My XP: Doom 3 - 9800Pro, Ti4600

J

jhtevans

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 14, 2002
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374
Well, I was serendipitously able to obtain a copy of Doom 3 early and I figured that I would post my initial experience of the game with both of my systems. You can check out the sig for the specific hardware info.

System 1:
I installed and loaded up Doom 3 with no problem. Menus looked good, but alas it was too good to be true. As soon as the in-game intro began (using the game's engine), I noticed white dots flashing randomly all around the screen. This random 'snow' continued during the actual game. So this is what Carmack was warning all of us overclockers about!!! I couldn't deal with the "snow", so I was forced to downclock my 9800 Pro back to its stock speed. After that, the game ran flawlessly.

1280x1024x32, high quality -- Nope, way too choppy, I'd say for everyone
1280x1024x32, medium quality -- Playable, but definately jerky when the least bit of movement begins onscreen
1024x768x32, high quality -- Playable, again a bit choppy for my taste, but playable
1024x768x32, medium quality -- The [H] was right, this is the sweet spot for this card

System 2:
The install and load went fine. Happily, no white dots on this card (not overclocked, go figure). The load times were definately a lot longer on this system, probably by a factor of two.

1024x768x32, high quality -- Unfortunately, not going to happen
1024x768x32, medium quality -- Playable, but too choppy for my liking
800x600x32, high quality -- If I had 256mb onboard, this might happen
800x600x32, medium quality -- Again, the sweet spot


Conclusions:
The game definately looks quite a bit better on the 9800 Pro system. Previously, I was unable to detect a major difference between the on-screen quality between these cards. Clearly, the Ti4600 is likely to fall behind from here on out. This is not to say that the game looks bad. On the contrary, the game is stunning in both 800x600 and 1024x768... obviously it is slightly MORE stunning in 1024x768.

I was waiting on my upgrade until I actually saw how my rig was going to perform on Doom 3. Now with that in mind, I've decided to take the plunge and order an eVGA 6800 Ultra. Seeing this game in medium quality just enticed me enough to want to see it in high quality at a much higher resolution! It's that freakin' cool.

For those without the means or the want, I would say that the game is entirely playable on both the 9800 pro and the Ti4600...... it's just a question of how badly you want the game to look even better than it already does....


Side Note: The gameplay itself is highly reminiscent of System Shock 2..... odd
 
Excuse me if I haven't been paying attention but the overclocking issue is just for the video card, right? I really don't want to go back to stock on my cpu.
 
CarpetHair said:
Excuse me if I haven't been paying attention but the overclocking issue is just for the video card, right? I really don't want to go back to stock on my cpu.
Click to expand...

I was able to eliminate all of the odd 'snow' by underclocking ONLY the video card back to stock speed. My CPU remains overclocked (and by extension, my system bus etc). Carmack explained that Doom 3 would make use of circuitry on video cards that had never previously been enabled. Thus, these 'newly used' circuits may not be able to handle overclocked speeds. That's the way I understood it.
 
How does the 9800pro perform in high quality @800x600?
Wouldn't the game look better with high quality @800x600 then medium quality @1024x768?
 
You lucky punk, what with Doom 3 already n' all :)
Thanks for the info tho, greatly appriciated, heh.

But I do have a few questions if you can take the time to answer them...

Firstly, did you play around at all with trying to clock the card at it's max for Doom III? Do you believe it was the core clock or the memory that made the white dots appear?

And second, how do you think 800x600 @ highquality w/2x anti-aliasing would run well? The reason I ask is because my system is largely similar to yours. Here are the core specs:

- Intel Pentium 3.0C @ 3.4Ghz (running at an fsb of 905)
- ATi Radeon 9800Pro 256MB @ 426/760
- 1GB DDR PC3200 ram
 
iceTraxX said:
How does the 9800pro perform in high quality @800x600?
Wouldn't the game look better with high quality @800x600 then medium quality @1024x768?
Click to expand...

+1

I wondered the same.
 
Okay, let me try to field a couple of the questions:

1.) If I were to guess, I'd say that the memory overclock was to blame, but really I don't know. I simply flashed my card's BIOS back to the original and didn't look back (I didn't think that it gave any real performance boost anyway)... just the look of the 'snow' said memory problems to me. Should you be inclined, you could probably find a new 'sweet spot' overclock on you pro by using Doom III as a gauge. I'm not going to mess with the O/Cing any more on that card, however, cause I just pre-ordered my 6800 Ultra.

