The Official DOOM 3 [H]ardware Guide thread.

Yahya said:
hi.

can someone be kind enough to post some links on how to OC a P4 3.0 Ghz cpu and 6800 GT?

sorry if this is off topic.

EDIT: Just wanted to say very THOROUGH guide. :)
Click to expand...

Hi - check into the Overclocking threads, plenty there :)

It's where I went and had much joy ;)
 
Awesome article, and great reviews on the hardware everyone is going to need to run this Superb game.

My only suggestion, would be to have a summary page at the bottom of each page. An example of this would look like this (info from page 6)...

GPU/CPU/MEMORY.............VideoSize/Quality.........MinFPS...MaxFPS...AveFPS

FX5700U/AMD 2500+/512........800x600 HQ..................18............60...........47.6
FX5700U/AMD 2500+/512.......1024x768 HQ.................18............60...........41.5
FX5600U/AMD 2500+/512........800x600 MQ..................23............60...........50.4
FX5200U/AMD 2500+/512........640x480 MQ..................16............60...........38.9
Ti4600/AMD 2500+/512............800x600 MQ..................16............60...........46.9
9600XT/AMD 2500+/512...........800x600 MQ..................22............60...........47.7
9500Pro/AMD 2500+/512..........800x600 MQ..................18............60...........47.9
8500/AMD 2500+/512................640x480 LQ...................13............60...........36.7


Don't get me wrong, I like the individual graphs, but going back to compare each one requires lots of clicks. If you simply put this in a graph at the bottom of each page (you can make it a clickable link if you must :D ), provides easier information for your viewers, and gives a cleaner presentation of the information. Plus it makes it easy to do comparisons on each setup, to further help those people out there with determining what they need hardware wise for upgrading, to get the most out of Doom.
 
I must say that I am impressed with John Carmack and his team. Highly optimized software is hard to come by these days. You would almost think it was entirely programmed in assembly. :)
 
can you guys explain to me why the ati x800's are performing relatively poorer than the 6800's and do you think a driver tweak would make a difference?
 
Kyle and Brent:

Congratulations and thank you, many times over. You guys really did a great job here. I've been hanging around here for years, but this guide really went above and beyond the great work that I was already expecting!

I'm really looking forward to playing D3 on my system, and thanks to you, I know that I made a great decision buying my BFG 6800GT. 1600x1200 High Quality, here I come!

One question...what monitors did you guys use to test on? I have a Dell 2001FP LCD with a 16ms response time, and I was wondering if you guys tested with any LCDs, and if so, how they looked. In any case, I'm happy that I'll be able to run at my native resolution.

Thanks again for all your hard work!

Dougieha

edit: Darn, I knew I forgot something. Carmack and the crew at id really deserve some major recognition for their work in getting this game to work so well on all sorts of hardware. The lack of flaws/artifacts in almost all of the vid cards tested makes it sound like Carmack hand coded for each card in assembly, one by one. An amazing job!
 
I have to say, this is one of the most informative I've ever read, seriously.

The only thing I can comment on, is the fact that "Heat Haze" is a specialized DX9 feature, DX7/8 cards are not capable of achieving "Heat Haze", which is why I thought it was appropriate to add an image of what "Heat Haze" is, so the low-budget community can see what they're missing out on.
 
Powerhouse2k said:
Awesome article, and great reviews on the hardware everyone is going to need to run this Superb game.

My only suggestion, would be to have a summary page at the bottom of each page. An example of this would look like this (info from page 6)...

