ive got the same dual athlon 1700+ cpus on my very finicky but stable asus board and this is honestly the first time since i built the thing almost 4 years ago that i've encountered anything that has bogged my system down even a little. And doom 3 REALLY bogs down (something like 3-5 fps in even the lowest detail setting) I can run UT2K4 with all the options maxed out with almost no chop at all, but doom 3 makes the system all but break down and cry

Ive got the usefull (but never super fast) ATI all in wonder 7500 in in it now and 1gig registered ecc pc2100 and my question is this:
Would I be better off running a brand new graphics card ?(best bang per buck type deal again)
or
Would upgrading to two MP 2800+s be enough of a boost to compensate for the graphic's card's low performance?

Ive a feeling that my processors are doing just fine, but i wanted to ask you cynical motherfuckers just to be absolutely sure

do you guys have any suggestions?

12/2/2005 7:48:16 AM

How much RAM do you have? If it is 512+ then it probably isn't a RAM issue. In all likelyhood I would say that you need to upgrade your video card. Back when I first installed Doom 3, it ran fine on a Radeon 9600XT. If you are only looking to play Doom and no other graphics intensive games, you could probably find a 9600 from someone for like $40. If you are planning on playing graphics intensive games after Doom 3 I would recommend at least a Radeon X700 or a GeForce 6600. You can probably find those for about $100-$200 depending on how good you are at finding deals.

[Edited on December 2, 2005 at 8:15 AM. Reason : ]

12/2/2005 8:12:52 AM

its the card

12/2/2005 8:17:52 AM

yeah ive got plenty of ram IMO and have yet to utilize all of it actually

I really am fed up with ATI's oddball software and driver installation packages but this mobo is SO finicky about what i have jammed into it's slots (i need a thread dedicated just to how quirky this board is. its downright amazing) that i kind of want to play it safe and stay with what works

i tend to overshoot a little so i dont have to upgrade my hardware so often (as you might can tell)

so you think a Radeon X700 would do it?

12/2/2005 8:34:37 AM

funny you mention this,

last night I put ressurrection of evil in the drive for the first time in a while..

that game is really video card dependent.

12/2/2005 8:39:53 AM

I have a Radeon X700 and it runs Doom 3 on ultra high quality without any problems. It also runs BF2 perfectly fine (although not on its highest settings) and I would probably consider that to be the most graphically strenuous PC game out right now. If you plan on doing more gaming in the future though, I would recommend an X800 or X850.

12/2/2005 8:55:58 AM

flashlight mod

12/2/2005 8:56:38 AM

its the card

12/2/2005 9:05:52 AM

UT2004 is CPU-bound whereas Doom3's engine is GPU bound. I'm surprised that you managed to get 3-5 fps from Doom3 on that card.

12/2/2005 9:21:10 AM

ok santa is being a cheapass at the moment

do you think a Radeon 9550 would work?

12/3/2005 1:44:12 AM

at least get a radeon 9600 if you have to go cheap. although anything below a 9800 radeon or a 5900 geforce won't render doom3 very well at high settings

12/3/2005 8:45:49 AM

bfg 6800gt oc

12/3/2005 11:10:06 AM

Radeon 9550 gets about 20 fps on lowest settings from doom 3................that game sucks anyway

12/3/2005 12:05:10 PM

Why do you need doom to run smooth, just turn off all the lights in the house and make scarey sounds and you got it down pat.

12/3/2005 12:09:34 PM

you need a better video card

after that you may be better off with 1gb more of ram.

The processors shouldn't be holding the system down really.

12/3/2005 12:39:41 PM