Video Game Padding and Doom 3

Shaggy

Shaggy

Vice Admiral
I've bought a few games in the past three years or so that have had minimum system requirements that have been set higher than the machine I was able to get them to run on. The most notable example was C&C Renegade. When I bought that the computer I was using was a good 50-100 mhz slower in the processor and a little shorter on RAM than the CCR box listed as the minimum requirements. The game actually ran really well, except for the occasional slow down when I was trying to incinerate a crowd of Nod or a flame tank tried to simultaneously run me down whilst barbacueing me.
I'm curious to know if anyone has run Doom 3 on a below minimum system and how well it ran. Right now I barely meet the minimum requirements, but I'm using an SiS integrated video card that might be a little short on VRAM. Still I'm really tempted to pick it up and give it a shot, I just don't want to wait six months before I can afford a new system.
 
It's worth a try because the game is great. If you want to play it bad enough, anything will run it. I ran half the WC games at well below minimums. Doom will run at a bit below minimums.. but even at minimum you're running it in low detail at a modest resolution.
 
Its VERY important you have one of the supported graphics chipsets, theres optimisations for each, tweaking the renderer has great effects in particular for nVidia users. For memory don't go below the 384MB but I've heard you can get away with a slightly slower CPU.

On a side note anyone with the X800 XT don't forget to try the 4.9beta drivers, they make a significant difference (locked at 60fps as opposed to sometimes dropping to 30 when Vsync is enabled).
 
Personally I would not recommend Doom 3 on an integrated video card. Even the integrated nvidia video chipsets offer nowhere near the performance of an actual gaming video card.

A lot of people don't understand that your video card is more than just video memory amount... there are clock speeds associated with your GPU and video memory as well as datapipelines and things that affect your performance much greatly than amount of video RAM does. Back in 2000 I replaced a 64 MB ATi card with a 16 MB Voodoo3 2000 PCI and the Voodoo3 blew the ATi card out of the water.

However if you have two cards of comparable performance then the video ram amount really comes into play as far as supported texture quality.
 
I put a Radeon 9600 in my machine about a year ago, thinking it would be the end all for at least a while. Thanks to Doom3 I found myself buying a 9800 Pro a couple of weeks ago. The difference is noticeable.....
 
I really wish I could play Doom 3, I started playing the old Doom's just out of spite. I've only got a GeForce 2 so I don't even want to bother trying. I'll be in the same boat when Half-Life 2 rolls around.
 
I used to really really dislike console games but when you start comparing what you wind up spending on new video cards and computer rigs...a console looks much more appealing. I thought about upgrading the pc for Doom but it was just too expensive, I'm waiting for the X-box version...won't be as visually impressive but I'll bet it runs smoothly on the x-box and I don't have to spend $600-$1000 in upgrades/video cards.
 
Ghost said:
Don't try Doom 3 in any less than a Geforce 4 MX...it will be painfull
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The Geforce 4 MX is a ridiculous card. It shouldn't have 4 in the name. The Geforce 3 outperforms it well.
 
the GeForce4 MX also cost tons less than the GeForce3 cards. I bought a GF4 MX440 when they were almost brand-new and it was only $50...

the GF4 Ti series were really the performance pushers of the line. Also the fact that they supported some DirectX optimizations that the GF3 cards did not...

On that note, higher end GF3 cards will also outperform the GeForce FX5200.
 
I just put together a budget rig of my own about 3 months ago. AMD Athalon 2500+ Geforge FX 5600 and 512 megs of ram. I can play Doom 3 but not very well. I get about 20 fps or lower when the action starts or about 30 when nothing is going on. not very good for a FPS game. my point being I am even looking to upgrade my video card and motherboard. I want to overclock my CPU to run at a 3200+ and maybe get an Nvidia 5950. But they still cost more then I can spend, so I am stuck playing on the lowest detail level.

I suggest if you have integrated video, like some others have said, dont even try, you may want to look at some ATI 9200's or 5200's if you have an AGP slot, and not a lot of cash, but if you have about $150 or so to spend, I would suggest getting an ATI 9600 or a low end 9800, sorry Nvidia, I have been an avid supporter for many years, but the Nvidia cards that are worth a damn are getting way to expensive.
 
So the feeling I'm getting is that I'm going to need to improve my system to play it half way decent.
It will probably take me six months to get the cash together for a new system so I think I'll go out and pickup a nice high end laptop. It'll be a hell of a lot more portable for LAN parties at my brother's house, than my case is. :D
 
I've used both nVidias and ATIs over the years and think they each have their good qualities. In fact, I've noticed no huge performance difference between either maker's cards of the same "generation." My last 2 computers had nVidias (a GeForce2 and a GeForce3) but when the time came to upgrade I replaced them with ATIs (a 9600 and a 9800 Pro, respectively), mainly because of the cost and availability.

Maj. Striker is right, it does suck when you have to dump a bunch of cash into your PC if you want to play a game like Doom3, and my "rebuild" for Doom3 probably ran close to $600 for a video card, processor, sound card, and speaker system. Sure, I'll get another couple of years of service out of my machine, but I can already see down the road when this computer will be the latest addition to the retired PC pile.

A word of advice to potential upgraders from someone who has done this many times: Buy the absolute best video card your budget will allow for. You won't find yourself replacing it as often, you'll save a chunk of money in the long run, and you can always move the card to another machine if you buy/build a better computer.
 
I don't mind the expense of upgrading my machine so much, my brother used to build them for a living and he's got good wholesale contacts.
The things I like about PCs over consoles 1) You have a higher level of control in games with PCs witha mouse, keyboard, joystick,etc combination. 2) You can actually edit and change PC games, if your willing to put in the time to look for mods or create your own.
That's one reason why I loved Duke 3D so much was because it was really easy to create your own levels and characters. You can't even do that in a console game.
 
ChrisReid said:
The Geforce 4 MX is a ridiculous card. It shouldn't have 4 in the name. The Geforce 3 outperforms it well.
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Indeed, but you can play with that VGA in 640x480 in Low without AA and AF and a few tweaks and have 15 FPS minimum (of course with a decent CPU and 512 RAM)
 
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