PERFORMANCE Doom 3: CPU and Motherboard
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX53 (2.4GHz 1024K L2 cache)Motherboard: Abit AV8 (VIA K8T800 PRO)
Price: CPU - $825 shipped (Retail). Motherboard - $121 shipped
Performance CPU
For the best performance possible in Doom 3, the Athlon 64 FX53 is an easy choice. The FX53 tops all of the benchmarks in the Doom 3: CPU Battlegrounds review. This is also why the FX53 was our reference CPU in Doom 3 Graphics Deathmatch. The Athlon 64 is currently the fastest processor that you can buy, the Dual-Channel Socket 939 is the top-performing A64 Socket, and the FX is the fastest 939 processor. The FX series also has the distinction of being the only Athlon 64 processors that are completely unlocked. That means you can adjust multipliers both up and down, to obtain the highest possible speed at the fastest DDR400 memory timings, or to obtain the highest FSB that your high speed memory can run or your CPU can reach. Most FX53 that we have tested can easily reach 2.6GHz at default voltage with air cooling, and some do even better. This pegs performance at a clock speed that we won't see in a retail CPU until late this year.
Performance Motherboard
If we could find it for sale anywhere, our recommendation would have been the excellent MSI K8N Neo2, which was our Gold Editor's Choice in our recent Socket 939 Roundup: Battle at the Top. However, just as we were going to press, we received word of further delays in retail availability of the K8N Neo2. Quite frankly, after two months of recommending the K8N Neo2 and no one able to buy it, we are not going to recommend again a board that you can't buy today. The K8N Neo2 is a great board, if you are willing to wait for it, and the nForce3-250 chipset is a bit faster with an nVidia 6 series video card than VIA.Of the boards you can buy today, the Abit AV8 PRO and Asus A8V Rev. 2 were our Silver Editor's Choices in the Socket 939 roundup. The Asus Revision 2 is not yet in the market, but should be available in the next couple of weeks. The A8V that we have seen for sale are still the original revision, which performs quite well at stock, but does not have a completely reliable AGP/PCI lock. If overclocking doesn't matter, then the current A8V is an excellent choice, but if you want to overclock, wait for the A8V Revision 2.
The Abit AV8 is available today and is quite a value at $121. The AV8 performed very well in our Socket 939 roundup and will work very well with the FX53 and up to 4 Gigabytes of Dual-Channel memory. Even though the AV8 is one of the most reasonable Socket 939 motherboards that you can buy, it still includes Firewire ports, 6-channel on-board audio, and 2 SATA ports that support RAID. It also features one of the best selections of overclocking options that you will find on any Socket 939 board, so you can squeeze the most from your Doom 3 system.
For specifications and test results on the Abit AV8, please take a look at the AnandTech review at http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2128.
Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on the AMD CPUs from many different reputable vendors:
If you cannot find the lowest prices on the products that we've recommended on this page, it's because we don't list some of them in our RealTime pricing engine. Until we do, we suggest that you do an independent search online at the various vendors' web sites. Just pick and choose where you want to buy your products by looking for a vendor located under the "Vendor" heading.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
52 Comments
View All Comments
Wesley Fink - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
#41 - This is a Buyers Guide for Doom 3. I doubt your friend would go out to buy a Ti200 system to play Doom 3. If $278 is too much video card for you then you could save $78 with a 9800 PRO and have half the framerate at 1024x768. Or you could save $140 by getting a 9600XT or 5700 Ultra and still get playable (over 30FPS) frame rates at lower quality at 640x480 and 800x600.Value means best performance for the buck as I see it. The two options above gave up too much perfomance for the savings in my opinion, but you are entitled to your opinion.
Perhaps I should have added a 4th Category called CHEAP Doom 3 System - if it can boot the game it is A-OK by me :-)
brian_riendeau - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
$1000 value system? I thought I went to AnandTech, not Dell.com.Not everyone needs a $300 video card to be happy. You are WAY to caught up in "...another $100 you can get 40% more performance". Do you actually need that 40% more to enjoy the game? No. The game runs fine on cards much slower than a 6800. I have a friend who plays the game on a GF3 Ti200. I am not sure what his settings are, but the game runs fine for him. Maybe the difference is that he actually spends his time playing the game, not staring at textures on the walls and looking for 10 more frames per second to help kill those zombies.
//Editted
brian_riendeau - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
$1000 value system? I thought I went to AnandTech, not Dell.com.Not everyone needs a $300 video card to be happy. You are WAY to caught up in "well another $100 you can get 40% more performance". Do you actually need that 40% more to enjoy the game? No. The game runs fine on card must slower than a 6800. I have a friend who plays the game on a Ti200. I am not sure what his settings are, but the game runs fine for him. Maybe the difference is that he actually spends his time playing the games, now staring at textures on the walls and looking for 10% more frames.
Zebo - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
I always thought "value" was the highest point in the price to performance curve.If the Fx-53 were 8X faster than the A64 2800+ it would constitute a value as well. But since it's only about 30% faster for 700% more money it's a horrendous value.
This is why a lot of builders above are correct in recommending the 9800pro instead of the generic 6800. In fact, either the more expensive 6800 GT or the 9800pro repersent the best "value" of all video cards out right now since thier price to performance curve is the highest.
Anyway I agree with you guys, get the 9800 then a real nice monitor, which will make a huge diff:
9800pro OC $190
A64 2800 OC to 2.4 $140
ChainTech $70
Cheapest branded 512 cas 2.5 $75
NEC diamondtron DP930SB-BK 19" $280
Antec case Slk3700w 350W $65
Sony combo drive $40
Samsung 80 giger $63
Logitech Z640 5.1 $55
=980
link130 - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
reply to #32 Wesley Finkyou forget that we are talking about "Value PC" which is synonymous with "Buget PC" I also said you can upgrade the 9800pro to a 6800 with $80. with a 6800 the difference btw a 2800+ A64 and a 2.4ghz barton are very small if you refer to the charts on this site.
Murst - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
The review seems to make some good reccomendations... except I really cannot see why you would reccomend a 3400+ over a 3500+ when the difference in price is 75$ and the socket 939 has a future. I suppose if its ONLY to play Doom3....mickey - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
What I would really like to see in future articles especially based on a single game (no doubt the same will be done for hl2) is benchmarks of the corresponding systems so that we can make a decision as to whether or not going for a better system is worth the extra $$$$Wesley Fink - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
Yes, it is a bit freaky, pliers. I would also personally choose the 2800+ at just $27 more for twice the cache and 64-bit architecture. The 2800+ is also a decent overclocker.pliers - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
freaky that twice now youre like a few mins a head of me.pliers - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
So now your price is around $782. It a nice system but I would still lean more towards the anandtech system with the 2800+ a64 cpu which totals $1025. If you look at the two systems for $240 more youre getting a geforce 6800, a 19" monitor, and a 64bit processor. Thats insane for $240 more.