Doom III Benchmarks.

[Stewart]

Right then lads, we've all seen the Doom III benchmarks now, so its time for some adult discussion of them.

Has it changed anyone's mind? Anyone decided to change choice of cards?

I'm paticulary thinking of the boost to the 6800GTs value for money. We all expected Nvidia to have the slight edge over ATi in Doom III, OpenGL etc, but The 6800GT beating the ATi flagship X800XT? Is that a bit of a cock-up on ATis part?

It certainly makes the GT seem like the choice of card. Cheaper than the Ultra and X800XT, and not very far behind at all in performance.

I've got a pre-order sorted so I wont be changing, but is anyone now thinking of picking up a cheapish 6800GT and having a blast on Doom III? With a bit of overclocking, you can have a monster performer, for relativly little cash.

Thoughts, comments, opinions. Lets discuss this people; it is, along with Half Life II, the release of the gaming year, and will, I'd assume, influence a lot of people; after all, who buys a high end GPU at the moment and isn't thinking of Doom III, Half Life II, etc.

I'll be sticking with my X800XT Platinum, but I think those who saved a bit of cash on the GT, and overclocked it, instead of spending the extra on a 6800Ultra \ X800XT can safely say, they've snagged themslves a bargain, at least as far as Doom III is concerned.

[myth]

Well I was going for an ati bassed solution... Till now! I just hope the Ultra prices drop!

[Richdog]

Well, from what i've seen the 6800GT is the new Ti4200, unbeatable price/performance value and OC's like a demon. It does indeed leave the ATI XT PE behind in Doom 3, but the frame-rates on the ATI are still very playable, and the X800 excels in other areas, such as shader intensive DX9 titles w. 1600*1200 AA/AF enabled. When 3dc tech is added to the mix (which HL2 will reportedly use), the ATI is a very attractive prospect. But so is the 6800GT. I think it is so difficult to make a choice on the current gen of cards that it's not even funny... it's a great time to be a gamer.

[Stoo]

I'm staying put with my system at the moment, I really can't see the point of spending £300+ on something that will be just as outdated in a couple of months for just one or two games.

Besides, in the weeks after the game is released, there are always patches, tweaks, and driver updates to boost the performance on various platforms

[Shogun]

For me I am looking forward more to HL2 so will base my decision on what card is best after the benchmarks for it. And proper benchmarks, not benchmarks done on beta or leaked copies of it.

As i am sure you all know ATi are really let down on the driver front. This is slowly getting rectified (another popular subject of debate) and some performance increases will be gained. This will take time as these cards are the cutting edge of technology. Can you name me one card where the driver support was completely perfect from the start and performance levels didn't increase with later driver updates.

You will just have to try and guess which gaming engine will be used more for a few years, Hl2's or Doom3's engine. It's all a gamble atm.

[myth]

Ok.. I must run all my games at 1600 by 1200! SO which card is right for me? I always play at high settings! Any ideas? I seem to be stuck!

[Nomadd]

Well, bought the 6800GT as I couldn't/wouldn't stretch to the 6800 Ultra/X800XT-PE. Was thinking of going ATI this time, but liked the idea of a 'full' 16 pipe card, on the cheap(ish). I guess I'd already figured (as had everyone else) that ANY next gen. card would run HL2/Doom3 more than adequately, so it was just down to features/price for me. GT seems the best bang for the buck, and Nvidia's OpenGL drivers have always been strong, hence the Doom3 scores.

The Doom3 numbers were a bit of a shock to me: expected the X800 Pro to do much better. Maybe updated drivers from ATI might improve things? Performance drop seems large for a card with only 4 pipes missing...

I also hope that Carmack's comments about 'overclocked' systems only means 'fudged' X800 Pro's, and not overclocked 6800GTs (as you aren't exercising any new trannies that aren't used already...) Time will tell.

Played around with the HL2Beta (yeah, real old code) on my 6800GT and it's looking sweet, so I'm not expecting any nasty suprises from Valve in a month or so's time.

Cheers,

Nomadd

[Stewart]

Well, from what i've seen the 6800GT is the new Ti4200, unbeatable price/performance value and OC's like a demon.

Hmm... the new 9800pro perhaps? Still plays everything well, £140, OCs to XT speeds.

It does indeed leave the ATI XT PE behind in Doom 3, but the frame-rates on the ATI are still very playable, and the X800 excels in other areas, such as shader intensive DX9 titles w. 1600*1200 AA/AF enabled. When 3dc tech is added to the mix (which HL2 will reportedly use), the ATI is a very attractive prospect. But so is the 6800GT.

Good points all round, me thinks. Like I say, the X800XT is the card for me, but its xclearly neither ATI's nor Nvidias flagship thats the real gem; its the 6800GT. Can you actually get hold of them at the mo? That would give it an advantage over the X800XT.

Lads; No discussion of how the various alpha and beta's ran on your cards please. These don't exist, and you never downloaded them. Cheers.

[myth]

Shure new egg has them in stock.... but they dont seem to sell the XTs.....

[bouncin]

well im still waiting on my x800xt pe at the moment should have it by the end of next week i ran everything @ 1600 x 1200 untill farcry came out lol.

Really looking forward to doing it again

Also hi richdog didnt know u were a member of hexus nice to see u.

and if ur not the richdog from extreme just ignore me m8y lol

[Stoo]

Can you actually get hold of them at the mo? That would give it an advantage over the X800XT.

Yeah, most places seem to be able to get stock fairly freely

[Richdog]

Ahh when the 9800PRO came out it's performance was certainly revolutionary... but the price wasn't! On the other hand, the Ti4200 overclocked to around the then-flagship Ti4600 levels for a good £100 less! The 9800PRO stayed a high price for a long time, and then the succeeding XT was only marginally faster, more a gimmick really.

And as for 6800 availability.. there are several sites the 6800GT is in-stock... that's the maddening thing. I could get one for saturday if I wanted! Not the ATI though...

EDIT - Hahaha BOUNCIN hello mate, you know there's only one Richdog! Nice to see you here.

[directhex]

have to say, i would have gone with an nvidia card anyway (linux user, ati have no clue about linux).

seeing these benches helps give my "6800 is a better bet" arguments on IRC more credibility.

plus, doom 3 has a linux version coming

would be interested to see how linux & windows compare on doom 3 w/ a 6800

[bouncin]

I can see linux taking off massively in the next 2 years and would be willing to make the change myself. when im a little less scared about drivers and using the gui itself.

Are Nvidia really that dominating in the linux house of gfx?

Saying that tbh i can see myself upgrading gfx again b4 making the os change but could be usefull for any1 else to know the difference of these cards on the linux setup so any1 got any info that could be usefull.

[Shogun]

Nvidia really are dominating because ATi support for Linux is so low that it might as well not exist.

[Agent]

Are Nvidia really that dominating in the linux house of gfx?

Yup.
Getting the ATi drivers installed and working properly is a game in its own right. Then you have the fun with getting 3D apps to work well.

Nv's drivers on the otherhand can be installed <5 mins on nearly all linux systems.