DOOM 3 [H]ardware Guide Coming

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FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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I know some of you have been disappointed at how narrow the benchmarks were this week. We did a LOT of tests with a lot of CPUs and Video Cards. Brent and I worked about 65 hours or so from Tuesday afternoon till early this morning at id putting together this data. We brought all of our own test equipment and we DID use the DOOM 3 GOLD MASTER for testing along with 61.76s and 8.05s.

GF3, TI4600, 5800, 5900, 6800, 680GT, 6800U are all coming this week. As well as 8500, 9600XT, 9800Pro, X800Pro, X800XT. There are probably a couple I missed in there as well.

Here are the systems and CPUs we used the cards on. (Not all cards on all systems, but there is some overlap.)

d3systems.gif


The format of this will not be as traditional benchmarks that you guys are used to. This will the DOOM 3 [H]ardware Guide. We will be concentrating on best performance out of each setup and what to expect from overall system performance. Currently we will not be graphing more than one video card on any graph. It will not be a comparison. That said, we will certainly show you what was the highest playable IQ that each system would provide and we did this using REAL gameplay that covered half a level and runs about 5 minutes. We worked with id on picking the "right place" to do the run-through. That said, we did test on other levels to make sure our IQ calls were "right" and delivered playable performance. If anything, we tried to be on the conservative side of things and certainly some will find some better IQ settings that are playable for them.
Sorry, no time for laptops. :( Maybe next time. But as of right now, it seems getting the latest drivers might be an issue from your MFG.
Sound was something that was to be done as well but we simply ran out of time. We will have comments from id on the importance of sound. TO put it simply, the game plays great with headphones, but if you have been looking for an excuse to buy 5.1 for your computer, NOW is the time.
 
Sounds good Kyle. Can't wait to read it. Sounds to be the definative guide for Doom 3 and your hardware.

Edit: Quick question. Will you be testing overclocked GPU's? Reason I ask is because of the comment Carmack made in your last article about them exhibiting possible problems for Doom III even if it is perfectly fine for everything else you play.
 
This sounds really great. I'm giving my parts to my friend and upgrading to a Socket-T w/eVGA 6800 setup soon, so I'm curiuos how either will stand up to the game.
 
Uh oh, Kyle mentioned 5.1

...I'm still running a SB Live! :)

Still, I'm thankful I got my 2600Mobile so I can HOPE to top the NF7-S 3200+ "stock" being reviewed here, if even by a few frames. Anyway, looking forward to the guide.

*edit* omg, he mentioned the 8500! [H] may be very well, the FIRST website (and maybe only) to do a Doom 3 bench with cards that "we" all have :) Niiiiccce.
 
thx god i can still play doom3 with my computer
does anyknow how much space it needs to install?
 
xdviper said:
thx god i can still play doom3 with my computer
does anyknow how much space it needs to install?
2 GB of space is in the minimum requirements.
 
FiZ said:
Sounds good Kyle. Can't wait to read it. Sounds to be the definative guide for Doom 3 and your hardware.

Edit: Quick question. Will you be testing overclocked GPU's? Reason I ask is because of the comment Carmack made in your last article about them exhibiting possible problems for Doom III even if it is perfectly fine for everything else you play.
Yes, we did some of this.
 
If your still reading this Kyle, whats the eta for the guide? today? tommorow? august 3rd? =)

Edit: ??? miscue...?





no edit, miscue - CIWS
 
I once again bow to Kyle The Great. This is another reason [H] is my homepage and where I spend way too much time :)
 
Lord of Shadows said:
If your still reading this Kyle, whats the eta for the guide? today? tommorow? august 3rd? =)

He's said he's definately working to get it finished before Doom 3's release
 
Mucho appreciation for the effort being put forth. I have a few rigs that i'm curious as to how they'll perform :)
 
I love you guys! :D I don't have alot of cash so the lowend info is important to me.
I hope you guys get some screen shots in. :D
 
sounds great, my friend is interested in the gf3 results :p. He has it overclocked passed ti500 speeds.
 
what's the max screen resolution that can be use with a GF3 to have a decent frame rate?? 640*480 or 800*600??
 
I hope there is alot of reviews at 1024x768 with 2x AA / 2x AF since that's what I use. :D I want to see which vid card plays best at this setting. It gives me the speed I need with the right amount of IQ that I like to have. BTW, how many of you guys actually play at 1600x1200? It looks good, but that is just way to slow for me.
 
Mav451 said:
Uh oh, Kyle mentioned 5.1

...I'm still running a SB Live! :)

Still, I'm thankful I got my 2600Mobile so I can HOPE to top the NF7-S 3200+ "stock" being reviewed here, if even by a few frames. Anyway, looking forward to the guide.

