Condor,
You will need to zoom in the clipboard map to adjust the scale to see the real position relative to your map icon. Other wise the bases shown on the map at the default resolution are for general navigation or jumping to bases using your mouse.
Please help Skuzzy by posting a dxdiag report or at least tell us what video card and how much memory on it you are using. Some additional things can be done.
1. - place the environment slider at 0.
2. - disable post lighting effects.
3. - change the texture mode to a lower mode. 4096, 2048, 1024, 512, 256, 128.
4. - if you changed your FoV to a custom number above the default of 80 by a large degree, try lowering it.