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PC Hardware Doom and Boom (Doom 3 causing upswing in HighEnd PC Sales)

http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=7778&section=feature&email=

Big PC hits with even bigger requirements are driving gamers to new, faster machines.

A recent article in the Washington Post has reported sales increases of 10-20 percent for makers of high-end PC rigs—machines that are built to cater to hardcore gamers.

Doom and Boom
According to the report, the rise in sales has been largely attributed to the popularity of id Software's DOOM 3. Not only that, but several high-profile sequels have the potential to fuel a PC sales boom. Those who bought DOOM 3 will likely be interested in Valve Software's Half-Life 2, and EA's The Sims 2 has a fair chance of attracting gamers across the spectrum, whether hardcore, moderate or casual.

According to Dean Lester, General Manager of Windows Graphics & Gaming Technologies, "There are an estimated 800 games expected to be available this fall. Yet only the top 5% really make blockbuster profits. " It's these top 5%, however, that could make a significant impact on sales of high-end machines.

GameDAILYBiz contacted Rahul Sood, President & CTO of VoodooPC to get his thoughts on the PC gaming market and the effect that these anticipated games could have on it.

Future's so bright, you got to wear shades!
VoodooPC, which was founded in 1991 in Calgary, Alberta, has already seen an increase in its sales according to Sood, thanks in part to DOOM 3's success. However, Sood sees online games such as The Sims 2 as even greater catalysts.

"DOOM 3 has already created a noticeable demand for upgrades and new PCs. Half-Life 2, who knows, we've been waiting for it for years. We believe that online games like The Sims 2 will create a larger audience for our products, and also virtual worlds with real world advertising is just around the corner (mainstream)."

It's all about expansion, baby!
As for the current PC gaming marketplace and what the future holds, Sood believes that the field is wide open.

"I believe the PC gaming market is still growing— since Dell has legitimized our space, more people are aware that PC Gaming exists and more developers are jumping on the PC Gaming side. PC Games essentially are unlimited in terms of their graphic and audio potential making them truly the best cinematic experience possible."
 
Well, this holds true for me since Doom3 broke my goddamn 9800 PRO!!

Because of this, I got a 6800GT, went to a 3.4ghz, and put in a better power supply.

That's a grand right there, and I still play NFSU more.
 

tedtropy

$50/hour, but no kissing on the lips and colors must be pre-separated
Part of the fun of Doom 3 was getting my less-than-absolute-bleeding-edge hardware to run it pretty well. I think I spent the first week I owned the game just tweaking settings and running timedemos. You won't find that on a console, bitches!
 
DaCocoBrova said:
How did it 'break' your 9800 Pro? :lol

Truth be told, it very well may have been a bit of a lemon anyway, but Doom3 definately pushed it over the edge.

Basically two things that came to light when all the 9800 Pro users tried to play were:

1. Doom3 uses parts of your card that have never been used before (fuck if I know what)

2. 9800 Pros were clocked too high to run safely at full stress

Put those two things together and: first I got artifacts while playing (snow), then it locked up, then other games began to lock up, then Windows artifacted when I was reading this forum. I had to underclock the card back to a 9700 just to be certain that my PC would be usable at all. She was done.

Now, some guy is going to read this and say, "It wuz teh heat, dood." I KNOW it was heat. But if hardware is having problems running stock speeds with stock cooling equipment, then it just isnt for me. Other people suggested quick fixes like ganking my AGP speed or reseating the fan but by that time I was too pissed to even look at the 98. In fact, just recounting all this reignites my longing to burn the damn thing.

Tore it out of my case in disgust, dropped it to the tile, inserted a 6800 GT, beat Doom3.
 
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQyLDE=

John Carmack
A note on overclocking: it is very likely that overclocked configurations that "play everything else perfectly" will start to show problems on D3 due to new usage patterns. Everyone is of course free to do whatever they want with their own hardware, but don't complain to us...

The 9800 Pros were just clocked to high across the board, not every one had issues, but a whole lot of them did... me especially.

It's like Carmack and Joe P. Nvidia came over to my house, brandishing a bat, and demanded four hunnerd bucks or else I couldn't play Doom3.
 

golem

Member
yeah i had to downclock my 9800pro...

hopefully sims2 will convince the masses out there that they need a decent 3d card
 

DaCocoBrova

Finally bought a new PSP, but then pushed the demon onto someone else. Jesus.
WTF are you all OCing 9800 Pros anyway? I get well over 60fps in any game, including Doom 3. Even the highest of the high end will have occasional frame drops.

OCing used to be worth it, but now...?
 
DaCocoBrova said:
WTF are you all OCing 9800 Pros anyway? I get well over 60fps in any game, including Doom 3. Even the highest of the high end will have occasional frame drops.

OCing used to be worth it, but now...?

First of all, anybody can get 60fps in Doom3 when they are just standing there, looking at fraps. But Doom3 can drop hard as soon as the shooting starts, and I think a lot of people don't even realize that... I envy them.

Or, maybe you can get your frames by dropping the detail and running a timedemo, but I'm not going to do that. It stays at 1024x768 in high detail mode, and if it still drops during combat, I buy a bigger dick.


Now, to clarify, the bitch of my situation was that I didn't over clock my hardware. The 98 was running just as it did when I first opened the box and it still artifacted. That is fucking unacceptable. That's the 9800 pro's dirty lil secret: it pretty much is overclocked in the sense that it can't safely run at it's default speeds under an absolute full load, which Doom3 delivered.

Ah well.... bygones
 

golem

Member
same here.. i had to downclock -- underclock my 9800 pro. it would artifact on stock speeds, terrible... my case has decent cooling too.
 

Chony

Member
My overclocked, soft-modded 9500 runs Doom 3 with no artifacts perfectly fine with all efects on and medium quality.
 

Pimpbaa

Member
tedtropy said:
Part of the fun of Doom 3 was getting my less-than-absolute-bleeding-edge hardware to run it pretty well. I think I spent the first week I owned the game just tweaking settings and running timedemos. You won't find that on a console, bitches!

Having to tweak a game (especially for a friggin week) to get better performance is not a plus. I'd rather have shit run good right from the start.
 
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