GPU/CPU/MEMORY VideoSize/Quality MinFPS MaxFPS AveFPS

FX5700U/AMD 2500+/512 800x600 HQ 18 60 47.6
FX5700U/AMD 2500+/512 1024x768 HQ 18 60 41.5
FX5600U/AMD 2500+/512 800x600 MQ 23 60 50.4
FX5200U/AMD 2500+/512 640x480 MQ 16 60 38.9
Ti4600/AMD 2500+/512 800x600 MQ 16 60 46.9
9600XT/AMD 2500+/512 800x600 MQ 22 60 47.7
9500Pro/AMD 2500+/512 800x600 MQ 18 60 47.9
8500/AMD 2500+/512 640x480 LQ 13 60 36.7


Don't get me wrong, I like the individual graphs, but going back to compare each one requires lots of clicks. If you simply put this in a graph at the bottom of each page (you can make it a clickable link if you must :D ), provides easier information for your viewers, and gives a cleaner presentation of the information. Plus it makes it easy to do comparisons on each setup, to further help those people out there with determining what they need hardware wise for upgrading, to get the most out of Doom.
Click to expand...

This must have taken a very long time to type. Cool old skool table :p
 
Yahya said:
can you guys explain to me why the ati x800's are performing relatively poorer than the 6800's and do you think a driver tweak would make a difference?
Click to expand...

ATI doesnt have very good OpenGL drivers, and since Doom 3 is OpenGL, they messed up. Its possible performance will be better with an upcoming driver, though no one is sure by how much.
 
Just finished reading the article and it looks awsome, as usual :)
You've done a really nice job, kudos for [H]ard|OCP :D
Wish you had tested on the good old Radeon9700pro, though... even though it shouldn't be much different from the 9800pro.
I was thinking of upgrading, but I guess my 9700 should be enough to enjoy Doom3. I'll wait for the next batch of cards ;)
 
Yahya said:
can you guys explain to me why the ati x800's are performing relatively poorer than the 6800's and do you think a driver tweak would make a difference?
Click to expand...

Could be a number of factors, of which I do not know.

I think drivers can do anything, they can make or break a video card.
 
very well done. It kinda quelled my want to upgrade if i was only doing it for doom. but I'm afraid my 9600xt and AXP2500+ just can't do it anymore.

seems like you need a 6800 gt to run 1280x12024 :mad: .

I wish i could find one.
 
NonBiasedUser said:
I have to say, this is one of the most informative I've ever read, seriously.

The only thing I can comment on, is the fact that "Heat Haze" is a specialized DX9 feature, DX7/8 cards are not capable of achieving "Heat Haze", which is why I thought it was appropriate to add an image of what "Heat Haze" is, so the low-budget community can see what they're missing out on.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately it is not possible to accurately show you what Heat Haze looks like in a screenshot. It would take a high quality video capture to see what it is all about since it is something that has movement. In a screenshot it comes back looking like the textures are "warped".
 
Dougieha said:
Kyle and Brent:

Congratulations and thank you, many times over. You guys really did a great job here. I've been hanging around here for years, but this guide really went above and beyond the great work that I was already expecting!

edit: Darn, I knew I forgot something. Carmack and the crew at id really deserve some major recognition for their work in getting this game to work so well on all sorts of hardware. The lack of flaws/artifacts in almost all of the vid cards tested makes it sound like Carmack hand coded for each card in assembly, one by one. An amazing job!
Click to expand...

You are very welcome!
 
requiem99 said:
Nobody thinks GF4MX gives you "good" gameplay, it gives you ACCEPTABLE gameplay if you aren't demanding at all. Translation: Noobs only. Anyone who actually knows the difference between a GF4 and a GF4 MX will not be able to play Doom3 on a GF4MX.
Click to expand...

I do know the difference... I was mearly joking about the silly feud going on in the
Threads. There is a hugh difference between the gameplay and hardware in the GF4Ti's and GF4MX, but that is not why I made the comment. :eek: [little to serious] :eek:
 
Thanks for this Kyle - the perfect Doom 3 hardware guide. It's an excellent article, easily the best ever done on computer hardware for gaming, imo. Especially as this is for Doom 3
 
I think when everyone first seen the original timedemo benchmarks the initial reaction was "omfg i need to liquid nitrogen cool my cpu and vid card". Now its obvious that the game will play well on a load of different system configs. Goood job guys. :cool:
 
Great job on the article guys, you must have worked your ass off to get it out this quick.

