Upgrade question: Processor or Video Card?

Hello there,

I need to upgrade my PC to run Doom 3 properly. My current specs are:

AthlonXP 2200+
512Mb Cheap RAM
GeForce4 Ti4200 128Mb

I can't really afford to upgrade the entire system just yet, so purely for Doom 3 performance would you reccomend upgrading the processor to an Athlon64 3400+ or getting a GeForce 6800 Ultra?

Many thanks.

Video card. That processor is fine. The cpu is only used when loading the game, when playing it is ALL the video card (well not 100% but the video card works harder). If you dropped at Fx 5900 or something in there, you would be sitting pretty.

Neither. You're all set.

Also, please note that ragdoll physics and game logic doesn't involve the video card.

Well yeah he is set in the since that he can play the game, I just thought he meant at a high resolution. But the TI 4200 won't do you wrong, just DON'T go above medium detail and you will be fine.

I reckon you'll be fine. My friend has a Ti4200 and they're damn good cards.

Go to www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQ0 for all the info you'll need.

Yeah, I'd buy the game and see how it looks/plays with what you've already got.

You've got nearly the same as me. Except I've got a P4 2.0 and 1gb RAM, same video card. And after reading the hardware guide I'm pretty sure it'll look just fine for me.

But if you feel like you must upgrade...do the video card. It'll be the most noticable boost.

Of course if you don't have a 5.1 sound system with a an Audigy 2 or better card ya might wanna upgrade that instead. That's what I just did. :)

Personally, I'd advise getting a gigabyte of Corsair ram, because your vid card is fine, and so is your CPU. However, if you want to get another CPU, grab a 2500+ barton and overclock it to 2ghz. 3200+ speeds!

Your name is familiar hmm...zimbob or epyo ring a bell to you?

Don't forget, you can always get a new sound system! Everybody says sound is important here, we'll see.

Does anyone know how the Diamond Stealth S90 GF FX5200 128meg will run doom 3?. I guess its the only 5200 that supports direct X9.0.

Grolsch said:

My current specs are:

AthlonXP 2200+
512Mb Cheap RAM
GeForce4 Ti4200 128Mb

My current specs were:

XP2600
512Mb cheapo pc2700 ram
Ti4200 128Mb

I just replaced the Leadtek Ti4200 with a Leadtek 6800GT.

...then a few hours later the [H]ardOCP hardware guide was posted, and one part of me thought, shit, I just wasted £300 because the Ti4200 would have played this fine.

Then the evil old git in me that remembers playing Doom 10 years ago thought, shit, best money I ever spent on pc hardware, because I want Doom3 to run like it should... 1600x1200 8xAF 60fps...

In short, I'd upgrade the GPU before the CPU, but neither is strictly necessary.

the lone crouton said:

I just replaced the Leadtek Ti4200 with a Leadtek 6800GT.

...then a few hours later the [H]ardOCP hardware guide was posted, and one part of me thought, shit, I just wasted £300 because the Ti4200 would have played this fine.

On the bright side you'll have some of the most awesome visuals for Doom3 and will probably be set for a couple years on the video card.