Doom 3 Increased Performance Trick

[Rhett]

I've noticed that all the other topics regarding getting doom 3 to run faster have false information on how to go about doing so. Well, I think that this may be a post on one of those topics, but incase you missed it, here it is. Alright there is a topic stating that if you go into doom config file and change the

seta image_cacheMegs 20/seta image_cacheMegs 32

to a higher number, then you would experience higher frame rates. This is not true. After thoroughly benchmarking this test, I have found that it offers no increase in performance what so ever. However, changing a couple other options right along side this one, WILL have an effect on performance. Here's what you do. If you have 1 gig of ram like me, then go into doom.config and change the seta image_cacheMegs number to 256. After doing so, change the seta image_useCache number to 1, then finally change the
seta image_cacheMinK number to 20480. So when you're done, it should look like this

seta image_useCache "1"
seta image_cacheMegs "256"
seta image_cacheMinK "20480"

If you have 512 mb of ram, then cut those numbers in half. Keep the "1" the same though. This gave me a HUGE performance boost. I have a Pentium 4 3.4ghz Extreme, a Radeon 9800XT, and 1 gig of Corsair DDR ram. I normally played on ultra settings at 1024x768 and I would get solid frame rates except when going into large areas with lots of baddies. At times the frame rate would drop to below 20fps. Now, my frame rate hasn't gone below 30fps yet! Good luck.


NOTE: I didn't discover this, I don't even want to touch Doom 3 but I figured people would want to enjoy it more than with a constant -10 - 5 FPS to a possible 30 FPS. Someone over at GameFaqs did this.



~Rhett

[jammin]

Well, you're wrong.

I don't know about other people's configurations, but on my setup all I changed was that value and I got a huge increase in performance.

I have a cheap radeon 9600, 512megs ram and a 1600+ amd athlon xp processor. The game would be unplayable at 1024x768, stutter at 800x600 and be smooth at 640x480.

I changed that one value from "20" to "96" and it now runs completely smoothly at 1024x768, with no other options changed or anything.



:thumbup:

[DeAno54]

I have a Pentium 4 3.4ghz Extreme, a Radeon 9800XT, and 1 gig of Corsair DDR ram. I normally played on ultra settings at 1024x768 and I would get solid frame rates except when going into large areas with lots of baddies.

My machine is pretty much the same too and with this tweak, it has worked wonders for my framerates! Thanks for the tip! :thumbup:

[Dop3-Fi$H]

tried it, noticed a small bit of increased performance although it still runs shite , 9600 256ddr needs 2 be replaced asap

[Slinky2397]

I found this yesterday while at gamefaqs, and there were many other ways, even a formula to figure it out. Before I had just tried setting the Cachemegs and not bothering with the other one, and after trying a formula, it didn't help much at all, so I set it to 320 and something else, worked great. I just did half my RAM, then multiplied by 8 to get the other value. Worked great, and now I haven't seen my FPS drop below 20 on 800x600 @ medium, and I use:

1.7GHz Athlon XP
128MB GeForce Ti4200
640 MB PC2700 Sdram

Yay! (mein leet system)

[hulabaleet]

im playing doom3 on a pentium4 1.3 ghz with 128mb rdram on a geforcefx5200 256 mb 300/500
will those commands u mentioned show any benefit for me until i get my amd 64 3000 and 512 ram next monday

[Sepht]

Mine is slightly more tweaked
P4 2.8ghz, 1.5 Gigs, DDR400, Dual Chan, Radeon 9800(Pro)

seta image_downSizeLimit "512" (set to 256 if u have a 64 meg card, 1024 if u have a 256 meg card, or 512 if u have a 128 megcard)
seta image_ignoreHighQuality "0"
seta image_downSizeBumpLimit "512" (set to 256 if u have a 64 meg card, 1024 if u have a 256 meg card, or 512 if u have a 128 megcard)
seta image_downSizeSpecularLimit "64"
seta image_downSizeBump "1"
seta image_downSizeSpecular "0"
seta image_useCache "1"
seta image_cacheMegs "128" (set to your video ram)
seta image_cacheMinK "10240" (I don't need a high setting)

[hulabaleet]

seta image_usecache 1
seta image_cachemegs 32
seta image cachemink 2560

i did that in console
i have a 1.3 ghz pentium4, 256mb GeforceFX5200@300/500, and 128mb of RDRAM
well after doing that doom never gets past the loading screen it just closes.
any way to corect this.... besides reinstalling

[Sepht]

forgot the underscore? just put those into your doom3config file

[Doug]

Originally posted by hulabaleet@Aug 9 2004, 02:44 PM
seta image_usecache 1
seta image_cachemegs 32
seta image cachemink 2560

i did that in console
i have a 1.3 ghz pentium4, 256mb GeforceFX5200@300/500, and 128mb of RDRAM
well after doing that doom never gets past the loading screen it just closes.
any way to corect this.... besides reinstalling

change it back? delete the config file?

You have numerous options. Reinstalling is not necessary.