I'm really excited now that I know I can run 16x12 with my [email protected] and a 6800gt. I was just hoping for 12x10. :)
 
Thanks for the guide guys. Anyone know if there is any difference running this game on Windoze 2000 or Windows XP?
 
for the p4 2.4 ghz, why was their no 6800 GT benchmarking ? I have that system right now and would have love to seen how my system scaled up though 400mhz slower @ stock speeds.
 
Great job guys :cool: . And I thought we would need the Earth simulator to run DOOM 3 at ultra settings.
 
Sound question:

Does Doom 3 support quad sound? I don't have a subwoofer and a center channel for full 5.1, but I can easily set up 4 speakers on my Shuttle SN41G2. Far Cry has an option for quad, so I'm hoping D3 does as well.

And if it doesn't, if I set Nvidia's NVMixer to quad, will that properly downmix the center and subwoofer data?

Great guide - thanks for all the hard work, and see you at QCon.

-HM
 
Eisengrim said:
Thanks for the guide guys. Anyone know if there is any difference running this game on Windoze 2000 or Windows XP?
Click to expand...

According to the specs it is designed to run well in 2K and XP.
 
Kyle || Brent

Have you guys done any OC testing with the 6800 series cards? I'm was just wondering if you ran into any problems with D3 running in an overclocked config where other games ran fine based on Carmak's mention of overclockers beware.

BTW, excellent writeup.

-Tony
 
Well, I'm hoping my dual Opteron 244 box with 2GB ram will do reasonably well. Shame about the SMP though. I'm expecting an MSI 6800 Ultra any day now, and as soon as the DangerDen 6800 block goes on sale, I'm getting one of those too.

Dan
 
Holy wow Batman.
/picks jaw up off the floor after seeing so many tests.
You've outdone yourselves again.
First the BFG hardware articles, and now this.
I could feel the excitement coming thru the screen.
Thanks for all the hard work and time spent testing.
 
NonBiasedUser said:
I have to say, this is one of the most informative I've ever read, seriously.

The only thing I can comment on, is the fact that "Heat Haze" is a specialized DX9 feature, DX7/8 cards are not capable of achieving "Heat Haze", which is why I thought it was appropriate to add an image of what "Heat Haze" is, so the low-budget community can see what they're missing out on.
Click to expand...
Dont forget DooM 3 is an OpenGL game, it is not a DirectX game. While most companies put what version of DirectX there cards support, you will also find what version of the OpenGL API it supports, which the newest I can think of is 1.5. 2.0 is still in the works.

Oh, and great job on the guide, you almost hit my setup, except I am using a 5950ultra, that came pre oced.
 
a period of three and a half days, we put in 65 hours of testing that consisted entirely of DOOM 3 gameplay.
Click to expand...

Such a hard job, but somebody's got to do it. Lucky dogs! :D
 
You guys are just awesome for producing this guide. I do not know of another web site that would put forth the effort.
 
Excellent Guide. You guys covered my current system almost exactly AND the card I'm waiting for too! Thanks, you guys rock
 
TonyZ said:
Kyle || Brent

Have you guys done any OC testing with the 6800 series cards? I'm was just wondering if you ran into any problems with D3 running in an overclocked config where other games ran fine based on Carmak's mention of overclockers beware.

BTW, excellent writeup.

-Tony
Click to expand...

Yes, we did overclock a 6800 non ultra video card. http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQ0LDE5 "[H]ard|OCP Ultimate Enthusiast DOOM 3 System" You can see the overclock of the video card there. It was SOLID at those settings.

There is something worth noting about overclocking, when we overclocked the video card too high instead of seeing the normal pixel artifacts and flashing polygons we instead saw texture corruption as the artifact that shows you are overclocking the card too high. So the effect in overclocking too high is different than other games we have seen.

But our overclocks shown there were very solid and provided great gameplay performance.
 
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