# Doom 3 on Powerbook 12"



## simmorya (Mar 21, 2005)

I had Doom 3 on my Windows PC (Intel P4 3.0GHz with HT, 1GB DDR-RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce FX 5200) and it ran like absolute crap... even on 600x480 res. Has anyone tried running Doom 3 on an Apple Powerbook 12-inch? would like to know what people think of the performance under a powerbook.
Thanks in advance


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## Zammy-Sam (Mar 21, 2005)

I think the problem is the graphic unit. Your pc and your powerbook have rather weak gpus, which will most probably be the bottle neck for the game play. I would suggest you to get a better graphic card for your pc. You have a quite power pc there. It would be a pitty to let it run with the weak GF FX5200..


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## Damrod (Mar 21, 2005)

Zammy-Sam said:
			
		

> I think the problem is the graphic unit. Your pc and your powerbook have rather weak gpus, which will most probably be the bottle neck for the game play. I would suggest you to get a better graphic card for your pc. You have a quite power pc there. It would be a pitty to let it run with the weak GF FX5200..



True. I think the problem really is the Graphics card. And as your PC has the advantage it does not have to run a crappy compiled copy of D3... rather stick to that.


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## Viro (Mar 21, 2005)

Look at Barefeats.com to see some benchmarks of Doom 3 on the fastest available Mac. See that it is no where near the performance of a moderately equipped PC. For Doom 3, just stick to the PC since the Mac version lacks many needed optimizations.


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## Lycander (Mar 21, 2005)

Turn of that advanced dynamic shadows wizz-bang feature. Dramatic speed improvement! I missed it the first time looking through the graphics settings. There's an "Advance" button with more options to tweak.


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## Viro (Mar 21, 2005)

How does the game look when you turn off all that eye candy? Does it lose a lot of the atmosphere?


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## Damrod (Mar 22, 2005)

Viro said:
			
		

> How does the game look when you turn off all that eye candy? Does it lose a lot of the atmosphere?



I would guess so...


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 23, 2005)

i thought that doom3 had to have a g5, which would mean that it will not even install on your powerbook.  in fact, i have macaddict #102 (feb 05) in front of me.  on page 33 it sayes, and i quote 
"system requirements (as of press time; subject to change)  mac os 10.3.6 or later; 1.5ghz powerpc g5 or faster; 384mb ram (512mb recommended); 2.2gb disk space; ati radeon 8500, nvidia geforce 3, or better graphics card;32mb vram;dvd drive"
    as for your pc, i have a 6600gt and still had to set doom3 to medium detail at 1024*768 to be playable.  doom3 is the most graphic intensive game on the market.  it taxes the cpu and gpu like no game to date.


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## Lycander (Mar 24, 2005)

sinclair_tm said:
			
		

> doom3 is the most graphic intensive game on the market.  it taxes the cpu and gpu like no game to date.


You might want to look at what Sony Online is doing with the Everquest 2 engine. They claim that "no existing hardware today can play EQ2 at maximum quality."


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## Zammy-Sam (Mar 24, 2005)

This way they actually slapped their own face. They couldn't optimize it any better so that it runs really slow on the current hardware, which by far is not used to the optimum. It's very easy to stuff the engine with effect. But it needs a lot more afford to make it run fast as well..


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## Graeme43 (Mar 31, 2005)

sinclair_tm said:
			
		

> i have a 6600gt and still had to set doom3 to medium detail at 1024*768 to be playable.
> .



My FX 5200 (In dual G5) can play doom 3 fine at 1024*768 on medium and no shadows   

I thought it wouldn't play good even on low.. but i was wrong


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## Viro (Mar 31, 2005)

How's the atmosphere? Do the lack of shadows spoil anything?


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## Graeme43 (Mar 31, 2005)

It plays with a little stutter every so often with shadows on, and i never notice them anyway. I only notice shadows if I'm looking for them.


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## HomunQlus (Mar 31, 2005)

Doom 3 initially required a G5 with 1.5 GHz or so as the absolute minimum. However, according to the specs, it might be playable on a G4 also, but it won't be the kicker.



> Mac Requirements:
> Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3.8 or later
> CPU Processor: PowerPC G4/G5 or later
> CPU Speed: 1.5GHz or faster
> ...



Source: HERE


// EDIT:



			
				Lycander said:
			
		

> You might want to look at what Sony Online is doing with the Everquest 2 engine. They claim that "no existing hardware today can play EQ2 at maximum quality."



If the hardware is *not yet available*, I wonder how they gonna test it and all...


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## Viro (Mar 31, 2005)

Many of the major game companies have access to prototype hardware. How do you think the latest game engines are written for cards that haven't been released? It is in the interest of the hardware manufacturers to supply the game companies with prototype hardware. They wouldn't want tomorrows killer game to suck on their hardware now, will they?


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## HomunQlus (Apr 1, 2005)

I know that they have prototype hardware... It just sounds funny when they say that the game can't be played on maximum settings as this hardware isn't available.


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## InstaGiB (Apr 26, 2005)

Thats strange - i can play DOOM3 on my PC at Ultra High quality - which is the highest setting i can get at 1600x1200 with 2xAA 4xAF and i get around 58fps on Fraps.


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## Qion (Apr 26, 2005)

Yea, and I have a couple different friends with custom builts that can play ANY game out there at ANY setting. I talked to one just the other day, and he said that he was currently searching for a game that would challenge his computer, because Doom3 was too easy for it.


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