*edit* omg, he mentioned the 8500! [H] may be very well, the FIRST website (and maybe only) to do a Doom 3 bench with cards that "we" all have :) Niiiiccce.

supposedly your sound card doesnt matter at all with Doom 3.
 
Vezra said:
I hope there is alot of reviews at 1024x768 with 2x AA / 2x AF since that's what I use. :D I want to see which vid card plays best at this setting. It gives me the speed I need with the right amount of IQ that I like to have. BTW, how many of you guys actually play at 1600x1200? It looks good, but that is just way to slow for me.

That's the point of the newer hardware, though. A lot of people said the same thing about 1024*768 a few years ago.
 
*does little happy dance*
now i can know just how hard my 9600 will choke.....
 
Lord of Shadows said:
Yeah I can back that up, the sound is handled completely by the cpu.

That's good news. I'm tired of being Creative's bitch, and the seemingly *endless* amount of issues with EAX working properly in games.
 
I never liked EAX, the effects are presets; I like the idea of them being realistically calculated, but there isnt much of a outcry for sound innovation.
 
Yeah I can back that up, the sound is handled completely by the cpu

Hmm...don't remember hearing that....Any links ot that info?

We'll all have a chance to ask Kyle specific questions at QuakeCon...Show up for the workshop and fire away...
 
Wonder how my system will run Doom3... :rolleyes:
Seriously, we all bow to Kyle. What a great idea, and we'll all be hanging out for the results too see if our systems will run. Or see what we will need..

BTW how about a Geforce FX 5700? Just asking of course, not demanding.
 
Alittle off topic but speaking of sound wasn't Trent Reznor doing effects and stuff? I heard that he left the project so what's up with that?
 
CrimandEvil said:
Alittle off topic but speaking of sound wasn't Trent Reznor doing effects and stuff? I heard that he left the project so what's up with that?

He cut out due to differences with Carmack. However, the sounds and music should be just as creepy. In fact, I don't see a reason for you to play with the music on the first time.
 
hordaktheman said:
That's good news. I'm tired of being Creative's bitch, and the seemingly *endless* amount of issues with EAX working properly in games.

That's good and all for Doom3, but what about other games? (if that proves true?)

I mean, audiophiles say how much even the M-Audio card is, compared to the Audigy2, but the problem is, M-Audio has 0 optimizations for modern games--so it eats a quite a few CPU cycles to make up for that fact.

Or at least that's my impression...am I right in my thinking?
 
Well he was also doing the sound effects (IIRC) and when I played the leaked Alpha (a friend DLed it so I played at his place) the sound effects where just awesome! I was just hoping that it hasn't changed much since then.
 
Mav451 said:
That's good and all for Doom3, but what about other games? (if that proves true?)

I mean, audiophiles say how much even the M-Audio card is, compared to the Audigy2, but the problem is, M-Audio has 0 optimizations for modern games--so it eats a quite a few CPU cycles to make up for that fact.

Or at least that's my impression...am I right in my thinking?

The benchs I've seen have only shown a difference of about 5% or so (and the worst having to be @ 10FPS lost with some crappy cards).
 
Hey Kyle, you may be too busy formatting the guide to respond to this, but I'll ask anyway.

I'm about to buy an athlon64 system (3200+) to upgrade my aging 2.4-533, but I'd like to know if there are any glaring differences between the Intel stuff and the Athlon stuff in Doom3 (much like in Unreal Tournament).
 
so_cal_forever said:
He cut out due to differences with Carmack. However, the sounds and music should be just as creepy. In fact, I don't see a reason for you to play with the music on the first time.

differences with carmack? well here is a snippet of what trent has to say about it:
Trent Reznor said:
well... eventually time and money and bad management came into play and it didn't work out. dissapointing on a number of levels for me, but that's the way it went.

and there won't be "music" persay, it'll be atmospheric sounds and such, no music tracks that are looping. (just making it clear, wasn't sure what you meant by "i dont see a reason for you to play with the music on the first time").
 
Bad management would most likely be not only on Carmack, but with Hollenshed and Duffy too. So I'd say differences had the most to do with it, since Trent Reznor is pretty loaded.
 
trilobyte said:
Hey Kyle, you may be too busy formatting the guide to respond to this, but I'll ask anyway.

I'm about to buy an athlon64 system (3200+) to upgrade my aging 2.4-533, but I'd like to know if there are any glaring differences between the Intel stuff and the Athlon stuff in Doom3 (much like in Unreal Tournament).

well, it is not like you are getting an AMD XP 2400+. You are purchasing an 3200, which is significantly faster to your P4.
 
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