Choosing The Best CPU For Doom III

Having tested the graphics cards in the new Doom III we thought it would also be interesting to measure the performance of the contemporary CPUs in this game. We used a preliminarily recorded demo as well as the actual gameplay. The results turned out very unexpected.

It would be imprudent to claim that a particular CPU architecture suits better for playing Doom 3: the Athlon 64 FX-53 is about as fast as the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition and the Athlon 64 3800+ equals the Pentium 4 560. We could continue drawing parallels longer, though.

The older Athlon XP CPU family cannot compete with the new Pentium 4 and Athlon 64 models anymore. In real tests we encountered situations when the fps rate got below the comfortable value of 30 with Athlon XPs. By the way, the same can be seen with Athlon 64 3000+ and 3200+ CPUs. That’s why we recommend you to use Pentium 4 models with frequencies from 3GHz up and Athlon 64 models with ratings from 3200+ up, if you want to be absolutely warranted against any accidental slowdowns.

Choosing the Best CPU for Doom III @ X-bit labs