'Doom 3' may doom users' current systems

The latest versions of popular gaming titles such as "Doom" and "Half-Life" will have PC owners tracking down hardware upgrades to keep up with the demanding requirements of these power-hungry programs.

The recent addition to the "Doom" franchise, "Doom 3," went on sale this week and currently holds the No. 1 sales rank on online Web retailer Amazon.com. But the game may be a boon for more than just game developer Id Software and publisher Activision. With heavy-duty system requirements, high-end games like "Doom 3" may end up earning money for hardware companies, specifically makers of graphics cards and chips.

Gamers have become an important audience for high-end PC specialists, prone to some of the same hot-rod urges that motivate car buffs. Devotees of fast-paced shooting games often arm themselves with PCs featuring the latest graphics chip, which can make the difference between victory or ignominy during "LAN parties," one- or two-day events in which serious gamers gather to compete on networked PCs.

Bill Rehbock, head of developer relations at graphics card maker Nvidia, said he expected the sales of such performance-demanding games to transfer to graphics cards because the two go hand-in-hand. He said he expected the sales boost to continue into the holiday season as more high-end titles come out.

When it comes to PC shipments, gaming systems are just a blip, but they are an important indicator of where the market is headed.

"High-end gaming is rarefied, but it sets the pace for everyone else," said Roger Kay, an analyst with research firm IDC. "Its actions imply the mainstream will be headed in that direction soon enough."

Kay added that until 1997, the PC and hardware industry seemed to be outstripping the software industry in performance, which played a part in average system prices coming down. However demanding applications led by gaming titles are now challenging hardware performance, and system prices are creeping back up.

"Games are on the leading edge and creating a reason to upgrade," Kay said.

Anthony Kros of research firm Gartner agreed. "It's really interesting how an application can create a whole upgrade cycle for a class of users that is small but growing," Kros said.

System requirements, which are the minimum components needed in a PC to play the game, are often souped up compared to the average system. For "Doom 3" they include, according to Amazon.com: Microsoft Windows 2000/XP, a 1.5GHz Pentium 4 or an equivalent AMD Athlon processor, 384MB of RAM and various high-end video cards. Integrated graphics chipsets are not part of the requirements mix.

But Kros said that players using those recommended components may have a less-than-ideal gaming experience. He said that set of requirements was probably listed to appeal to as large an audience as possible.

The average desktop PC in the market today has a 3GHz processor and 512MB of memory, according to Kros. These specifications are good enough to handle these games, but PCs that came out a year or two ago may not be. Memory in PCs doubles about every 18 months while processor speeds jump 50 percent to 60 percent a year.

I'm shooting blobs

My computer's profile:
Pentium 4 1.6
Nvidia Ti4200 64MB Video Card
512 MB RAM
DVD+R
40 GB Seagate HD
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz 5.1 Sound Card

By all measures, not a bad machine. Not the latest and greatest (unless you're a sheep herder in Bangladesh), but it holds its own against games shipping today.

But last night, I bought Doom III. It installed. It played. And I spent three or four hours shooting at blobby forms on my screen. (To its credit, I didn't notice any slowdown, and I got the gist of it, but it looked like I was playing a DOS-based game--no eye candy.)

Am I upgrading? Yep.

[KDoggMDF]

Damn

That sucks. I'm running AMD Athlon XP 1700+, 256mb Corsair DDR 400 (I know, **** processor, super-fast memory. stuipd idea. lol), GeForce FX 5200 Ultra Overclocked, and Soundblaster Audigy Platinum sound. I need a new processor, 512mb more memory, and a new videocard. Donations anyone? :-D

[Fray9]

Newest conspiracy theory

Ok I just heard the latest conspiracy theory regarding modern game development.. that they are being bribed by hardware manufacturers to add in cpu/vpu cycle sucking idle routines to promote hardware upgrades to run software that in its basic form wouldnt need it.

I see games out there today that have average graphics requireing a massive system and then I see games with the same style, speed, and superior graphics requiring a lesser machine and I tend to agree.

The games themselves dont promote hardware upgrades because of improved designs, bad coding promotes hardware upgrades because memory leaks and badly optimized graphics code wastes resources.

"air quotes"

Why on c-net of all places does the author of this article feel the need to put the phrase LAN party in quotes and explain it? Besides which most FPS players take advantage of play over the "Internet" now rather than hauling around their dual monitor, dual CPU rigs.

Gamers are beginning to push PC development??

Erm, gaming has pushed the high-end PC market for at least the last ten years.

The average gamer machine now runs a 3+ gig processor, at least 1 GB of RAM and a 128MB video card. No buisness application I am aware of (with the possible exception of a very high-end CAD applciation) users anywhere close to that amount of resources.

[stncttr908]

OEM's hold back gaming

People with custom PC's know what they need to run games like Doom 3. The only problem here is that the OEM companies are holding games back by sticking to crappy integrated graphics "solutions" like Intel's Extreme 2. These chipsets don't even support Hardware Texturing & Lighting, something that my cards from four years ago did. This article mentions the fact that the average PC's RAM and CPU are capable of playing these games, but their graphics capabilities are lacking. At least most OEM PC's are finally including AGP slots, even though they're almost ready to be phased out by PCI-Express.

My system that runs Doom 3 on 1024x768 w/high details:

Athlon XP "Barton" 2500+ @ 2.2GHz
Abit NF7-S 2.0 motherboard
1GB Corsair XMS PC3200 @ stock
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB @ 430/365

My friend's system that runs is great @ 800x600 on medium detail:

Athlon XP 1800+ @ stock
MSI KT3 Ultra
512MB OCZ PC2700 @ stock
Geforce 4 ti4600 128MB @ stock

A Geforce 4 ti4xxx card can be found for < $50 on eBay and the 9800 Pro 128MB can be had brand new for < $200 at most online retailers.

[Tex Murphy PI]

Re: LAN Parties

LAN parties are for playes who are truly serious about multi-player gaming.

There are no issues of lag, or bandwidth constraints. It is very much a social event, rather than just a gaming event - since it is a lot more fun fragging someone and celebrating it loudly in front of their face.