Help! Less than 1fps in game!

When i load up the game, it gets to the main menu and i am recieving 'LESS' than 1fps, i have the fps thingie enabled in console and it tells me i am getting 1fps after a few seconds it slows down to 0fps, then eventually stops alltogether.

Specs:

1200mhz AMD Duron
512mb Ram
Nvidia Geforce4 440mx 64mb (PCI) (A hear a they are appalling for doom3)

I saw many people say Doom3 worked on their system using a GeForce4 440mx, so i thought id take my chances and buy the game... Unfortunatly to a dissapointing result.

I only bought it today and my anticipations where high, Once i got to the main menu i was very dissapointed and i cannot send the game back since 'GAME' refuse to take it back.

I may have the option to buy ATI RADEON 9200 128MB DDR TV-OUT or GEFORCE MX4000 128MB DDR TV-OUT...

Please can you assist, i am really looking forward to playing doom3.

It's not just your graphics card, it's your processor too. The bare minimum the game is supposed to be run with is 1.5ghz.

BTW if I were you I'd ask to see the manager of your branch of GAME. They're supposed to have a 10 day no-questions-asked return policy, and if the staff are refusing to honour that you have grounds for complaint.

hmm, i allways thought 300mhz wouldnt really make a difference, i guess i was mistaken....

The man at the counter said "Check your specifications, We no longer do the 10 day back garentee, so you cant bring it back"

I would have told him to go stick it where the sun dont shine, but i was more intrested in getting the game home and running it...

When it comes to a 1.2ghz processor, 300mhz is a 25% increase, which makes a considerable difference, especially when combined with a low-end graphics card.

NiGHTMARE said:

BTW if I were you I'd ask to see the manager of your branch of GAME. They're supposed to have a 10 day no-questions-asked return policy, and if the staff are refusing to honour that you have grounds for complaint.

Since I work at GAME I would like to reply to this. We no longer have a 10-day return policy on PC Games and Console Hardware. Simply put, if you buy a game and you haven't checked the specs on the box first then it is out of our hands, if the game is at fault then that is fair enough.

Minimum specs are on the back of the box for a reason, infact they are usually far more optimistic than they should be so take heed. And one final thing, the sales staff at GAME have a hard enough time with the huge amount of company policies without having to deal with customer complaints because they failed to read a small paragraph on the back of the box, and I don't mean that lightly either, Every year I have to read 5 very very very large folders to refresh my training. On top of that are the weekly and monthly reviews, staff baggage checks, daily Performance Indicators, daily loss prevention protocols... ad nauseum.

i Could get a processor upgrade to 1.8ghz, and a 128/265 ATI Radeon for less than 80 pounds.

ThreeEyes said:

Every year I have to read 5 very very very large folders to refresh my training. On top of that are the weekly and monthly reviews, staff baggage checks, daily Performance Indicators, daily loss prevention protocols... ad nauseum.

Well, you get money for working there, don't you?

Deus said:

i Could get a processor upgrade to 1.8ghz, and a 128/265 ATI Radeon for less than 80 pounds.

Save your money and get something that can play Doom 3 good.

ThreeEyes said:

Since I work at GAME I would like to reply to this. We no longer have a 10-day return policy on PC Games and Console Hardware.

Strange, since according to the GAME website you do. I went and asked a member of staff at the local branch (Basingstoke), and he said the policy is still in effect as well.

And one final thing, the sales staff at GAME have a hard enough time with the huge amount of company policies without having to deal with customer complaints because they failed to read a small paragraph on the back of the box, and I don't mean that lightly either,

I wasn't advising him to complain because of his own mistake, but because the staff were refusing to honour one of the very policies you're talking about. And if this policy isn't still in effect, the website ought to be updated and certain branches informed of the change.

Every year I have to read 5 very very very large folders to refresh my training. On top of that are the weekly and monthly reviews, staff baggage checks, daily Performance Indicators, daily loss prevention protocols... ad nauseum.

Erm, that's almost nothing compared to a great deal of other jobs...

Deus said:

i Could get a processor upgrade to 1.8ghz, and a 128/265 ATI Radeon for less than 80 pounds.

Look around a bit (e.g. eBay), you could get a Athlon 2500+ (2.24ghz) and an Radeon 9500 for that sort of price.

NiGHTMARE said:

Strange, since according to the GAME website you do. I went and asked a member of staff at the local branch (Basingstoke), and he said the policy is still in effect as well.

The clue is in the question "What are GAME.NET's returns policies?".

As for the basingstoke branch (which is close to head office actually) they really should know the company policy, there was a very specific email about it a month ago. Although any GAME branch in the southern regions are usually pretty poor standard.

So if a customer orders something from the website and then returns it to the nearest store within 10 days that's okay, but if he buys something in the store and then tries to return it to the same store within the same time period that isn't? O_o

That really doesn't make much sense, but then again even prices between the two tend to differ (e.g. Doom 3 in GAME = £34.99, Doom 3 + Free T-Shirt on game.net = £29.99).

All in all, there doesn't seem to be much incentive to buy from the store rather than on-line :P. Well, unless you're buying second-hand games, but of course Game (and pretty much every other video games store other than Games Exchange) doesn't sell second-hand PC games so that's pretty much irrelevant here ;).

That's because they make you pay for shipping for both ways, so they know you'd rather keep it than have to pay for shipping to give it back to them...

Actually my opinion is that if you buy a new graphic card it might run better but yeah even if you had a good processor a 64mb graphic card would lag really bad.

The online store is better value when buying games, other than you have to pay for shipping costs. The other thing is that you can return a game back to the store even if you bought it online, so you shouldn't need to pay shipping twice.

