PERFORMANCE Doom 3: Video and Audio
Video
Recommendation: Gigabyte GV-N68U256D 256MB GeForce 6800 UltraPrice: $538 shipped
It is some 2 to 3 months since the new top-end video cards were introduced by both nVidia and ATI. At this point in time, the dust should have settled and you should be able to easily find the video card that your heart desires. Unfortunately, this is the summer of discontent so far, and finding an nVidia 6800 Ultra or ATI X800 XT that you can actually buy is still a challenging task. It is possible to buy one of these wonder cards; they are just much more difficult to find one than they need to be. Now that Doom 3 gives you a solid reason to buy an uber 6800, the cards will hopefully become easier to find.
The new generation of video cards from nVidia and ATI are twice as fast as the previous generation in many benchmarks. Looking at games in general, we would be hard pressed to choose between the ATI X800 XT or the nVidia 6800 Ultra, but this is a Doom 3 guide, and in Doom 3, we found that nVidia is king. ATI rushed out some 4.9 Catalyst drivers, which do improve X800 XT performance, but the king of Doom 3 is definitely the nVidia 6800 family.
Derek found in Doom 3 Graphics Deathmatch that the top of the heap is the 6800 Ultra Extreme. However, the Ultra Extreme is basically just an overclocked Ultra, and if you think that the Ultra is hard to find, you should search for an Extreme. For that reason, we are recommending an nVidia 6800 Ultra for our Performance Doom 3 system.
A few vendors are showing availability of the Gigabyte 6800 Ultra, which is why it is listed. However, at this point, there is not really much difference in the 6800 Ultra cards, so choose whatever is available. The Albatron reviewed at AnandTech a few weeks ago is shipping at a slight overclock (410MHz) to normal Ultra speed and may be worth searching for. Overall, however, you will find little to distinguish the 6800 Ultra cards until there is much better availability of 6800 Ultra cards in the market.
The 6800 Ultra features 16 pipelines, a GPU at 400MHz, and 256MB of DDR3 memory at 1.1GHz. It is a nice step up from the 12-pipe 6800 and the lower clocked 6800 GT, although either of these 2 cards are still blazing performers - and easier to find.
Sound Card
Recommendation: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (7.1) retailPrice: $83
Doom 3 fully supports 5.1 surround-sound, and 5.1 definitely enhances the Doom 3 experience. While there are quite a few sound cards on the market, many of which we prefer to Sound Blaster, there is no doubt that Sound Blaster is the audio standard for gaming.
For our Performance Doom 3 rig, the top choice for an audio card is the Audigy 2. The Audigy 2 ZS is also a good card for those who love watching Dolby Digital DVD movies, or for someone who just wants decent quality sound. This version of the Audigy 2 supports 8 channels of sound and will deliver a great listening experience in any game, especially ones that support the Audigy 2's special features, like EAX. Simply pair the Audigy 2 with the right set of speakers and you'll have the necessary tools for an exceptional listening experience. Other special Audigy 2 features include 24/96 analog playback and recording, and "add-ons" like FireWire.
The Audigy 2 ZS differs from the regular OEM Audigy 2 mainly in its support of 7.1 channels of sound instead of 6.1. The benefit of going to 7.1 isn't really all that huge, since Doom 3 is a 5.1 title. However, the Audigy 2 ZS is a retail package instead of OEM, meaning you get additional bundled features, such as games and a FireWire header.
Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on nVidia video cards 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.
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wjh - Monday, September 13, 2004 - link
Hello, and thanks alot for such a great article! I am currently doing the research to build an FX-53 system with 2 Gb of memory.I'm having trouble locating the OCZ memory that you describe-- it could not be found on pricewatch, so I went to the vendor's site and found this:
2GB Dual Channel Kit PN- OCZ4002048EBDCPE-K
but it has these timings:
CL 2.5-3-2-8
(CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS) Available in 512MB (2x256MB), 1GB (2x512MB) and 2GB (2x1GB) Dual Channel Optimized Kits
and you specified default timings of 2.5-2-3.
Did you really mean 2.5-3-2, or do I have the wrong part?
I would appreciate your help in finding the right 2 Gb kit, hopefully at a decent price.
Thanks alot!
MAME - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
You guys are being too critical of the article. $1,000 is a lot for a value system for general use, but this article is about getting a system that can play the highest demanding game DECENTLY.With that in mind, $1,000 is actually a good price for most of the hardware (minus the actual game).
$280 for the 6800 is a lot but that's the price you gotta pay for top of the line performance these days. It's only $80 more than the 9800 pro, and has almost twice the performance.
