kelley Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 In the September issue of PC Gamer they took multiple different levels of PCs and played DOOM3 on them, here is the highlights of that article: 1. 6800 is a tad faster than X800 cards. Both run it in full glory 2. The game has four render paths: NV10, NV20, R200, and ARB2. All paths look awesome, even down to a g4mx, but the ARB2 path is the "full package," and is used for the R300+ and Geforce FX+ cards. It does all it's fancy shit in one pass. 3. PCI Express enhances NOTHING. 4. The difference between a 128mb and 256mb card is that the former uses compressed textures whereas the latter only compresses diffuse and specualr maps. In another words, no big deal. However, a 500mb card is needed to run the game in Ultra Quality mode. 5. 512MB is the ideal system total memory. 384 is required, 1GB is nice, but the difference is negligible. 6. Nothing special is included for a 64-bit OS. 7. A 1.5 Ghz processor is the least recommended, but a 2Ghz and above will help since... 8...The sound engine is entirely CPU dependant. Therefore a crappy soundcard works flawlessly. Not to worry, the enfine only uses a "small percentage of cycles, much less than if the engine relied on a soundcard. 9. The only reccommendation regarding faster framerates is to disable to "advanced special effects option." In other words, upgrade if you have problems. 10. They tie it up by providing three levels of "Doom lovin' PC's" Low-End: 1.5GhzP4 or equivalent 512MB Ram Geforce4 Ti 4800 or Radeon 9500 Mid-Range: 2.4GhzP4 or equivalent 1GB RAM Geforce5950 or Radeon 9800 Pro/XT High_End: 3.4GhzP4 or AMD equivalent 2GB RAM GeForce 6800 Ultra or Radeon X800 XT PE. In conclusion, the game will run well on a variety of hardware, and Rob Duffy, the lead programmer, says that the game looks real good no matter what, and that it will continue to look better as hardware improves. Like all previous id engines, we'll be playing games based on D3 for another five years down the road. I kinda fit in that mid range model except for my RAM, which I plan to upgrade anyways. EDIT: And when they say the 6800 and X800 will run the game in all its glory, thats at 1024x768! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Daisy Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 I'm in the mid range as well. If I give it a go, I could live with that. Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 I'm in the mid-range now, but when I finally get my mobo & HDD, I'll be in the high end. Well except for video card, but I think my 9800 Pro will be ok until I can get my 6800 Ultra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainl Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 I'm kinda all-over-the-place with my 512Mb RAM XP 2600+ Ti 4200 So my memory is low-end, my CPU actually faster than mid-range, but my card isn't even up to the low-end. So I'll be playing on low details, no doubt... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackcalx Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 I'm upper low range. XP 2400+ 512mb RAM Radeon 9700 Pro. If I weren't about to spend a good chunk of money on a guitar effects pedal I would be upgrading my PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cathartic Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 Damnit... stop making me want to pour more money into my PC!! This, just when I have started trying to convince myself to SAVE money... :bang: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberwoo Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 I cant believe anyone would buy a 6800 Ultra right now. Aren't they like 550-650 bucks? Thats insane especially when you consider you can get a 9800 Ultra card for 200 bucks. I mean I have the money and love games but I'll be damned if I ever pay that much money on 1 video card. To each his/her own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 6800 Ultras are 499$. I'm a hardware junkie. If it's new, and is uber-powerful, I'll buy it. (Or have it given to me ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeyYankee Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 I'm in the low to mid range: P 4 2.8ghz 512 mem ATI 9200 128 I'm still trying to figure out if I want to get this for both the PC and the X box, with HL 2 around the corner (Sept 2?) as well! Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted July 14, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 Limey I'd recommend a $200 upgrade to a Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB card for you. With that you should be set for both DOOM3 and HL2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnE Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 Mid range here. But I sure have been aching to find a deal on an X800 or 6800 all day. Honestly I expect to be able to run it comfortably. and I figure a year or two down the road when I build a new system it'll be fun to reload and check out with everything maxed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potempkin Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 Remember that a 6800GT is a much better value than the Ultra; I haven't seen one person mention they couldn't overclock theirs to at least 400MHz/1.1GHz core/mem, which is Ultra spec. Of course, I'm sure the Ultra will soar even further past that, but I'll keep the extra $200. My system is definitely low-end because it's GPU limited. AMD Athlon 3000+ 512MB RAM GF4 Ti4200 I might grab a softmoddable 256-bit 9800SE if it creeps any closer to $100. