I fancy getting myself Doom 3 for my PC. I have never been a game head but Doom abd Doom 2 were 2 games I did enjoy and fully play. Got some questions however. My PC is about 2 years old. It has a 2.2Ghz Celeron processor and 256Mb of Ram with a 64Mb graphics card. Now I know I do not have enough RAM, so my first question is given the age of my PC and the Processor, which type of RAM is it likely to use ie 2100, 2700, 3200?. Am willing to upgrade the memory as there are other things I do that it would be useful to have 512Mb for.

Second question is 64Mb video RAM is the minimum, but Amazons web page says the video card has to be completely Direct X 9 compatible. My Card came with Direct X 8. Is it likely not to work with 9? (not going to be bothered buying a new graphics card just for a game).

Finally the game specs says min processor is a 1.5GHz P4. Does not mention min Celeron speed. Will a 2.2GHz Celeron match or exceed a 1.5GHz P4?

Sorry for all the questions.

down load dx9 from microsoft

buy a single 512-2700 dimm

try it

if that donw work buy a 256mb nvidia 5700 card they should be about 60quid now and this will play doom3 fine(ish)

Go to www.crucial.com navigate to the UK site and download their memory analyser (assuming you can't find your PC via the drop down lists). It'll tell you what memory you need to get.

I get most of my memory from them, arrives next day and has never been the wrong stuff.

I'll second Jon's recommendation for Crucial.

I've used them for the various PC's i've built for myself, family & friends, also for a couple of Video Cards (Radeon9700 Pro still going strong) and all my digital camera memory.

Next day delivery if you order before 4pm (sometimes a little later) and decent prices & service too.

www.crucial.com/uk should take you straight there IIRC.

A 2.2 Celeron should exceed the 1.5 P4 I believe (assuming it's not a P4 mobile in which case I have no idea).

Someone at a trade show told me that if you want to compare a celeron to a P4 you should reduce the quoted speed of the celeron by 10% which makes it just under 2GHz for the comparable P4. Could be a load of rubbish but it's what I was told.

Incidently I just looked at the Crucial link and have to say I'm impressed with the scan but a little concerned that Nortons didn't flinch.

I don't need an upgrade at the moment but at least I can be certain of what I need when the time comes.

I fancy getting myself Doom 3 for my PC. I have never been a game head but Doom abd Doom 2 were 2 games I did enjoy and fully play. Got some questions however. My PC is about 2 years old. It has a 2.2Ghz Celeron processor and 256Mb of Ram with a 64Mb graphics card. Now I know I do not have enough RAM, so my first question is given the age of my PC and the Processor, which type of RAM is it likely to use ie 2100, 2700, 3200?. Am willing to upgrade the memory as there are other things I do that it would be useful to have 512Mb for..

A celeron 2200 probably has a 400mhz front side bus , so you would need PC3200 memory which isn't much more expensive than PC2100/2700.

Bear in mind though that Doom 3 will run like a dog even with that processor unless you have a top flight graphics card.

Second question is 64Mb video RAM is the minimum' date=' but Amazons web page says the video card has to be completely Direct X 9 compatible. My Card came with Direct X 8. Is it likely not to work with 9? (not going to be bothered buying a new graphics card just for a game).[/quote']

It may be a 64mb card , but do you know what chipset it uses?

Mine is a GeForce 4 TI4200 64mb card which is no slouch , but on minimum detail the game was far too slow to be playable.

A realistic minimum spec is going to be a 2.8GHZ P4 with 512mb and a decent GeForce FX card (FX5700 at least)

Or how about Half Life 2 now that it is out? I've heard it is pretty scaleable for varying systems. Am still awaiting my copy from Amazon... :zzz:

I have Doom3 and have been playing Half Life 2 since 8.30 this morning. I also was a fan of Doom 1 & 2, but this time round there is absolutely NO comparison. Doom 3 = very dark and a bit scary, but ultimately a bit pants. Half Life 2 is THE best game EVER, no argument whatsoever.....