2.) The trouble with high-quality is that it really necessitates a 256mb video card. The game has to load too many textures for the 128mb 9800 Pro to handle all at once. Those of you with 256mb Pros, you might be able to do high quality.

3.) As the [H] guide indicates, resolution has a lot to do with how this game looks. The programmers have really left the gamer with two changeable options on how it looks: Resolution and quality setting.... that's really it. I didn't notice a HUGE difference between high quality vs medium quality, but it does exist. I guess that the image difference between 1024x768, 800x600, and 1280x1024 are even more minute. It all boils down to the performance. I just can't bear to play a herky-jerky game. The sweet spots I listed in my original post are where the game is most comfortably played by me. If you can tolerate a 'stall' here and there, you may very well bump the settings up a bit....

G/L

Edit: As a testament to the quality of the game itself, it looks much better at low resolutions than far cry does at higher resolutions. 800x600 and 1024x768 are once again, acceptable gaming resolutions.
 
Thanks for the impressions. How bad does it look at 800x600? I know they said it looks better then other games would at that res, but there must be jaggies everywhere. I have 19" flat CRT and any game I've tried 800x600 on looks like absolute crap.

I have a 6800 on the way myself, but I'll probably hang on to the 9800 Pro for my other computer.
 
My hope is that I can get this game running @ 800x600 w/4x anti-aliasing in high quality.

God do I ever hope I can pull that off without dipping below 15fps.

Personally I find AA is a better way to go than upping the resolution... even at 1600x1200 you can see the aliased edges, the pixelated pattern on a diagonal poly.. and AA just does that amazing job of getting rid of that completely :)
 
Sanitarium said:
Thanks for the impressions. How bad does it look at 800x600? I know they said it looks better then other games would at that res, but there must be jaggies everywhere. I have 19" flat CRT and any game I've tried 800x600 on looks like absolute crap.
Click to expand...

On any other game, I would agree. I game on a 19" Sony Trinitron, and in every other game, 800x600 (even 1024x768) is pretty unbearable. Not so with Doom 3. I'm playing in 1024x768 and if the options menu didn't state it as such, I would be inclined to believe I was playing in 1280x1024. As I said, low resolutions DO NOT LOOK BAD. They look "less good" than high resolutions, but I don't think it'll be called "BAD" for at least another year.

Sanitarium said:
I have a 6800 on the way myself, but I'll probably hang on to the 9800 Pro for my other computer.
Click to expand...

Same here - The Ti4600 is getting yanked and replaced...
 
enyx said:
My hope is that I can get this game running @ 800x600 w/4x anti-aliasing in high quality.

God do I ever hope I can pull that off without dipping below 15fps.

Personally I find AA is a better way to go than upping the resolution... even at 1600x1200 you can see the aliased edges, the pixelated pattern on a diagonal poly.. and AA just does that amazing job of getting rid of that completely :)
Click to expand...

From what I extracted from the [H] review, that line of thinking doesn't come into play as much with this game. From what I read, AA is pretty much a waste of power because there are so few instances where you actually notice aliasing, even at low-res (Which I can attest to). Obviously it WOULD benefit the visual experience, but I'd say it's not worth it for the majority of people, especially those who don't have a 6800 series card.
 
graphics don't matter much if you get bored 4 hours into it.

Here's to hoping the gameplay is awesome. :cool:
 
Sunni_Phono said:
graphics don't matter much if you get bored 4 hours into it.

Here's to hoping the gameplay is awesome. :cool:
Click to expand...

There's nothing new in terms of gameplay. As I mentioned, it's rather like a mix of Half-Life (because of the scripted events) and System Shock 2 (much of the gameplay element) - two very good games. However, Doom 3 is a straight-up shooter and doesn't pretend to be anything else. From what I've played so far (probably about 2 1/2 - 3 hours worth), the gameplay is extremely atmospheric and certainly very creepy. I don't see myself getting bored with it - I'm too scared most of the time to think about what I'm doing. At the medium difficulty setting, the game seems much harder than it is. I've only had to reload once after being killed, but I've felt like I was going to die on numerous occassions. If you have heart conditions, I suggest you not play it.

Also, the PCGamer knocked Doom 3 for "innappropriate humor" - so far, I like the little jokes and such - I think it adds a little flavor to the game.
 
Bump - people are still starting new threads about this.... failing read back a few pages
 
iceTraxX said:
How does the 9800pro perform in high quality @800x600?
Wouldn't the game look better with high quality @800x600 then medium quality @1024x768?
Click to expand...