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlot Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 My RAM and Video card are low end (512/9500), my CPU is mid range (P4 2.4). I'll have to see how she handles it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMike Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 Remember that a 6800GT is a much better value than the Ultra; I haven't seen one person mention they couldn't overclock theirs to at least 400MHz/1.1GHz core/mem, which is Ultra spec. My thoughts exactly. I have been looking for an ultra card but everyone I have seen has been able to push their GT to ultra and beyond speeds. I'm probably gonna get a BFC 6800GT OC card which is guaranteed to be overclocked out of the box with a lifetime warrenty and then push it a little further to reach ultra speeds. The GT cards are also in MUCH better supply than the ultras. Its extremely hard to find an ultra and then if you do the odds of it going for the $499 price are very slim. Then I'll be at the high end after I buy everything to get there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyElf Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 I built my PC for a few games: Far Cry, Doom3, Half Life 2... I think I'm ready. Actually, I BETTER be! Specs: CPU: Amd 64/3400 Motherboard: MSI FI2R Neo RAM: 1 Gig Geil 3200 Graphics: ATI Radeon X800Pro 256MB Sound: Creative Audigy2 ZS Monitor: Dell 2001FP - 20" LCD Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 I'm in the mid range though I'll be moving that up soon. Processor is a P4 3.06gig 533mhz FSB (soon to be bumped up to a P4 3.0 800mhz FSB) 768mb PC1600 RDRAM (going up to a gig of Dual Channel DDR) 9700 PRO 128MB vid card (upgrading to either the 9800 pro or the X800 pro soon, depends on how much I want to spend when I do the upgrade.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exile Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 I'm screwed. 768 DDR ram - Ok AMD 1700+ .... 1.47 ghz Geforce 3 - pre TI days... I need a new hard drive too. Might as well build a new pc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 2 systems to run it on. First for the graphics CPU: Pentium 4 2.8GHz 800FSB w/ HT RAM: 512MB PC3200 DDR400 (Dual channel) Video: ATI 9800 Pro 128MB Second for the co-op CPU: Pentium 3/Celeron RAM: 64MB unified Video: GeForce 3.5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whooter Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Originally posted by exile@Jul 16 2004, 10:39 PM I'm screwed. 768 DDR ram - Ok AMD 1700+ .... 1.47 ghz Geforce 3 - pre TI days... I need a new hard drive too. Might as well build a new pc. Tell me what kind of system you'd like and how much you have to spend, and I'll see what I can put together for you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry the Clown Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Mid range for me with 1gb of ram and the 9800pro, but I have a 3ghz processor. Daniel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exile Posted July 18, 2004 Report Share Posted July 18, 2004 Tell me what kind of system you'd like and how much you have to spend, and I'll see what I can put together for you... I already know what I want, I just have to convince my wife to let me upgrade the PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam P Posted July 18, 2004 Report Share Posted July 18, 2004 Not even low end. (Or have it given to me ) We already know what you do for 'puter parts, Chris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Failsafe Posted July 18, 2004 Report Share Posted July 18, 2004 I've got everything for mid-range except the video card: P4 2.8GHz 800MHz FSB 1 GB DDR400 RAM ATI All-In-Wonder 9600Pro (128Mb) Should be alright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarface7 Posted July 19, 2004 Report Share Posted July 19, 2004 Just did make the Low-End requirements. Guess it's about time for yet another upgrade. :cry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zot Posted July 19, 2004 Report Share Posted July 19, 2004 They need to modify those requirements. Low end should be an Xbox and 6 months of patience I make the minimum PC specs (barely), but I might try to stick it out and wait for the console version and co-op. No matter what, I'll be waiting at the CompUSA to drool over the game on their uber demo machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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