Doom 3 system requirements revealed, theme online

For years id Software spokespeople answered all Doom 3 inquiries with a single response--"It's ready when it's done"--when they answered inquiries at all. Now, it seems the developers can't stop talking about the recently golden game, which will ship to stores on August 3.

Most recently, id CEO Todd Hollenshead spoke with the Houston Chronicle about the minimum system requirements needed to play the graphics-intensive shooter. According to the paper's "Computing" column, the game will require:

An Nvidia GeForce 3 graphics card or ATI Technologies 8500: Column author Dwight Silverman says that given the game's demanding visuals, serious gamers should splurge for a GPU from Nvidia's GeForce FX or 6800 line or ATI's Radeon 9800 or X800 series. He says more frugal PC owners can make do with a GeForce 5900XT or a Radeon 9600XT.

A 1.5-gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 chip or AMD Athlon 1500: Though these will run the game, Silverman suggests a 2GHz Pentium or equivalent, with the "ideal" processor being 3 GHz or over.

384MB of memory: Again, Silverman stresses that this is a minimum requirement, and he recommends 512MB at least, with 1GB preferred.

Two GB of hard drive space:. Four GB is suggested if your PC is running low on free space.

While pondering how badly Doom 3 will drain their finances, gamers can now listen to its theme music online. Nine Inch Nails cofounder Chris Vrenna composed and recorded the theme with his Tweaker bandmate Clint Walsh, and he has posted it on his personal MySpace.com page (in the upper right corner).

In other Doom 3 news, Activision and id relaunched the game's official Web site over the weekend. The once-minimal online destination is now packed with extras, including screenshots, trailers, desktops, and a link to preorder the game directly from id.