Comments on: 'Doom 3' may doom users' current systems

Power-mad gaming titles may spur demand for high-end hardware upgrades.

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.