Introduction

On the 3rd of August 2004, ID Software unleashed Doom 3 to gamers all over the globe. Shop stores all around the world replaced the empty promotional boxes with actual copies and online stores shipped all the pre-orders to gamers who have been eagerly waiting many years for the next version of the cult-type game series which is Doom.

Doom 3 is here and is certain to become a major success with all genres of gamers because of its cult following and ultra realistic graphics and cinematic-like gaming style which as others have suggested makes you feel like big bad Bruce Willis in the next big Hollywood shooting hero movie. We as gamers have never seen this type of realism in games and it's really just a start for what manufacturers like ATI and nVidia are hoping to help the game developers create for all of us in years ahead, now that the hardware required is available to render such impressive graphics. It's certainly a fun and refreshing time to be in the computing industry - definitely a breath of fresh air.

After playing single player Doom 3 for only an hour I was automatically compelled to figure out exactly how to benchmark the game on my hardware - and I am tipping most people reading TweakTown would have felt the same way. I was genuinely interested in benchmarking all of the latest graphics cards we have in our labs from our generous suppliers. In this line of work, when you are benchmarking or seeing products being benchmarked almost 7 days a week for years on end, it can become difficult to appreciate the process.

On the day we first got our copy of Doom 3, it brought me back in time a few years to the very first Quake 3: Arena days when we first started the little website called TweakTown when we had a very strong interest in the benchmarking process and what hardware offered the best frame rate performance for our ultra l33t 3D gaming experience. Doom 3 offers enthusiasts not only a great gaming experience but the chance tweak their systems to increase frame rates in the game which can often go well into the single digit range even with high-end systems and the latest graphics cards.

Our focus here today is not on comparing the latest graphics cards in Doom 3 (many sites such as AnandTech, AMDZone and VR Zone have already covered it in good detail) but to provide the definitive online resource on exactly how to benchmark Doom 3 and the various issues involved in doing so in a coherent and reliable manner. We are sure many of you are dieing to see how your hardware stacks up against your best friends PC and in the following pages you will learn exactly how to benchmark Doom 3, the issues involved, what to use and finishing it all off comparing an ATI Radeon X800XT PE with ATI's current official 4.7 drivers along with their latest beta 4.9 Catalyst drivers which offer better OpenGL performance which is said to help increase performance of X800 graphics cards in the game.

Last Updated: Valid as of 5th of August 2004

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