Doom 3 - Athlon XP1700+ - Geforce FX5700 Ultra

[James_D]

Hi there,

Up until recently, I've been using my computer solely for audio but I've been bitten by the game bug recently.

I bought a copy of Doom 3 thinking that it would run ok on my machine (amazon specs here .)

The specs state an AMD 1500+ (I have an Athlon XP1700+ 1.47ghz) and am running the game with a Geforce Fx5700 ultra 128mb but the game performs terribly, especially when there are over three characters on the screen - even on the lowest setting with most of the detail turned off.

So, I figured that Amazon screwed up & they meant 1.5ghz instead of the rating 1500+. Does this sound about right? But even if that's so... I'm only slightly slower than 1.5ghz... does it really make that much difference?

Also... my motherboard (Abit KG7) is getting a little old now... the GFX card is X8 Agp (whatever that means) but my board only supports up to X4 - does this restrain the performance of the gfx card?

Thanks for any advice,
James

 

[gasstronamicle]

doom 3 is very grpahics intensive but your system should run it fine on medium setitngs. try to install the newest drivers as old drivers will perform horribly on doom 3.
having a agp 8x card on a 4x motherbaord wouldnt restain performance, you would get aprox 0.4fps lower, which isnt a big deal at all.

 

[isatippy]

Your video card should be fine but do like gasstronamicle said get the lates drivers for it. :hotbounce

 

[James_D]

Thanks a lot guys,

I've got the latest NVidia driver (66.93_win2kxp_english) so I don't think that's the problem.

Can someone suggest a good gfx benchmark programme so I can check how it rates against other cards of a similar type? I first installed the card without connecting a power cable ('cause it didn't mention it in the manual) - the NVidia driver told me that it was cutting off some of the functions of the card until the problem was rectified... so I connected a cable. Just wondering if this was the problem.

Oh... should say, I'm running Win 2k which might be a factor.

Cheers,
James

 

[gasstronamicle]

i personally love 3dmakrs 03
conecting it to the powersupply probably was teh cause fo the problem as new graphics card can not properly play games with out the additional power.

 

[shadow_29]

james,first of all those are the minimum requirements for doom3 as in the game requires ATLEAST this to run.not the recommended settings by the game producers.your video card looks fine but your cpu might be responsible for holding it back.first of all you might want to check for any programs running in the background hogging up the system resources,run adaware or spyhunter to find out.next,check your resolution and refresh rate.try running the game on lower settings and with lesser details to see if it gets a boost,try a lower resolution that's pretty much the most basic thing.doom 3 is a very demanding game-nvidia is basing its entire campaign on that game because only there latest geforce6800 ultra runs it at 60 fps(which is the maximum for that game).so dont expect too much out of your system.

 

[shadow_29]

hey gastronomical,what??????? which cards are you talking about i think you are confusing a geforce fx 5700(about 2-3 years old by the way)with a geforce 6800 ultra which requires two molex connectors and a 480 w psu.but i think only the 6800 demands that,to even consider that a fx 5700 would require a power connector.............................for what????????its usually for the fan,fx5700 comes in an LE version also that has PASSIVE cooling.there is no way i think that can be an issue.sorry

 

[Didou]

Some FX5700 cards have a molex connector but all 5700 Ultra cards have one.

Example:

 

[gasstronamicle]

Thanks a lot guys,

I've got the latest NVidia driver (66.93_win2kxp_english) so I don't think that's the problem.

Can someone suggest a good gfx benchmark programme so I can check how it rates against other cards of a similar type? I first installed the card without connecting a power cable ('cause it didn't mention it in the manual) - the NVidia driver told me that it was cutting off some of the functions of the card until the problem was rectified... so I connected a cable. Just wondering if this was the problem.

Oh... should say, I'm running Win 2k which might be a factor.

Cheers,
James

he said he connected a power cable to the card
thus i believe it requires a power conector.

 

[vegasgmc]

The 5700 Ultra should run Doom 3 just fine. The Radeon 8500 in my second PC plays it. Your problem is the processor and motherboard. Newer games rely alot on the processor for visuals and audio. You should look into getting a newer board and at least an XP 2500.

 

[shadow_29]

hey sorry my bad,first of all didnt read his first post all that carefully and got the 5700 ultra(nv36.........) confused with a normal geforce fx 5700 or a 5700 le.but in my defense i havent heard of this gpu and though that it ran on the older one.personally i have'nt seen a molex power connector on a video card yet required for the gpu AND NOT FOR THE COOLING/FAN.however i have seen a friend of mine who has an le version of 5700 use passive cooling on his so..........i fumbeled up.sorry ............gasstronomical.

 

[gasstronamicle]

np. i just wish i could play doom 3 normally on my radeon 9700 with out getting windows error messages

 

[James_D]

Thanks again everyone,

I guess I expected it to be at least playable, qualifying at minimum specs & all.

I mean some of it is playable.. but when you're in the heat of the battle with 4 creatures (or more) it turns into the Doom 3 slideshow... 4 fps at best. & the detail is set to low (although the hardware detect thing suggests medium.) 640 x 480.

It most noticable right at the beginning of the game with the big drop-ship thing.

Anyways... I guess I'll put it down to my ancient xp1700+ & see if I can blag an XP2400+ off ebay (my mobo only supports 333fsb processors)

James

 

[Didou]

(my mobo only supports 333fsb processors)

No it doesn't. The KG7 is limited to 133mhz (266 DDR). In any case, the AthlonXP 2400+ should work on it but not the Sempron 2400+.

 

[James_D]

Oh yeah... sorry.. had 333 on the brain looking at new motherboards.

 

[James_D]

Just one more thing you guys might be able to help me with...

Since I installed the card, I've noticed that sometimes the screen 'blinks'.. that is it goes black momentarily & when the screen returns, it quickly scrolls from the left of the screen back to the centre.

This can happen maybe an hour into using the PC.. & afterwards, the graphics in games are seriously messed up - either no or corrupt textures & sometimes nothing at all or a complete mash of gfx.

I was wondering if this pointed towards the card not being incompatible / damaged or other.

 

[gasstronamicle]

this happens on my 9700, what i use make the problem take longer to apear is put a good deal of cooling on the card, and use the drivers recomended by windows, doing so it tkaes aprox 4+ hours of gaming, to amke a error apear on doom 3, ironically i cant make max payne work at all.