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DOOM 3 VIDEO PERFORMANCE

"In this article we test Doom3 performance with 4 different video cards which are the MSI Geforce 5900 XT, Inno3D Geforce4 Ti4200, 3dpower Geforce3 Ti500 and the MSI Geforce4 MX440. We also show how processor speed effects Doom3 performance with a Doom3 CPU scaling test."

PERFORMANCE ARTICLE FEATURING GEFORCE FX 5900XT, GF4 Ti4200, GF3 Ti500 AND GF4 MX440 VIDEO CARDS!

"Science has unlocked the gates to the unknown, and now only one man stands between Hell and Earth. A sci-fi horror masterpiece, DOOM 3 is like nothing you have experienced. Dramatic storyline, pulse-pounding action, incredible graphics, and revolutionary technology combine to draw you into the most frightening and gripping first person gaming experience ever created."

With the recent release of the highly anticipated game DOOM 3 we have decided to benchmark it to find out if it is playable on less modern hardware. For this article we have decided to use a video card from each nvidia range. GeforceFX performance is represented by the MSI GeforceFX 5900 XT which is the only DX9 video card featured. Geforce4 performance is represented by the Inno3d Geforce4 Ti4200, although it is the slowest version of the Geforce4 it's performance is still very good. Geforce3 performance is represented by the 3Dpower Geforce3 Ti500 which is the most powerful version of the Geforce3. Geforce2 performance is represented by the MSI Geforce4 MX440, although the MX440 isn't stictly a Geforce2 video card it only uses limited Geforce4 features and shares more in common with the Geforce2 than the Geforce4.

NAME	CHIPSET	GPU SPEED	MEMORY	MEMORY SPEED	AGP SPEED	DIRECTX SUPPORT	PIXEL SHADER
MSI GEFORCE FX 5900 XT	NV35	390	128MB	700	8x	9.0	2.0
INNO3D GEFORCE4 TI4200	NV28	250	128MB	512	8x	8.1	1.3
3DPOWER GEFORCE3 TI500	NV20	240	64MB	500	4x	8.0	1.1
MSI GEFORCE4 MX440	NV17	270	64MB	400	4x	7.0	N/A
NAME	CHIPSET	GPU SPEED	MEMORY	MEMORY SPEED	AGP SPEED	DIRECTX SUPPORT	PIXEL SHADER

GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION

PROCESSOR	AMD ATHLON XP 3200
VIDEO CARD	MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT
	INNO3D GEFORCE4 TI4200
	3DPOWER GEFORCE3 TI500
	MSI GEFORCE4 MX440
NVIDIA DRIVER	FORCEWARE v61.77
MOTHERBOARD	MSI K7NS DELTA-L
MEMORY	2x512MB OCZ GOLD XTC PC3200 DDR
OPERATING SYSTEM	WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 1
DIRECTX VERSION	v9.0c

ADVANCED OPTIONS = HIGH QUALITY SPECIAL EFFECTS, SHADOWS, SPECULAR AND BUMP MAPS.

DOOM III

ADVANCED OPTIONS DISABLED

MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT

	85
	80
	65

INNO3D GEFORCE4 TI4200

	67
	59
	43

3DPOWER GEFORCE3 TI500

	61
	51
	37

MSI GEFORCE4 MX440

	41
	30
	21

640x480 800x600 1024x768

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
High Quality
Fullscreen Enabled
Vertical Sync Disabled
Demo1 Benchmark
Bump Maps Disabled
Shadows Disabled
Special Effects Disabled
Specular Disabled
Anti-aliasing Disabled

COMMENT - "The MSI Geforce 5900 XT puts in a great performance and is perfectly playable at all of the resolutions tested, to boost image quality it is recommended that you enable Specular Lighting which increases image quality at only a 4% performance cost. The Inno3D Geforce4 Ti4200 also does well but starts to struggle at 1024x768 byt 43fps is still perfectly playable. The 3Dpower Geforce3 Ti500 offers almost Geforce4 Ti4200 performance but can't manage to get atleast 40fps at 1024x768 so is best used at 800x600 instead. The MSI Geforce4 MX440 can also run Doom3 but really only at 640x480 and maybe at 800x600 if you don't mind some choppy gameplay."