Wesley, you did a good job with the choices for the most part. Don't worry about these guys.
archcommus87 - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
I agree for the most part with what Anandtech has posted here. True, it seems ridiculous that the value system has a nearly $300 video card, however it doesn't say budget, it says value, and they really are just trying to list the best bang for the buck.For the record though, I'm running an Athlon XP 2100+ overclocked to 2800+ speeds, 1 GB of cheapo memory and a 9800 Pro at stock speeds, and I'm running the game at usually 20-25 FPS or higher at 10x7 res, high settings, 6x AA and 16x AF.
link130 - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
Wesley Fink, think carefully before your responseActually even if we use YOUR definition of the term "value" of performance/price. a modest overclock of an 2400+ xp-M is about 2.4ghz while a modest overclock of a 2800+ A64 is 2.0ghz.
the A64 costs 2x the AXP while by extrapolating the AXP cpu graphs from this site, you can expect them to perfrom within 5fps in doom 3. still a good value for this game?
I actually get an average of around 40 fps at 800x600 medium quality with all the effects on except aa and vsync. in real gameplay on my 2.4ghz AXP-Bobile with a $50 ti4200 64mb @ 300/600 and cheap 512 ddr400 ram. after tweaking the cache settings in the cfg file, the game runs very smooth (almost no jerking effect even opening doors). now THAT is real value.
TrogdorJW - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
I'm actually playing D3 reasonably well on an Athlon XP 2.3 GHz (2500+ XP-M OC) with 1 GB RAM and a 9800 Pro. Still, 1024x768 HQ can be a bit choppy.Honestly, though, timedemo is NOT the way to determine gaming performance. Especially since the timedemo in Doom 3 disables audio. Yes, it's repeatable, but that doesn't make it accurate. And if the AI is actually running during a timedemo, I would be surprised. If you want to give a real recommendation for system performance, you probably need to use a utility like FRAPS and play through an entire level of the game, then report low, average, and high FPS. But then that would take a lot longer.
I also have to wonder how the lack of sound comes into play with the RAM use, as sound effects can chew up a decent amount of RAM. The benchmarking method (run timedemo 3 times and report the highest or average of the last two, I think?) would also negate the advantage of having more RAM. I know the first time I run the timedemo, even with 1 GB RAM, there is a lot of hard drive use and the average FPS is usually 25% or so less than on subsequent runs. In real gameplay, you don't continually rerun the exact same sequence, so you don't always get the benefit of cached data.
But all that's a bit off topic. The main thing is, the recommendations are pretty good, if expensive. I would think that a current Athlon XP system with a high end video card would go a long way to reaching good performance, if that's what you want. If you're building a new machine, the 9800 Pro isn't the best choice, but if you already have one (I do), I'm not sure it's worth $300 or $400 to upgrade to the 6800/GT.
And for you ATI people, I have to wonder how this will affect things:
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1487...
MercenaryForHire - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
Doom 3 is playable on ANYTHING.http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=...
Now quit bitching and play. :P
- M4H
Jbog - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
#45 Runamile, what do you mean by "very playable" and "just fine?" Maybe you could put that into terms that we can all understand, such as FPS and Image Quality? Otherwise your remarks have no objective quality.Runamile - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
I too also agree that $1000 for a value system is a little steep. It probally should of been around $700 IMHO.But thats cool. Ive already beaten D3 on an AMD 2200+, 512MB 2100, and ATI 8500 128MB. With it all @ 1024x768 w/o bump mapping, the system was very playable and looked just fine. And that rig will run about $350 these days.
Momental - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
I'd also like a little clarification as to why the 3400+ was recommended over the 3500+. True, the former is cheaper than the latter and actually seems to offer a wee bit better performance, in some cases. However, having a 939-based system allows one to merely upgrade a processor, should they become less expensive rather than replacing the board and the processor. Yes? No? I'm new to all this, so bear with me. ;)Fantastic article, by the way!!
Kung Lau - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
"The purpose of this Doom 3 Buyer's Guide is take all that we've learned in these reviews and make some basic recommendations for a killer Doom 3 system. Since desires, designs, and pocketbooks are different, you will find three recommendations here - Performance, Mainstream, and Value."It's almost like Wesley saw all these comments coming...
Value= 2004 Honda Civic for $12,000k
Budget= 1967 Volkswagon Beetle for $200.00
They will both get you from point A to point B, but I would hardly consider them synonymous, except for both being vehicles.
I can put together a system for under $800 using Newegg too, but I won't know what works well together for Doom 3 (specifically) until I've assembled the system after delivery. If something doesn't mesh or isn't quite up to par, I would have to send it back for another part.
I think the recommended lists provides for a basic groundwork to build from. Many will have different variations on the builds.
People take stuff too seriously around here.
And btw, I, along with many others here on Anandtech, bought a Dell 4600 system with 9800pro for GAMING for under $500 without monitor (had already) from the Hot Deals forum a while back when the deals were outrageous.