Here is how to play Doom on a sensible PC budget

[HEXUS]

Can a humble Core i3 deliver smooth gameplay on a current triple-a title?

Read more.

[anselhelm]

Very nice article. Just a small correction though:

"The first rig is comprised of" --> "The first rig comprises"

[Myss_tree]

Surely the logical step would to have had the core i3 teamed with the GTX 970 inbetween the other two builds for a better comparison.

[nitro912gr]

interesting, based on that test I guess my system will manage to play in high or at least, medium.
Good news because I don't see any upgrade till 2018

[ixo]

A little annoying that an i3 + 970 was not tested -.-

[DanceswithUnix]

Amazingly this is the one version of Doom ever that hasn't had me looking for a component upgrade.

I think the game has auto sensed down a bit in quality, but it looks pretty good and more to the point I am really enjoying the game.

That is with an FX8350 and an R9-380 running in 1440p, though Freesync may be helping.

Would be interesting to revisit this when the Vulkan renderer goes public.

[LSG501]

Hmm... I would have liked to have seen i3 and gtx970 and i5 and gtx950 too just to see how much impact the cpu and gpu has on the framerates. Some games like more cpu, some like more gpu...

[CaptainAmerica]

Only thing missing was a GPU swap. Other than that, this is a really good little article.

[hairyonion]

Stupid article, there isn't a 970 i3 comparison so no idea if the i3 throttles the performance. Also no AMD budget card/cpu compared. If I was looking to build a budget pc to play doom this article would not be of any help.

[Tarinder]

If I was looking to build a budget pc to play doom this article would not be of any help.

I guess you haven't read the article, then.

[ataru]

Don't forget to play the new UT too. https://www.epicgames.com/unrealtournament/

[Nifl]

If I was looking to build a budget pc to play doom this article would not be of any help.

I guess you haven't read the article, then.

I guess you haven't read what he said, then.

[excalibur1814]

Or, which would save a whole load of cash, jump onto ebay and buy an older core i5. There's plenty on there and, at the same time, buy an old 970. Prices are quite good at the mo due to the new 1080 card etc.

[jimbouk]

How many real cores/threads does Doom need to not be hindered? Does it benefit from more cores at a lower speed or should you stick a Pentium Anniversary Edition CPU at 4GHz? Is it worth spending £100 on a motherboard when going for a budget system? Does it really need 8GB of RAM or would it be OK on 4GB? Any need to go DDR4 rather than previous generation and DDR3?

Even going new it seems like there are plenty of options to consider for more 'bang-for-buck'...

[DanceswithUnix]

For those who want to know how well an i3 does, it works just fine: http://www.techspot.com/review/1173-...rks/page5.html

[ChewieJ]

Surely the logical step would to have had the core i3 teamed with the GTX 970 inbetween the other two builds for a better comparison.

Then run the i5 with the 950, to see just how they both compare, because someone somewhere will have a build closer to either the i3 and 970 or the i5 and 950 rather than the two builds tested.