COD4 on my new PC - is this as it should be?

Hi, I just purchased a new PC (Q9450 cpu running @ stock speed, 8800GTS 512MB gfx, 4gb ddr2-ram, asus p5k/epu mb) and I tried playing cod4. What struck me was that I got some slow downs in the game (fps going to red numbers, 40-50 fps) - that's with default graphics settings (basically everything set to high), and in 1280x1024 resolution, 4xAA. Btw I am running Windows XP.

I just want to know if I should expect some slow downs with these graphics settings, or is something wrong?

I have the recent nvidia driver installed, I tried setting vsync to always off, as I remember it often helped on my older pc's.

It is 32 bit yeah, I know I wont utilize all ram, but I just bought 4gb as I will probably soon move to a 64bit OS.

Hm It seems to be a bit better now.. have to do some more testing.

I discovered I had a program downloading quite heavily in the background. Do you think that can affect FPS as well?

Now that I have a quad core it shouldn't be the workload of the program causing the trouble. What I meant was that a bad connection due to the download maybe could hurt the fps..

But at least I shouldn't expect for example 100 fps stable at these settings with this rig? I don't know what's normal fps-wise for today's games on today's PC's which is why I ask here.

I used the ingame "cg_drawfps 1" command.

I just did a 3DMark06 test, I scored 13695 points - that should be okay?

i'm using 1440x900 everything high 4xaa on a 8800 gts 512 and a e7200 and it fluctuates between 45 to 120 fps , theres a lot going on and llike tomdrum said 40-50 aint that slow and it jus happens in mere milliseconds , but i dont know maybe it is a bit odd since its a better cpu