I'm sure the online policy will change when somebody notices that it's outdated.

Sometimes GAME has a habit of doing stuff like this, which only makes the sales assistants jobs harder, imagine if somebody did bring a PC game back to the shop if he bought it online and the sales assistant only knew the store policy and not the online policy like me, he would probably enter into a bad conversation with a customer about a policy that only applies instore. Then the manager enters the conversation and it gets worse. Only a person who has worked in retail can understand such things and just how much of a difficult life it really is. I also know that right now the people who've worked in retail will be nodding solemly right now while the rest of you will be thinking "Ha! Retail! All you do is scan a barcode and put money in a till, how hard can it be?!". You have no idea...

As to the thread topic, sorry I went off the track. Simple advice: Upgrade. Thats the cold hard truth.

Sorry to continue further off-topic, but I was just wondering if you knew why Games Exchange is able to sell second-hand PC games whilst nowhere else does.

I'm pretty sure there's some stupid law that prevents it or something, probably related to the law that prevents magazines giving away the full version of commercial programs even if they've got the explicit permission of the program's publisher to do so. If so, how can Games Exchange get around it?

Deus said:

I may have the option to buy ATI RADEON 9200 128MB DDR TV-OUT or GEFORCE MX4000 128MB DDR TV-OUT...

I've got an ATI Radeon 128mb 9200SE, on a 2.8ghz, 512mb RAM system. It (Doom3) runs bearably at 640x480, low detail and with all advanced options bar bump mapping turned off.

In other words, i'd recommend looking higher than the 9200.

So what would be the best card for Doom3?

I am getting a new computer, apparently it is somthing close to 2-3ghz... However its the graphics i am worried about...

What would be the best card, my budget is 100 pounds...

Would a ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 256MB be sufficient?

Heh, I got a lesser system with an athlon 950 w/ Geforce2GTS 64mb, and I seem to have an "okay" framerate....



My Geforce2 isn't on their supported chipsets list, but it works (and it also proves my arguement right that was like 20 days ago or so), but that Geforce4 is, try updating your detonators if you haven't already.

Also, PCI cards suck, but they shouldn't make too big of a difference to get you down at 1fps...

I get around 100fps at the menu, so I think it's a good chance it's trying to render it in software rendering (which is just SLOW AS HELL, probably why you are just getting a mere 1fps at the menu). Reinstall drivers, or just install new detonators.

Strange occurance indeed, improper opengl setup.

NiGHTMARE said:

Sorry to continue further off-topic, but I was just wondering if you knew why Games Exchange is able to sell second-hand PC games whilst nowhere else does.

Theres a store called Gamestation who also sells second-hand PC Games, it's a growing chain and you will most likely see one eventually. As far as I know you have to gain a special licence in order to sell second hand PC games and GAME does not have one and I doubt they ever will. I am thankful that we have stopped 10-day returns on PC Software, it has probably cut down on the number of pirates and otherwise piss-takers that I care not to deal with. And the rest of the time I do not like having to deal with a customer who has no god damn clue about PC's what-so-ever, so to use the no-10-day-policy is a godsend for me, especially when the only specifications they know when I ask them about their machine are "well, it's pretty good, we bought it recently from a friend and it has XP". I can happily refuse a refund while being ever so smug.

You know that you are not allowed a refund unless a product is faulty? And that if you accept an exchange instead of a refund that you renounce your right to have a refund at a later date? Also the hardware guarantee is not 12 months, the law states that any piece of electrical equipment needs to work for at least SIX years. You guarantee is with the company that sold you the product and has to provide you with a refund or working equipment, sending something to the manufacturer is not your responsibility and you do not have to do so.

All the laws are there and are easy to follow if you look for them. Next time you buy a washer or refridgerator and they offer you the 12 month warranty it is actually a warranty in addition to your statutory rights, tell them that and watch them squirm. Law is fun.

I am using the latest forceware drivers.... Perhaps this is the problem?

Also, i get less than 1fps at the 'Intro Movie' with the ID Advertisement, so i assume it is running in software mode.

Another thing which horribly slays Doom 3 framerates is SDR RAM. My friend has a decent system for the game, but his motherboard is one of the older ones which supports SDR and DDR, and he only has SDR (albeit 768MB). He gets terrible framerates, unfortunately.

the Detonator drivers worked!

i get 30+ fps on the main menu, Unfortunatly its unplayable in game, i get less than 5 fps.

So im going to upgrade...

NVidia's Detonator drivers are horrible for newer games. I use the ForceWare drivers, I get almost a 15 FPS increase in Doom III, and more in other games.

Deus said:

i Could get a processor upgrade to 1.8ghz, and a 128/265 ATI Radeon for less than 80 pounds.

They don't weigh anywhere near that much.

Before upgrading, try some tweak guides and see if they help.

Trust me, the Doom 3 and Windows tweaks work wonders.

Overclocking might be something to try, if it's possible on your rig.

GGG said:

They don't weigh anywhere near that much.

pounds is also british money.

Just for the record any kind of clock speed comparison between a Duron and an Athlon is pretty much moot when it comes to processor performance.

BlackFish said:

pounds is also british money.

You sure can detect a joke!

Deus said:

The man at the counter said "Check your specifications, We no longer do the 10 day back garentee, so you cant bring it back"

heh, you are not gonna find too many places that allow any media returns. that would be pure stupidity on their part.

you can max out your CPU, unless already maxed out, for fairly cheap. maybe less than the price of a new video card.
I would also get an AGP card, if you can, some more memmory is always nice.