DOOM III

ADVANCED OPTIONS ENABLED

MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT

	66
	58
	44

INNO3D GEFORCE4 TI4200

	41
	30
	21

3DPOWER GEFORCE3 TI500

	36
	27
	19

MSI GEFORCE4 MX440

	19
	14
	10

640x480 800x600 1024x768

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
High Quality
Fullscreen Enabled
Vertical Sync Disabled
Demo1 Benchmark
Bump Maps Enabled
Shadows Enabled
Special Effects Enabled
Specular Enabled
Anti-aliasing Disabled

COMMENT - "All of the video cards are starting to struggle badly when we turn on high quality settings like High Quality Special Effects, Shadows, Specular Lighting and Bump Mappings. This time only the MSI Geforce 5900 XT can deliver atleast 60fps which is does for 640x480 and almost at 800x600, at 1024x768 it's performance does suffer badly and it can only deliver 44fps which sometimes will result in choppy gameplay. The Inno3D Geforce4 Ti4200 is like the other older video cards struggles with the high quality settings and it only just reaches 40fps even at 640x480. The 3dpower Geforce3 Ti500 almost reaches 40fps but doesn't quite make it and the 36fps at 640x480 resulted in choppy gameplay. The MSI Geforce4 MX440 was unplayable at all of the resolutions when used with advanced effects."

DOOM III CPU SCALING

640x480 - ADVANCED OPTIONS DISABLED

	70
	60
	45

1024x768 - ADVANCED OPTIONS DISABLED

	66
	59
	45

640x480 - ADVANCED OPTIONS ENABLED

	55
	47
	36

1024x768 - ADVANCED OPTIONS ENABLED

	46
	43
	35

2.2 GHZ 1.8 GHZ 1.4 GHZ

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
High Quality
Fullscreen Enabled
Vertical Sync Disabled
Demo1 Benchmark

COMMENT - "The MSI Geforce 5900 XT does become video card limited at 1024x768 with the advanced options enabled but you will still get a 7% performance increase when upgrading from a 1.8GHZ to a 2.2GHZ processor. The cpu limited test is the 640x480 with advanced options disabled and the 2.2GHZ processor was 15% faster than the 1.8GHZ processor and an impressive 36% faster than a 1.4GHZ processor. With advanced options disabled Doom3 appears to be quite cpu limited but with the advanced options enabled it is video card limited as shown by the 1024x768 with advanced options enabled."

CONCLUSION

MSI GEFORCE 5900XT - As expected this video card delivered the best performance, it was able to deliver atleast 30fps even with advanced options enabled. 44fps at 1024x768 with advanced options enabled is very impressive however 58fps at 800x600 is much better for smooth gameplay.

INNO3D GEFORCE4 Ti4200 - Although this video card is showing it's age it was able to deliver atleast 30fps at all of the resolutions tested provided all of the advanced options are disabled. It was also able to deliver 30fps at 800x600 with the advanced options enabled.

3DPOWER GEFORCE3 Ti500 - Performed a bit slower than the Inno3D Geforce4 Ti4200 with advanced options disabled and was only able to deliver 36fps at 640x480.

MSI GEFORCE4 MX440 - Performed as expected and couldn't deliver playable performance with advanced options enabled. However it did manage 30fps at 800x600 or a better 41fps at 640x480 with advanced options disabled which isn't bad for a video card using DX7.

If you are going to run Doom3 on anything less powerful than a MSI Geforce 5900 XT then lowering the resolution or disabling some of the advanced options will give you a big increase in speed. To make things easier for you here are the advanced options with the biggest performance hit:-
HIGH QUALITY SPECIAL FX = 0%
SHADOWS = 29%
SPECULAR LIGHTING = 4%
BUMP MAPPING = 4%
2xAA = 8%
4xAA = 14%

AS YOU CAN SEE JUST BY DISABLING SHADOWS YOU GAIN AN EXTRA 29% PERFORMANCE!