8790 and Doom 3

I just got my 8790 this past Wednesday and have been tinkering with it since then, trying to figure out the best settings for playing Doom and getting somewhat close to Adam@PCTorque's benchmarks. Here's what I've done and found.

Driver: Listed in sig. I tried using the Omega 4.5's but then figured I should try some newer things so I installed the Catalyst 4.9beta. The 4.9beta played Doom and some video's fine, but provided unwatchable DVD video so I finally got tired of that tonight. I went to Sager's website to download the latest ATI driver they had listed, which is Ver. 8.0. I also read about how the main difference in the 4.9beta's is that OpenGL was updated and that it was possible to add just that update to other drivers. Did that. . .wow! Everything works great now. Video's on CD and DVD play flawlessly and Doom 3 is great (got some surprising timedemo benches, at least I thought so).

Over-Clocking: I use Powerstrip to mess around with my GPU clocking. When I had the 4.9beta drivers, I noticed some artifacts while playing Doom 3 (only time it really made a difference was near the beginning when I had to go outside on the Martian surface. . .it was pretty much all black). I also started having trouble with my computer locking up while playing the game/doing timedemo's when I had it overclocked (even at 460/290, which Adam said was OK). Right now I have it clocked at 415/280, Sager default and thats what all of these benches were performed with. I might bump it up a little and see if it starts freezing again. If it does, oh well. . .I think I'm gonna be happy playing Doom3 regardless.

Benchmarks: (using the above configuration)
3DMark2001SE: 11,398
3DMark03: 3384
AquaMark3: 26,984 (avg. fps 26.98).

Doom 3 timedemo benchmarks: (AA off, Vsync off, all other "advanced" options on)
What I did here is run at different qualities/resolutions 3 times (first time was always slower because of loading) and then averaged the FPS.

Medium Quality:
800x600: 35.2, 38.2, 38.2 = 37.2
1024x768: 24.8, 25.9, 25.9 = 25.53
1152x864: 20.5, 21.2, 21.2 = 20.96

High Quality:
800x600: 32.2, 35.9, 35.8 = 34.63
1024x768: 22.1, 24.6, 24.6 = 23.76
1152x864: 19.2, 20.3, 20.3 = 19.93

Ultra Quality:
640x480: 35.8, 41.9, 41.8 = 39.83
800x600: 29.7, 33.1, 33.0 = 31.93
1024x768: 21.4, 23.0, 23.1 = 22.5

Oh yeah, in the DoomConfig file, I changed
seta image_useCache "0"
seta image_cacheMegs "20"
seta image_cacheMinK "*some number I can't remember*"

to

seta image_useCache "1"
seta image_cacheMegs "384"
seta image_cacheMinK "25000"


I've had that config file changed practically since I installed the game so I don't think it has caused any crashes (I think they were all because of OCing the 4.9beta). But, those are my benches. I had been playing at high quality, 800x600, without any problems whatsoever (even with multiple demons attacking) but after seeing these I think I'm gonna be playing on ultra quality, 800x600. I was really surprised to see how well my computer handles the ultra setting. Not gonna complain. . .for what I spent it should be able to perform! Another influence in my decision on that quality setting is an interview IGN did with id software CEO Todd Hollenshead. In it he mentioned that id believes a playable game should run between 25-35fps or faster. Read interview on IGN

Thanks to Adam@PCTorque for doing initial benches (way back in March when the 8790 first came out) and also thanks to everyone that has posted regarding Doom3 and ways to make it better. I think I've read most of what has been said. Let me know if there are questions. I'm a bit of a noob in terms of OCing and getting the most out of a computer but I'll do my best in answering anything.

Just a little update since last night.

I oc'ed my GPU to 460/290 and have run some tests again.

3DMark2001SE: 12,007
3DMark03: 3639
AquaMark3: 29,379

And Doom 3 timedemo, at ultra quality, 1024x768 res.
22.3, 24.6, 24.9 = avg. 23.93fps.

I'm not totally sure why but it seems to me that the time demo gives a little bit of a low fps count in comparison to actually playing the game. I played for a while last night at the above setting and most of the time, I was at around 30fps. Sometimes it would dip as low as 15 but even then I hardly noticed it. Maybe if I get a bit further into the game and it gets even slower I might change the setting but I think I'm gonna leave it at ultra 1024x768.

Oh, I am running it stretched. If I don't want it stretched I would just change my resolution to SXGA (1400x1050) and turn off the option to fill the screen. As it stands, I like the widescreen gaming and I don't notice much of a stretch (usually I'm just in awe of the game or being too scared to notice anyway).

Been trying to force the game into widescreen by typing in r_customwidth, r_customheight, r_mode -1, g_fov 110, vid_restart into the console but the only res. I've had it work correctly on is native (1680x1050) which drops fps a lot.

I've tried width=1280, height=800; width=1440, height=900; width=1280, height=768 but they don't fill up the entire screen (some take up the top portion of the screen and fit width wise while others fit height wise but scroll left and right). I think I'm just gonna leave it stretched because, unless someone can give me better directions than I've already found on here, I don't think I'm gonna get widescreen working correctly.