Doom 3 System Requirements Revealed

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Doom 3 System Requirements Revealed

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday July 20, 2004 @02:29AM from the time-for-a-new-video-card dept.

The Llama King writes "The Houston Chronicle's Computing column has got the Doom 3 minimum system requirements. Biggest eye-opener: 384 MB of memory. Lots of mainstream PCs have been sold with 256 MB of RAM, so upgrades will be in order. RAM chip manufacturers should be salivating about now. You'll also need a 1.5-GHz processor and a GeForce 3 or Radeon 8500 graphics card or better."

26 of 867 comments (clear)

Ooooh.. by xenostar · 2004-07-20 02:33 · Score: 5, Funny

Ooooh, you mean the Doom 3 interactive slide show? That sounds about right then.
1. Re:Ooooh.. by ChrisK077 · 2004-07-20 03:57 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  According to insiders, John Carmack has coded a special code path for office PCs. You just have to double-click "doom3.ppt" instead of "doom3.exe"
Too Bad by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-20 02:34 · Score: 1, Funny

I guess it is time to upgrade this 486 I use to play Doom II.
I'll trade... by the_mad_poster · 2004-07-20 02:37 · Score: 5, Funny

I'll trade my little brother for a Radeon 9800XT before Doom3 hits the shelves! PLEASE!

--
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
1. Re:I'll trade... by HedonismBot · 2004-07-20 03:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  For all of the good love of The Lord, have you no decency left? How can you ever perish the thought of an exchange between your brother, a living, breathing creature, owner of an immortal soul, a complex personality and a wonderful human brain, product of thousands of years of evolution and an upgrade for your computer? And one which purpose is to more realistically show the hideous nature of the devil's creatures in a videogame, no less! I'm truly outraged and shocked for your reckless behaviour.
  
  Now, maybe if you had a sister...
  
  --
  Sailors. Oh man!
Does not compute, BIG jump from II to III by ayeco · 2004-07-20 02:40 · Score: 5, Funny

Wait wait wait a minute, Doom II's sys reqs were:

486 processor operating at a minimum of 66MHz or any Pentium® /Athlon® processors

8 MB RAM

20 MB of uncompressed hard disk space

100MB of free hard drive space for the
Windows swap file (in addition to install space)

Seems like quite a jump for just one point.
Re:thats it? by ScottGant · 2004-07-20 02:40 · Score: 4, Funny

But once again they have to cater to the lowest common denominator. There are always those people out there that have the computer they bought 15 years ago and want it to last a lifetime and then go:

"back in my day we could program everything in 640k of RAM, that's all you need and we were THANKFULL to get it! And we loved it! We didn't need more than 4 colors on our CGA displays. Why doesn't Doom 3 work on that? Guess they don't know how to program! Oh...have to go, Matlock is on..."

--

"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Dang that system will almost run Longhorn by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-20 02:41 · Score: 0, Funny

I can't wait for my personal copy of a DRM-build operating system...
Re:Oh....I also was "surprised". *yawn* by MarsDefenseMinister · 2004-07-20 02:41 · Score: 5, Funny

That's completely unreasonable, because it would require someone to buy a 256 MB module, a 128 MB Module, and a 2 MB module. What the hell were they thinking?

--
No weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men.-Ronald Reagan
Such a tease! by juggaleaux · 2004-07-20 02:44 · Score: 2, Funny

I'm using a Voodoo Banshee card from 1998, you insensitive clod!
I think I am going to hold off on upgrading by foidulus · 2004-07-20 02:46 · Score: 4, Funny

till I find out what the min requirements for Duke Nukem Forever are.
1. Re:I think I am going to hold off on upgrading by pandrijeczko · 2004-07-20 03:23 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  It'll need a 412 GHz Pentium 15 processor, 59 terraflops of RAM and a control uplink to geostationary orbit satellite lasers - to ensure the Earth survives long enough for it to come out once that asteroid that's due to hit us in the next 10,000 years has been taken care of.
  
  --
  Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
2. Re:I think I am going to hold off on upgrading by zardor · 2004-07-20 03:43 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  You had better get the flux capactor upgrade first........
  
