FPS [Flags: AL]
0
force rendering of hidden objects (slows performance) [Flags: C]
0
disable curve rendering; setting to 1 may increase FPS [Flags: C]
0
disable portal rendering; setting to 1 may increase FPS, but will also remove the portal effects from the game [Flags: C]
1
set mipmap level for player models (0-3, 3 lowest quality, highest FPS) [Flags: AL]
0
enable display of portal views only (items not visible thru portal not rendered) [Flags: C]
0
enable pre-caching of map texturesl may help stuttering/loading problems [Flags: AL]
1
set rounding down factor (larger = faster, lower quality) [Flags: AL]
GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST
set the rendering mode: in order from lowest quality (fastest) to highest quality (slowest), [type] options are: GL_NEAREST, GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST, GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST, GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR, GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR. Think of the 1st two as low and high quality for hardware that supports bilinear filetering, and the 2nd two as low and high quality for hardware that supports trilinear filtering.H299 [Flags: A]
20
sets number of snapshots sever sends to client (servers run at 40Hz, so use 40, 20, or 10), try 10 to reduce lag [Flags: UA]
disable A3D sound; disabling may improve performance
enable A3D sound
22
set sound sample frequency (22 = high, 11 = low), 11 may improve performance [Flags: A]
1
force 8-bit (lower quality) sounds; may improve performance [Flags: A]
0
enable A3D sounds (compaible audio card required) [Flags: R]
0


Thanks for help from Quake 3 Center and I Am Quake 3 for a guide to look at. All tweaks have been tested by me using 3 different systems all LOW, Medium, and High End. Here are the systems used in the testing and creation of the guide.

HIGH END Brand is IBM
Pentium 3 550Mhz
128 Megs Ram
Creative Labs TNT 2 Ultra w/ 32 Megs Ram TV OUT [Latest Drivers]
19inch Hewlett Packard Pavilion Monitor

MEDIUM END Brand is Gateway
Pentium 2 266 Mhz
64 Megs Ram
Creative Labs Voodoo 2 w/ 12 Megs Ram NOT SLI [Latest Drivers]
17inch monitor EV7000 Gateway

Best Quake Games

HIGH END Brand is Gateway
Pentium 200 Mhz
32 Megs Ram
Diamond Voodoo 2 w/ 12 Megs Not SLI [Latest Drivers]
15inch monitor EV500 Gateway

Quake Live Servers

Updates!
December 29, 1999
Check the Quake III- Arena FAQ from id software for more troubleshooting!
Also check John Carmack's plan for hints on playing with modems and other such things right here.

Best

Here is what he had to say about playing on a modem 28.8 in speed.

I have been playing a lot of Q3 on a 28.8 modem for the last several days.
I finally found a case of the stuck-at-awaiting-gamestate problem that
turned out to be a continuous case of a fragment of the gamestate getting
dropped. I have changed the net code to space out the sending of the
fragments based on rate.
Note that there have been a few different things that result in stuck
at gamestate or stuck at snapshot problems. We have fixed a few of them,
but there may well still be other things that we haven't found yet.
You can still have a fun game on a 28.8 modem. It is a significant
disadvantage, no question about it, but you can still have a good game if
you play smart. If there is someone that knows what they are doing on a
server with a ping in the low 100s, there won't usually be much you can
do, but a skilled modem player can still beat up on unskilled T1 players..
Make sure your modem rate is set correctly. If you have it set too high,
large amounts of data can get buffered up and you can wind up with multiple
seconds of screwed up delays.
Only play on servers with good pings. My connection gives me a couple dozen
servers with mid 200 pings. 56k modems often see servers with sub 200 pings.
If you ignore the ping and just look for your favorite map, you will probably
have a crappy game.
If you have a good basic connection to the server, the thing that will mess
up your game is too much visible activity. This is a characteristic of the
number of players, the openness of the level, and the weapons in use.
Don't play on madhouse levels with tons of players. None of the normal Q3
maps were really designed for more than eight players, and many were only
designed for four.
Don't play in the wide open maps unless there are only a couple other
players. Four very active players in a wide open area are enough to bog
down a modem connection.
I just implemented 'sv_minPing' / 'sv_maxPing' options so servers can restrict
themselves to only low ping or high ping players. This is done based on the
ping of the challenge response packet, rather than any in-game pings. There
are a few issues with that -- a LPB may occasionally get into a HPB server
if they happen to get a network hiccup at just the right time, and the number
used as a gate will be closer to the number shown in the server list, rather
than the number seen in gameplay. I would reccomend 'sv_minPing 200' as a
reasonable breakpoint.

Quake Live Best Player Software

Easter Eggs [from gamespot]
Bring down the console (with the tilde ~ key) and type '/map test_bigbox' to load a small, rectangular arena with only the gauntlet and machine gun available. Don't expect to engage in any fierce battles here, but it's still interesting to look at. Well, actually it's not that interesting, but you can gauntlet box with your closest friends!
On Deva Station (Q3DM11), locate the teleporter placed behind a shotgun spawn spot. The teleporter, a one-way trip, takes you to a room with armor shards. Across from the teleporter and shotgun is what appears to be a simple wall. Approach the wall, touching its surface, and watch it open. Step inside for a message ('You've Found A Secret!') and grab the +50 health inside and take a look at the strange fish creature that some call The Dope Fish.
On Demon Keep (Q3DM15), enter the tunnel at the bottom of the lava pool area that leads back into the heart of the keep. Along the way, you'll spot a disembodied head, complete with freaky eyes, on the left side of the path.
On Bouncy Map (Q3DM16), fly underneath the main area of the map and spot the character from the Internet comic strip User Friendly.
On Apocalypse Void (Q3DM19), fly underneath the main area of the map and spot the same User Friendly character from Bouncey Map. Also, fly around to the large antenna and spot another logo for the Old Man Murray web site.