In our memory tests, we wanted to find out how much system memory Doom 3 requires to run smoothly. We tested 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB memory configurations on our Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 3.4 GHz system with a GeForce 6800 Ultra video card. We also tested 1GB and 2GB dual channel memory configurations.

Doom 3 Memory Tests

(Frames Per Second - Higher Is Better)

2GB Dual Channel
1GB Dual Channel
1GB Single Channel
512MB Single Channel
256MB Single Channel

Doom 3, 1024x768, Ultra Quality

71.2
70
65.7
53
40

Doom 3, 1024x768, Medium Quality

70
69
65.6
64
43.8

Dropping the system to 256MB sliced 40 percent off of peak performance numbers. Moving up to 512MB increased performance considerably, limiting the performance hit to 25 percent in Ultra Quality. The performance penalty is considerably lower if we move from Ultra Quality to Medium Quality, since the data compression in Medium Quality helps reduce the impact on the memory subsystem.

Doom 3's sweet spot seems to be 1GB of memory, and going from single channel to dual channel gave us a 5 to 6 percent gain in performance. Going up to 2GB did not yield any significant speed increases.

If you have either 256MB or 512MB of memory, it would be well worth upgrading to 1GB. Going up to 2GB, however, won't offer any noticeable improvement for you. On the single- versus-dual-channel conundrum, you might be able to get away with 512MB of dual channel memory but having a solid 1GB would be ideal.

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