Doom3: Official Hardware Guide

[capcom_suicide]

http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQ0

Why do Hardocp get all the ID scoops? Who knows, but it's a nice article.

"All of our testing was done at the id Software offices in Mesquite, Texas. Over a period of three and a half days, we put in 65 hours of testing that consisted entirely of DOOM 3 gameplay. As such, our conclusions here are based on real gameplay and not on timed game demos or synthetic benchmarking tools of any kind. "

Sweet job!


C_S

[demon9k]

This is the reason why people will want to play this game on the highest settings:

Picture Comparison

Low quality looks quite frankly awful compared to high.

I will be getting a x800 XT now, which I have just pre-ordered from ebuyer, so I can play on the ultra setting. My PC with super expensive RAM, RAID0 and a x800 should be able to cope with Ultra. (I hope)

Also here is what they say about the 9800 Pro

Best Playable IQ Settings
Resolution: 1024x768
Texture Quality: High Quality

Thats with

ABIT NF7-S motherboard, AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU, 512MB Corsair RAM XMS DDR400.

[MartyG]

An interesting article - even the screen shots from the MX440 look reasonable.

[Spatial]

Thanks for this link - its put my mind at rest

The results for the 9800 pro look very good to me.

While there is a difference between that and the newer cards I don't think it will impact on my gaming experience

[wazy15]

Nice guide. I wonder what settings my XP2600+, 512 DDR400 Ram and ATI X800 will do, I hope it can do high, but I doubt ultra

Waz

[Ish]

Thanks for this link - its put my mind at rest

The results for the 9800 pro look very good to me.

While there is a difference between that and the newer cards I don't think it will impact on my gaming experience

Just what I was thinking also being a 9800 owner.

After reading that I'll definetly be hanging on and see which card comes out the better over a spread of games before buying. Hopefully the cost will come down a bit by then too

[capcom_suicide]

Nice guide. I wonder what settings my XP2600+, 512 DDR400 Ram and ATI X800 will do, I hope it can do high, but I doubt ultra

Waz

My take on it was that folk (Like me) with 9800Pro's will have a great experience, and those with ultra high specs will enjoy all the extras.

The fact that ID has made this game play well on GF4MX cards is a very positive and clever move.

We know, (SOURCE: Half Life 2 hardware poll) that many casual gamers have old GF4MX cards onboard, and we also know that may have the Nvidia 5xxx and Ti4xxx cards. Similarly with the ATI mid range.

In my mind what is key to the new DoomIII graphics engine, is scaling it to be ENJOYABLE at 640 Low, and thus allowing the masses access to the game.

As I hinted in another thread, the work ID have done to get the engine to work on an X-Box must be related, as an X-Box is similar to a PC at 733Mhz, with a Low end GF4Ti4200 running at 640, must be useful in making things run on low end standard PC's.

The way I see it, DX9 games relay a LOT on hardware, (Look at the memory use of Farcry!) and yes they introduce the new hardware features available (Steam for example) but like many things Microsoft, maybe this isn't done in the most efficent manner?

So, here we have ID, using OpenGL and trying to get the very best out of a low spec setup. That is very commendable IMHO.

The fact that a port to MacOS and Linux will follow shortly, but no old windows OS support just shows how differnetly they are thinking to most developers.

Good stuff.

C_S

[NeilMcRae]

Great news for all PC owners - no excuses get your pre-orders in

What is interesting is that the difference between the 6800 GT and ultra is pretty small.

[wod]

lol time to upgrade my gf2 ti then ati 9800 pro a decent mid range card now ?

[Super Stu]

Yes; and then some.

[wod]

will doom 3 work with pci express cards ?

[replicant]

will doom 3 work with pci express cards ?

yes, but it depends on the spec of the pci express card. pci express itself doesn't offer any major boost of performance over agp.

[Super Stu]

Didn't someone here say earlier that current PCI express cards are just the AGP version with an AGP to PCI express bridge built in? Or did I read that somewhere else.

Either way, pointless.

[Spatial]

Ok, now I'm upset

This is Far Cry related but its all about the graphics at the end of the day

Check out the pics on this page ( 56k death )

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?p=1333046205#post1333046205

Mine never ever looked like that on my 9800 pro

If this is what can be achieved I may sling my current system and give it a complete over haul...... if only I had the money...

[Inertia_]

Ok, now I'm upset

This is Far Cry related but its all about the graphics at the end of the day

Check out the pics on this page ( 56k death )

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?p=1333046205#post1333046205

Mine never ever looked like that on my 9800 pro

If this is what can be achieved I may sling my current system and give it a complete over haul...... if only I had the money...

Mate, get your system optimized and keep your 9800 Pro. That's what I'm running and the game looks exactly like it does in those screenshots.