Half Life 2 is THE best game EVER, no argument whatsoever.....

Damn I can't wait. It flippin better arrive in todays post!

What system are you running it on? Hows it run?

Cheers,

A celeron 2200 probably has a 400mhz front side bus ' date=' so you would need PC3200 memory which isn't much more expensive than PC2100/2700.

Bear in mind though that Doom 3 will run like a dog even with that processor unless you have a top flight graphics card.

It may be a 64mb card , but do you know what chipset it uses?

Mine is a GeForce 4 TI4200 64mb card which is no slouch , but on minimum detail the game was far too slow to be playable.

A realistic minimum spec is going to be a 2.8GHZ P4 with 512mb and a decent GeForce FX card (FX5700 at least)[/quote']

According to the web site others recommende my PC needs PC2100 memory! My 64Mb graphics card is also a GeForce 4 card, so I guess I will just give the game a miss.

Thanks for the advice everyone

Thinking about it , there has been more than one version of the celeron with different bus speeds. If yours is an older chip it will probably have been the sloewr bus so PC2100 would be right. Your graphics card was probably a GeForce 4 MX 420 or 440 so that would really struggle to run Doom3.

Giving it a miss for now is probably the best idea , then buy it on a couple of years time when you have a new PC and its down to a fiver on re-issue.

Thinking about it ' date=' there has been more than one version of the celeron with different bus speeds. If yours is an older chip it will probably have been the sloewr bus so PC2100 would be right. Your graphics card was probably a GeForce 4 MX 420 or 440 so that would really struggle to run Doom3.

Giving it a miss for now is probably the best idea , then buy it on a couple of years time when you have a new PC and its down to a fiver on re-issue.[/quote']

Yes it is the GeForce 4 MX 440. As you say I will give it a miss. Do you know if my PC would be up to running the game Rise of Nations?

Doom3 struggles at about 5fps on my AMD 2500+xp 512 PC2700. radeon 9600 pro. Hate it for that reason. I got HL:2 yesterday and i am about to post a thread about getting a briskoda game together tonight.

William , rise of nations will play just fine on your machine

William,

I don't think you've mentioned what OS you are using. This can also have a dramatic effect on game performance eg one of the C&C series (can't remember which one) was unplayable on my sytem running 98SE, swapped to XP and it ran like a dream with no hardware changes.

It is Windows XP home edition SP2. Windows 98SE was a pile of ****. I had one PC which had originally been Windows 95. I bought the upgrade to 98 on the day it was released. It ran like a dream. My next PC had Windows 98SE. It was so bloody unstable, would seldom even shut down properly. What the hell had they done, added extra bugs to SE! I tried to fix this by upgrading to Windows ME, what a mistake, it was worse than 98SE.

Even XP does not seem as stable as 95 and 98 (not SE) seemed. I am just about to do a complete clean re-install of XP to get rid (hopefully) of a few irritating niggles that have cropped up after various Microsoft updates to the original OS.

Problem with ME was as an upgrade it was better to use a pen and paper and write in binary than to use windows, but as a fresh install it was ok, moreso than 95. anywho you're on xp now, so i would recommend (if you feel comfortable doing it) slipstreaming your xp cd with SP2 so its installed as part of the main install, makes it much more stable overall.

Well I restored my PC with the system restore CDs (fresh XP HE SP1, plus other software), then immediately ran the SP 2 disk. So hopefully this installation will remain stable. Mind you my wife uses the home PC more than me and god knows what she does to it.

Damn I can't wait. It flippin better arrive in todays post!

What system are you running it on? Hows it run?

Cheers' date='[/quote']

2.2Ghz P4 with 512Mb Ram and 256Mb Radeon 9600XT. Plays great, far smoother than Doom 3. Been playing it more today, and am up to Ant-Lions in the sand, having driven the buggy like a loony with turbo boost on!! Hope you get/have got your copy now...