I remember that the framerate was pretty important in Quake. Because player positions were interpolated linearly, you could miss the top of the parabola when jumping if your framerate was too low. I don't remember any numbers but getting a high framerate was definitely a concern when playing a bit competitively.
>>ajnin+(OP)
Competitive play, sure, especially at low resolutions and everything disabled. Single player games were running at pretty low framerates though, with a few exceptions like Quake/Half-Life. Even 60fps was more of a luxury than a rule.