I run it on 1024x768 at medium, 800x600 on high gets about the same fps, can't really tell the difference yet, im too busy trying to figure out which spot of the level monsters will jump out of.
 
I have a 19 In LCD and I am running a ti 4800 slightly overclocked (had to turn it down a bit to get rid of the fuzz as well), A 2500+ running at 2.1Ghz and 1gig of xms ram. I started out at 640/480 med quality and was amaized by how good it looked. I then found the "detect hardware" button and it put the res up to 800/600 and med quality and it looks incredable. For all those out there that was stuck on the low res game play don't be the people in this forum are right in saying that doom 3 is NOT res dependent. John has realy out done himself on this game it will be BY FAR the biggest software title release of all time (IMO LMAO). I am going to try high quality as I have 1 gig of ram and have seen that I may be able to run it well.

On a side note I have a console comand of com_drawfps 1 is this right as it does not work for some reason I want to see my FPS in game so if someone knows please let me know hehe

I have done a benchmark and hit some realy high fps (80's up to 120's) I don't think I am doing it right as this isn't normal lol most are getting 40 and 60 so don't know where that came from lol.

In closing DOOM 3 ROCKS!!! HARD OCP ROCKS!!! Both were RIGHT ON THE MONEY. If you where waiting to buy Doom 3 DON'T lol
 
I played on 1280x1024 on Medium with my 9800 Pro and I find it' s not very choppy at all. Just a bit in combat settings but no big deal.
 
I discovered its com_showfps 1

I tried the draw command too and when it didn't work, I played around with some of the common FPS commands

My 9800 Pro runs 1024x768 High Quality 2x AA 8x AF(as defaults with HQ), no problems. Average FPS is 45-50. Many times, it's hitting the 60FPS ceiling.

Personally I would say 1024x768 @ Med looks much much better than 800x600 @ High. The reason is because you just have a lot more resolution and pixels per texture and all the gains that High gets you (AA, uncompressed textures) is wasted at 800x600.

The snow is caused by overclocking the videocard's core. I downclocked my core and left my memory where it was. Snow is gone.
 
jhtevans said:
Well, I was serendipitously able to obtain a copy of Doom 3 early
Click to expand...
Wow nice big SAT word :)

Where is everyone getting early copies of D3?

I hope to get mine surreptitiously :p
 
Looks like my system is about on par with most of yours. I am ordering a 6800 GT to replace the 9800 Pro so I can play it on high and at a higher resolution since I have an LCD. I guess I am just used to being ahead of the curve when it comes to hardware and performance.
 
I just tested my system and it seems that my sweet spot is 1024/768 med detal. I guess the gig of ram makes all the deference. I can run 800/600 high detal but it seems to have a better picture quality at 1024/768 med so thats where I'll play it.

Again I am running a NF7S rev 2 system board with a xp2500+ running at 2.1Ghz and 1gig of XMS memory and a TI48008x agp vid card. I am soo happy that my system can run this game hehe that meens I can take my time on getting my next vid card upgrade
 
Vermicious Knid said:
Wow nice big SAT word :)

Where is everyone getting early copies of D3?

I hope to get mine surreptitiously :p
Click to expand...

Hey, you aren't allowed to discuss five-finger discounts on these forums! :cool:
 
I got mine at Bust Buy (yes I know I said BUST!!!) Here in columbus Oh just about all the best buy stores have it in stock and ready to go 54.99 I beleve ;)
 
Update:

I've been playing Doom 3 for a day now, and I've messed around with the resolution and such, trying to find out just where my system can get me....

I re-overclocked my 9800pro's memory back up to XT speed, but left the core speed at default. As such, I'm able to play pretty smoothly at 1280x1024/medium quality/ 2xAA. The addition of the 2xAA really does do a very nice job of smoothing out some of those jaggies.

I can't wait till my 6800 Ultra gets here.... I'm almost tempted to stop playing the game until it arrives.... that probably won't happen - multiplayer will look hella good though. Some people have mentioned that eVGA pre-orders are shipping out before the stated pre-order ship date - hopefully that's the case with mine.
 
Hm. I have a 1700+ w/1GB of Memory and a Ti4600. I tried it with 640x480 and it's awful. Maybe 800x600 would be better? *Shrug* I tried overclocking and it just killed my system lol. Need better PSU then will try it again... :D
 
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