Weird Doom 3 scores on anandtech, IMO

[Lonyo]

Does Doom 3 use less texture memory than UT2k3?
There is a performance difference between then 9800 128 and 256MB cards in both tests.
Doom 3 - 128MB card wins 1600x1200 4xAA by 1fps
UT 2k3 - 256MB card wins by 1600x1200 4xAA by 5fps

This suggests the extra 128MB on the 256MB card is not needed in Doom 3, suggesting textures are either more compressed, or there are less textures needed for the game, is this a fair assumption?

I know it's not the final version of Doom 3 though, so this could change by the release, but I just found it a little odd that Doom 3 didn't seem to care for the extra memory on the card.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Apparently, any driver release prior to the Cat3.4s only utilize 128MB of the RAM on the 9800Pro. Since Doom3 runs like a dog on the Cat3.4s, the Cat3.2s were used which disabled the extra memory.

 

[dnoyeb]

I think that is probably a fair assumption. id probably has better scene management policy that does UT. So they probably try not to fill
the whole screen with stuff unless its absolutely necessary. But anyway I am not sure what kind of demo the q3 demo was. timedemo used to
be the one where the camera just spun in a circicle at a certain location. hopefully it was not that..

Besides, what games use 128MB of RAM anyway??? i wish the card could tell you how much RAM was being used like the OS can.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Besides, what games use 128MB of RAM anyway???

Running 1600x1200 32bit color with 4x FSAA enabled you are using up close to 100MBs for frame/z buffers. That only leaves you with ~28MB of RAM for vertex data, shader programs and all textures.

 

[WillieEvercome]

Doom 3 looks great on my computer with a 9500 modded to 9700 pro at 1024x768 with AA and AF on.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Does Doom 3 use less texture memory than UT2k3?
There is a performance difference between then 9800 128 and 256MB cards in both tests.
Doom 3 - 128MB card wins 1600x1200 4xAA by 1fps
UT 2k3 - 256MB card wins by 1600x1200 4xAA by 5fps

This suggests the extra 128MB on the 256MB card is not needed in Doom 3, suggesting textures are either more compressed, or there are less textures needed for the game, is this a fair assumption?

I know it's not the final version of Doom 3 though, so this could change by the release, but I just found it a little odd that Doom 3 didn't seem to care for the extra memory on the card.

You would be correct sir. hehe. Doom 3 reportedly will use "only" 80MB of texture memory. At least accordinding to various
reputable sources. So you are right when you say that one does not need a 256 MB graphics card to run doomIII smoothly.

However, a 256 card is an excellent future proof investment for the coming years. So it might be worth the extra bucks now, instead of purchasing yet another card down the road with more memory as we will soon need over 128 MB of texture memory for upcoming games. IMHO

Keys

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: WillieEvercome
Doom 3 looks great on my computer with a 9500 modded to 9700 pro at 1024x768 with AA and AF on.

Willie, is there a way to obtain the DoomIII demo, or leak? I have scoured the web looking for it but no luck.
Let me know..

Thanks,
Keys

 

[Regs]

256 MB card with 512- Bit architecture is more like it. 256 Megs spread out over 4 ways, bah.

And keysplayr2003, rest asure that willie is full of it. If it took nvidia and Idsoftware to come to an agreement just for anandtech to use one their models (thats pre-recorded models, not even a playable demo) , I highly doubt he has what he calls a "demo".

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: Regs
256 MB card with 512- Bit architecture is more like it. 256 Megs spread out over 4 ways, bah.

And keysplayr2003, rest asure that willie is full of it. If it took nvidia and Idsoftware to come to an agreement just for anandtech to use one their models (thats pre-recorded models, not even a playable demo) , I highly doubt he has what he calls a "demo".

Willie is most likely referring to the leaked (by ATI) alpha version. That's old news.

 

[Guspaz]

Yes, just a bit older than the news that it wasn't leaked by ATI.

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: Guspaz
Yes, just a bit older than the news that it wasn't leaked by ATI.

ROLF. I'm such a moron. Your totally correct. I remember the whole "conspiracy" memo now (which never existed). I think there was a recent thread about this (it being the reason that iD let nVidia use Doom3 for nV35 benches) and for some reason it turned back into a reality in my brain.

 

[Slaimus]

Yes, just a bit older than the news that it wasn't leaked by ATI.

Link? the memo was fake, but I still have not seen anything that says it was not ATI

 

[Goi]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
Apparently, any driver release prior to the Cat3.4s only utilize 128MB of the RAM on the 9800Pro. Since Doom3 runs like a dog on the Cat3.4s, the Cat3.2s were used which disabled the extra memory.

Where did you get this info from?

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: Goi

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
Apparently, any driver release prior to the Cat3.4s only utilize 128MB of the RAM on the 9800Pro. Since Doom3 runs like a dog on the Cat3.4s, the Cat3.2s were used which disabled the extra memory.

Where did you get this info from?

Kyle sums it up [/i]here.


If you were saying to yourself that something is not right here, we would have to agree with you. It seems that ATI's latest Catalyst driver is broken when it comes to running DOOM 3.

We pulled back to the driver versions for all cards based on Catalyst v3.2. Now this leaves us with a driver that we are told only has the ability to access 128MB of RAM on the 9800-256 card. While this does not give us a 100% apples to apples comparison between the 5900 Ultra and the 9800 Pro-256, it is the best we could do while showing the 9800 in the best possible light. From the scaling shown, it is our thought that the 128MB of "missing" memory did not impact the scores, but it is something to be taken into account.