AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 (Socket 939) Processor Review

Doom 3

Doom 3 is the latest game to hit our test lab and is one of the most intensive games to dates. Using the "Demo1" file included with the game we are able to give a realistic rating on what kind of FPS you will be achieving.

For more information on benchmarking Doom 3 we recommend you check out our extensive article regarding it here.

While many folks are still anxiously awaiting the arrival of Half Life 2, there is still Doom 3. Bringing to the table some of the most stunning visuals ever to be made into a FPS shooter, we have found this game to be a true system killer at higher settings. I tested using the HQ settings since this is what is supposed to be used for a 256MB video card. As you can see, the lower resolutions benefit the most from the added power. When the screen sizes begin going up, there is so much to draw that even the mighty Athlon FX begins to feel the strain. Overall, though, I noticed a very playable gaming experience with no hiccups when you turn the corner and the system has to load more graphics. This was a common issue on the XP box, but it disappeared when using the FX processor.