Doom 3 - Graphics Card

scargill

I have a GeForce4 MX420 (64mb) and its not very good for playing doom 3.
Its just about playable at lowest settings.

Can anyone recommend a graphics card ? I'd love one of those GeForce6800 but they are crazy money ?
Something around €250 would be ideal (still crazy money!)


pc: 1.6 Ghz, 512mb ram

Stephen

Get yourself an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro for approximately 200 euros. It will give your PC a proper kick in the arse

Your CPU/Ram etc would be a bottleneck with one of the next-gen cards, which would be a waste.

[CrimsonGhost]

I've a 9600 wtih 256Mb on board, cost about 120 and doom 3 runs sweet on it. It seems to make more use of the 256 memory than other game engines do.

Loobz

In my opinion, this is what you need:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=120304&cks=PRL

http://www.hitide.ie/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/21_23_46/products_id/240

http://atitool.ocfaq.com/

This is what Ive done recently - Doom 3 runs smooth as butter. High settings and high resolution. And its just below youre budget

scargill

thanks for the replies and links.

any comments on 128 v 256 while playing game ?

Is anyone playing game on High Quality with a 128 mb card ?

Doom 3 Video Card Requirements:
http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20040727_052008.html

Stephen

Doom3 is pretty much the only game i've heard of that really takes advantage of the extra memory in a 256mb card. It runs fairly well on my 128mb 9800 pro in 1024x768 medium quality (which still looks damn good)

BadCharlie

I would go for the Ati9800 Pro card my self.

leeroybrown

[CrimsonGhost] wrote:

It seems to make more use of the 256 memory than other game engines do.

It's designed to make full use of a 128Mb, 256Mb, or in future a 512Mb Graphics Card. A 512Mb card would be able to store all the textures required by the card at any time at max quality uncompressed. The 256Mb card utilises compressed textures to fit them on. I think the 128Mb card has to use lower quality textures.

RuggieBear

I have an 9800pro and it seems to be dealing with DOOM3 reasonable ok. But have a gander at the guys using the game as a benchmark (here)and you should pick up a few pointers on the capabilities of the various cards...
P

Loobz

With the setup I posted above I was running at 1024x768 on Ultra Quality.
The game play was gltchy in places but ran ok when not much going on in the game.

So I decided to stick with 1024x768 High Quality which is perfect - no lag whatsoever.

I had already played through the earlier levels with a stock 9800 Pro on medium quality.

I would advise to get that cooler all the same. Its a breeze to fit and that ATI Tool does all the work for you. I really notice the difference.

scargill

thanks loobz

think i will go with your suggestions.

btw, whats the spec of your PC ?

Loobz

Dont be put off by this spec. Using that card will defo help you. I have:
P4 2.8Ghz
1 Gig DDR
120 hard drive

Its a bit more than what you have but believe me sorting your graphics card out will do wonders.

Mac daddy

If you run her at 1024x768 High Quality you should have no lag at all- the ulta high is really meant for GFX with 256Mb upwards it is do able with a 128Mb but you will have a slight lag

Matt Simis

An extra 256 to 512MB of system RAM would make using that PC for game much nicer..


Matt

Loobz

I agree Matt - find out how much RAM your pc can take. If it can take 256 go for it. Its pretty cheap these days. 512 will not break the bank if it can squeeze in there. Graphics card first - RAM second.

BKtje

[quote[
Is anyone playing game on High Quality with a 128 mb card ?
[/quote]
I am playing on a 9700pro and my stock and overclocked performances are the same. My gfx card is a major bottleneck. I dunno how low i'd have to go before my cpu would become a bottleneck tho. As has been said, don't bother with anything above a 9800pro with your current spec (unless u plan to upgrade in the future).

Moojuice

ive got a laptop with a 2.8 GHZ processor, 512 of Ram and a 63MB GeForce graphics card. I hope it runs it ok because I am going to get a copy on Friday when it comes out, unless there is anywhere in Dublin selling it before then.

My machine ran far cry pretty well so I hope D3 works...................

Moo

scargill

correction on my ram - I have 512 + 128. (2 slots)

I might just ditch the 128 and replace it with another 512 - only around €100 at the moment.

I did find it quite slow loading between levels.

ben101

don't believe the hype, this game should run reasonably well on most decent machines .my pc is over a year old 80 gb hd,512 ram ,g4 mmx 44o 128 graphics and it runs pretty much ok most of the time on medium settings

Stormfox1020

Scargill, I wouldnt bother upgrading your Ram to 1GB. Id focus on the Processor and the Graphics card. 1.5Ghz is the exact minimum speed needed to run Doom 3, so upgrading to say a 3ghz or an AMD 64 3200 youll see a marginal performance compared to just upgrading your RAM. Browse around the Computers thread for more details on graphics cards and Ram etc.