Official DOOM 3 discussion thread

[Concept]

I've switched V-sync and triple buffering both on and off. Doesn't make much of a difference in OpenGL, but then this is an ATI card I'm running. I've also fiddled about with Doom III's config file to my heart's content. Didn't change anything on my system frame rate or stuttering wise. I've also rared the pak files and that just meant the game wouldn't even load. I'm even running the beta Catalyst 4.9 drivers.

Put simply, I'm fairly sure I know the problem is the 9800SE. They're essentially Pro factory rejects with half the core missing, so it doesn't really come as any surprise to see it performing badly on what looks a very GPU intensive game.

What I really want is an XT, but they're almost impossible to come by at retail price for sale right now, considering ATI only seem to be releasing about a batch of ten for every thousand or so that want one. And the estimated October retail release date is a joke. It keeps getting put back and back... At this rate Half-Life 2 will be out on the shelves before the video card which is supposed to make it truly shine has been properly unleashed.

Let's face it... That'd be a complete disaster of epic proportions for ATI if they don't get this 'lack of ram' (or artificially inflate demand) situation sorted out quickly.

One way another, before Half-Life 2's release I will have a next generation card to make it tick, and if ATI aren't ready, I'll just go to Nvidia instead.

[Shin Gouki]

Ive read posts form people with the new ATi cards and the one guy say's the difference from enabling triple buffering while v-sync is on is 14fps for him.

If he's just got vanilla v-synce (double buffering) thewn he loses 14fps.

Obviously there are a lot of Nvidea customers who are losing a lot of fps due to having to enable v-sync without the option for a triple buffer.

I'm starting to wonder how the ne XT would compare to the GT and ultra if they enabled v-sync in the the offical benchmarks?

I think some of the guy's lucky enough to get the XT should add another 14-20 fps to the offical benchmrak scores. I can promise you that 98% of 6800 gt and Ultra owners have v-sync enabled and are losing a lot of frames, compared to those bull **** offical benchmarks whcih were obvioulsy done without the "MUST HAVE" v-sync disabled.

ID had a big problem with screen tear and they didn't wnat it exposed in the 6800 benchmarks.

Ive seen screen tear in game's before but in Doom 3 it's the worst i've ever seen, tbh.

[Super Stu]

Funny you should mention that, I was tearing like a bastard (newly installed 9800p). I just turned vsync on though and have been a bit engrossed to notice whether it impacted the framerate (certainly changed the tearing for the better).

Are you saying I should switch off tripple buffering for a big speed up?

Incidentally, I'm getting the black snow very occasionally. I've seen it as a symptom of overlocking, but everything in my (not spectacular) machine is stock, aside from the multiplier up from 11 to 12 (2500 -> ~2800). Fresh windows, blah blah, 4.9s.

Haven't noticed it in other games. It cained the 3dmarks etc.

[Chadruharazzeb]

I tried timedemo with and without V-sync and triple buffering and got the same FPS, so I'm leaving them both switched on.

Konzeppt, isn't it the 9800SE that can be softmodded to be a Pro?

[csuzw]

From what I've heard Doom 3 is harsh on overclocked kit. It may run well overclocked for non Doom 3 stuff but that doesn't mean its going to run well in Doom 3.

[Shin Gouki]

Funny you should mention that, I was tearing like a bastard (newly installed 9800p). I just turned vsync on though and have been a bit engrossed to notice whether it impacted the framerate (certainly changed the tearing for the better).

Are you saying I should switch off tripple buffering for a big speed up?

Incidentally, I'm getting the black snow very occasionally. I've seen it as a symptom of overlocking, but everything in my (not spectacular) machine is stock, aside from the multiplier up from 11 to 12 (2500 -> ~2800). Fresh windows, blah blah, 4.9s.

Haven't noticed it in other games. It cained the 3dmarks etc.

Do a time demo 1 with just v-sync on then do another one with v-sync AND tripple buffering on, then post your results.

You shoudl get a lot more frmes with tripple buffer on.

The bottom line is that the lack of triple buffer kills the Nvida cards when using v-sync to get rid of the horrible screen tear.

[Shin Gouki]

ike i said, i wonder how the ATI cards would do against the Nvidia cards in the official benchmarks if v-sync and triple buffering was enabled?

you woudl lose a crap load of frames on the Nvidia card and hardley any at all on the ATI cards.

those benchies were BS from the start.

Potential XT owners shoudl take A LOT of frames off this ultra score.

[Tom Salter]

Just bought 1Gb of PC1066 RDRAM for this. After this has arrived, I can get my graphics card sorted...

?300 for the RDRAM wasn't too bad

[dataDave]

I wish I had the hardware to run this game. I might buy it anyway, I remember buying Doom2 on release, great day eventhough I didn't have my own PC.

DoomIII: Prob my most anticipated FPS next to PD".

Nevermind, still got PantiusV and Winning Pants 8 to keep me more than occupied.

[NeilMcRae]

300 quid for 1G of ram! did the shop have big windows?

[Tom Salter]

RDRAM innit, like rocking horse **** atm.

Cheaper than the upgrade I was looking at though :S

[Shin Gouki]

Thread on ATI triple buffering and Nvidia's pathetic lack of support for it.

Sort it out NV, ffs. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...94#post3016694

[Super Stu]

This is really bugging you, isn't it :P

[Shin Gouki]

This is really bugging you, isn't it :P

Yep

[Concept]

Konzeppt, isn't it the 9800SE that can be softmodded to be a Pro?

I softmodded my SE a while ago, but the drivers I installed to do so produced significant artifacts in a number of games I tried. When I reverted back to the official Catalyst drivers they disappeared, which at the time I found odd, considering the other pipes were already unlocked regardless.

Shortly after that my system suffered a serious crash and I had to reinstall both DOS and XP to get everything working again. Unfortunately, due to the crash I lost my original C: partition and it seems I also lost my AGP drivers for my motherboard to communicate to my SE. When I tried to reinstall Catalyst without them a display wouldn't even come up on the monitor screen, meaning I couldn't revert back to my last drivers because I simply couldn't see what to do in XP.

Meaning a whole bunch of reinstalls, until I found the right GART driver...

This led to so much delicious fun when I eventually stumbled on one that worked (and no, it wasn't the 4-in-1 VIA set). Now, I've got my system back but I'm not at all confident trying to use softmodded drivers again just in case the AGP motherboard drivers don't like it and my OS display goes dead. In which case I'd have to reinstall XP all over again.

No... I think I've shafted my card through messing about with it too much, and that coupled with the fact it wasn't entirely **** hot to begin with (being part of the All-In-Wonder range) means that my performance in Doom III is probably under-par for my system.

It doesn't matter all that much however, because all this is temporary. I'll be installing a different card in a few weeks anyhow. I'll just have to put up with an 'adequate' (if you can even call it that) Doom III performance during the meantime.