Doom 3 performance question

[AcemanPB]

Alright I just recently accquired Doom 3 and I would some computer people's opinion on what I should run. The only reason I ask is becaue the computer told me to run Doom 3 on almost the lowest settings with a low resolution and I feel that my setup can handle more.

Anyways here is my setup, tell me what you think.

Intel Pentium 4 2.8 ghz
1024 mb ram
128 meg radeon 9800
120 gig hardrive with more than 60 gigs free space

With this setup I figured I would be running atleast 800x600 with the detail cranked up, maybe even 1024x768. But the computer recomended a setting that was lower than both of those.

Now I did try bumping the settings up a little bit and while it wasn't choppy I did notce a few missed beats in the frame rate when things got crazy. Is there something I can do to get better results or has my computer met its match?

(also if you don't mind, please post your computer specs and the settings you run Doom 3 on, that would help a lot)

[Trick]

Your setup is much better than mine and I can run high at 800x600 easily. You should be able to pull 1024x768 at high or 800x600 at ultra at THE BARE MINIMUM.

[Darken Sun]

dude, you could run that on high 800x600 with EVERYTHING in advanced on at the VERY least. well, at least you should be able. I can run the above settings on my 1.6ghz processor, 768mb pc2100 ram and geforce fx 5600xt with an overclock. I was barely able to run it at this, but then I got tweak xp, and that solved my problems(fixed game crashing by diverting cpu power from background applications...then doing all the rest of the tweaks :D )

[xmetal2001]

Your setup is similar to mine...you should be able to run 1024x768 high is you can handle occasional fps dropoffs and 800x600 nicely.

[sharpshooter1286]

you guys are lucky :( the only way im gonna be able to play this game is if any of the lan centers i frequent buy it, and the only one with the computers to handle it (extreme alienwares) closed one, but said they will re-open soon. my dad keeps saying we are gonna get a killer desktop, but hes been saying that for a while now so idk.

[gibby]

AMD Athlon XP 2400
Radeon 9500 Pro
512 MB RAM

Currently running at 1024x768 high...but I do notice a few hicups. Still playable but not as smooth as I'd like it to be. I'm just not sure if I want to play at 800x600...it's just been so long ago since I did that and I'm not looking forward to it. Just call me stubborn. :(

[Xyxyll]

Doom 3 was engineered with the future in mind. Very FEW computers out there can run Doom 3 at its highest quality setting. ID looked at Doom 3 like Halflife. Halflife is not a new game, yet its graphics and quality comes close to modern-day graphics and quality. In the future, everybody will be able to play Doom 3 at its Ultra level and it will simply be "good graphics." :)

[Xyxyll]

BTW, I'm running the game on low quality.

AMD Athlon XP 2100+ or 2700+ (don't remember)
512mb ram
Geforce 3

My father runs the game at medium quality.
AMD 64 super-dooper
Gig+ ram
ATI Radeon 9700 AiW

[fire1811]

i think the autoadjust setting feature favors the safe side quite a bit.

i am running a 9800XT and it did even put all my settings on high.

so i changed them myself
currently i am running everything on ultimate and havent had a glitch or noticable fps loss yet.

although my card is overclocked pretty high also.

[ZSigErik]

God, I want to play this so bad, I dont think my comp can run it...

AMD Athalon XP 2500+
1.83ghz
512 RAM
Gefore4 Mx 440
can i?

[fire1811]

well per the minimum requirements on the box yes you can.

you will probably have to run it at low or medium settings.
but the game still looks excellent at those levels.

[ZSigErik]

hmmm, good news then!

[fire1811]

System Requirements:
Microsoft Windows 2000/XP; Pentium IV 1.5 GHz or AMD Athlon 1.7 GHz XP processor or higher;

384MB RAM;
8x Speed CD-ROM drive (1200KB/sec sustained transfer rate) and latest drivers;
1.7GB of uncompressed free hard disk space (plus 400MB for Windows swap file);
100% DirectXR 9.0b compatible 16-bit sound card and latest drivers;
100% Windows 2000/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and latest drivers;
3D hardware Accelerator Card Required - 100% DirectXR 9.0b compatible 64MB Hardware Accelerated video card and the latest drivers.

box says for nvidia
any gforce 3/ti, 4/mx, 4/ti, fx, 6800

[ZSigErik]

thanks a bunch man.

[fire1811]

no prob bro
game is expensive but it has been really a lot of fun so IMO its worth it.

[Warewolf50]

Hmm there is osmethign to do where u change a line of coding that alloes the game to use more ram when loading a newroom, and that really clears up alot of choppyness when entering rooms in the game. So that could help u run a lil smoother there. IDK where to find this, xmetal2001 has a link to it or knows where it is. Im sure otheres do also.

[AcemanPB]

Well is there anything I can do to get better performance with what I have? I don't really know a whole lot about computer games and mostly stick to the console (the last computer game I bought was BF1942).

Do you think I'll notice a difference if I defrag my HD (haven't done it in a while) and try to clean up whatever spywear this computer is bathed in? (The only downside to this nice setup is that it must be shared with my little brother who likes to install random stuff off the internet :mad: ) I'm kind of dissapointed because I figured this computer could run Doom 3 at near peak performance, it's the first game I've encountered that I couldn't set everything to high :(

[fire1811]

yes removing spyware will help out your pc since they take away clock cycles.

and if you havent defragged in a while it probably wouldnt hurt either.

[Jet-Xino]

Tweaks for Doom 3 FPS improvement.

I've been looking around for anything and everything to help boost my Doom 3 performance here are a few links I've found.

Increase ATI Performance 40% (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14874&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=3efd07a1ea6383e1b0ad0eaae7b82638)

Custom Config Files for Video Card (http://ucguides.savagehelp.com/Doom3/FPSVisuals.htm)

Uncompress Files (http://discuss.futuremark.com/forum/showflat.pl?Board=gaminggeneral&Number=4175194)

ATI Doom 3: CATALYST 4.9 BETA . (http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4547.html)

I haven't got to try the first three yet but I hope to when I get off work. I did download and install the 4.9 beta drivers for my ATI 9600 Pro and that just slowed my system down and I had to go back to 4.7 so use at your own risk, some people claim decent performance increase, others nothing. Hope this helps.

[FragTek]

Fark, I need to buy a damn desktop again just so I can play these awesome lookin' new games.