  --
  -- We don't understand software, and sometimes we don't understand hardware, but we can *see* the blinking lights
640K by fragbait · 2004-07-20 02:49 · Score: 5, Funny

To play Doom, I remember having to boot my 386 without loading the TSRs....
</old man voice>

*hits nearest young'un with cane*

-fragbait
Re:Cheapest way to play Doom 3 by dave420 · 2004-07-20 03:02 · Score: 2, Funny

I hear people going on about binary drivers, but what's the problem? You're running an OS on less than 3% of desktops out there - you should be happy you're getting any drivers at all! :)
Re:thats it? by bstone · 2004-07-20 03:07 · Score: 3, Funny

Well, back in my day, the mainframe had 32K, and the tube was black and green. And we were happy to have it!! ('course, the only game we had was sorting a tray full of punched cards ... but it was FUN and we LOVED it)

What? Matlock's on ... gotta go...
My Ode to 55 Dollars and a month of abstinence by cOdEgUru · 2004-07-20 03:16 · Score: 4, Funny

O' my crisp 55 Dollars and my beautiful wife..
I bid thee both farewell, atleast for a while..
Now, to my 55 Dollars this is for ever..
To my lovely wife, this is a short respite..

My hard earned money, gotta let you go..
To fill the Coffers of Carmack and ID-eo
So that he maketh new game engines and new bump mapped creatures
And I, cowering in the dark, salivating at the games new features..

And to my dear wife, I will see you soon
But first I have to kiss my double barrel shotgun and my precious ammo
Before I can warm the sheets next to you
For here cometh the Cyberdemon and I gotta runnoo..

--
Rapid Nirvana
Re:Zzzz... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-20 03:20 · Score: 1, Funny

512k? That should help a lot. You can brag to your buddies that you have 256.5MB of RAM now!
Possible uses for the extra memory by rd_syringe · 2004-07-20 03:29 · Score: 4, Funny

The extra memory might be used to store:

* More combinations of black, silver, and brown. Using primary colors would unfortunately require another 512MB.
* More darkness.
* An electrical simulation that emulates poor electrical conditions. This will be used to flicker lights on and off randomly.
* More wasted bullets.
* More random metal plating on the letters of the Doom logo.
* A somersault animation. When the Doomguy jumps, he'll backflip now.
* Crates. Lots of crates. With UAC logos on them for variety.
* Shiny metal pipes. Lots of them. At least one will explode as you walk by it; another will have steam coming out of it for a volumetric effect.
* At least one level will have you walking down a hallway only to hear a.) a human scream, b.) demonic growling, or c.) eerie whistling wind coming from an unseen source.
* A hidden TC of Barney Doom, for old time's sake. Destroy Barney in true 3D now.
* Did I mention black, gray, brown, and darkness?
Re:thats it? by lowmagnet · 2004-07-20 03:36 · Score: 4, Funny

MacIntosh? You have to be kidding. That's an apple, but not an Apple.

--
Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
DDR by essreenim · 2004-07-20 03:38 · Score: 2, Funny

Yeah thjey should just have said 256mb of dual channel DDR. That ought do it!!
Re:Doom 3 Technology by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-20 03:57 · Score: 5, Funny

Oh, come on. It's not like those ID developers are rocket scientists. Oh, wait...
FUCK iD SOFTWARE! by Eric_Cartman_South_P · 2004-07-20 04:09 · Score: 2, Funny

I want an awesome game. I want awesome grapics, with awesome rendering, great lighting, 3d shadows, incredible monsters made of a gabillion triangles. And I want the game to have no "jaggies" so it's smooth as glass at 1280x1024 with 60fps. Oh, and 5.1 surround sound with real time effects and echos and reverb.

What? I can't enjoy this on my $299 Walmart PC? FUCK YOU iD SOFTWARE! WTF? YOU GUYS CAN"T CODE. /sarcasm
Re:It is not THAT simple, though by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-20 05:20 · Score: 1, Funny

Do it - I went up to a gig from 512, and man UT just screams along now.

Indeed. I went from a Radeon VIVO (equivalent to 7000 series) and 512MB of ram to a GeForce 5900 and 1.5 gig of ram and the difference is staggering.

Also, my penis is now HYOOGE and my hair grew back!
WONDERFUL!! by Nom+du+Keyboard · 2004-07-20 05:48 · Score: 3, Funny

Now I'll be able to run Doom 3 and Longhorn on the same system!

--
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Re:P3 CPUs? by 13Echo · 2004-07-20 05:54 · Score: 2, Funny

"Duel"? You mean that the processors fight? Wow!