The first DOOM3 review by PC Gamer.

[PowerK]

Here is the tech aspecs from PC Gamer quoted from a subscriber.

http://discuss.futuremark.com/forum...084477&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=1

Yeah, I was lucky enough to receive my copy today, so I'll share it with you guys.

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 **** 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: Aka Hardware that doesn't exist, but best guess anyway
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.

Enjoy everybody!

512MB requirement of video memory to run in Ultra Quality Mode ?

 

[Vrykyl]

512MB requirement of video memory to run in Ultra Quality Mode ?

LOL - or 2x 256mb nvidia or ati cards on SLI
Sounds like the hefty game everyone was expecting...and it doesnt suprise me that nvidia cards have a slight edge in this game - ati has always been behind in openGL performance...it'll all level out when nvidia cards lag behind in HL2. Either way - its gonna look SWEET on the latest tech.What I wana know is how many darn CD's the game is gonna be...

 

[nealric]

I wonder how proc intensive its going to be.

Most ocers have a proc at above the high end...
But most of us dont have a x800 xt pe

 

[PowerK]

LOL - or 2x 256mb nvidia or ati cards on SLI
Sounds like the hefty game everyone was expecting...

It obviously depends on architecture design but if you remember back to the old days 2x12mb Voodoo 2's SLI'd did not give you 24mb of usuable ram.

 

[Vrykyl]

But most of us dont have a x800 xt pe

And Why Not?? LOL - j/k

My guess is that itl probably be pretty cpu heavy if the alpha i have is anything to go by...even when i had 2gb ram you couldnt just go jumping in and out of this game to do other things....

 

[OBLIVIONLORD]

i got the alpha and beta and I can jump in and out by means of the alt-tab with no probs which only takes 1 or 2 seconds. Maybe you havent tweaked your os.

 

[enduro]

I think it's time to upgrade the vdcard....... Been a long time in coming.

 

[ap673]

3. PCI Express enhances NOTHING.

hmmmm, maybe it's not worth waiting for PCI-E....

 

[copper_top]

Awesome. im hella psyched that i have a 6800gt coming in the mail today.

today:farcry, Tomorow:doom

 

[enduro]

Tomorow:doom

Is that a good thing? You might jinx it by saying stuff like that

 

[rsjrv99]

M system will run it at max details with like 20+ FPS i am thinking. I can play the game at anything above 20 due to my older gaming days when thats all i got no matter what.

 

[copper_top]

The day after: half-life2

 

[HousERaT]

I am so drooling for this to come out... built my second system just for this game......

 

[SimGuy]

Looks like I'm in good shape, but a 6800GT would really help step it up a bit

/me dreams of 1600x1200 D3 goodness... HAH yeah right... not on this hardware...

 

[dreIU]

What I wana know is how many darn CD's the game is gonna be...

It better be DVD, because FarCry was just ridiculous to install.. have a 10 pund case and like a handful of CD's... that's just a no no.

 

[Drec]

It better be DVD, because FarCry was just ridiculous to install.. have a 10 pund case and like a handful of CD's... that's just a no no.

i know me too...and at first i only saw 4 cds cuz the 5th was all hiding all alone back there..and during the install it asked for disc 5 and i was like #&*% no. &^#&ing wal mart...then i saw it.

but D3 is just in time!! im getting my 9800p in a few days woohoo

 

[dreIU]

i know me too...and at first i only saw 4 cds cuz the 5th was all hiding all alone back there..and during the install it asked for disc 5 and i was like #&*% no. &^#&ing wal mart...then i saw it.

but D3 is just in time!! im getting my 9800p in a few days woohoo

yeah, that should put a slap to that FX5200 lol. BTW, consider doing a XT bios swap, I not only gained like 500pts in 3dmark03, but I also see a difference while playing my games... can't wait for this to come out!!

 

[PowerK]

DOOM 3 just went GOLD !! *official*
http://www.webdog.org/plans/6/

 

[Drec]

In the meantime, I want to see those "DOOM 3 GOLD!!!" threads set
new records for swamping message board servers, destroying productivity, and post counts ;-)

lol

 

[tjr1973]

I can't believe that it's finally here after staring at screenshots in PCGamer and on the web. I too built this computer with Doom 3 and Half Life 2 in mind. I hope my ATI X800Pro will run it up there with the Nvidia Cards or at least close.