Doom 3 Buyer's Guide

MAINSTREAM Doom 3: CPU and Motherboard

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (Socket 754)
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo (nForce3-250Gb)
Price: CPU - $290 shipped (Retail with HSF). Motherboard - $123 shipped

Mainstream CPU

With Dual-Channel adding just 3% to Doom 3 performance and the 1MB cache just 5% faster than 512k on the Athlon 64, it is clear that the Single-Channel Socket 754 Athlon 64 offers the best performance for the money for most Doom 3 players. Please keep in mind that 3% plus 5% means a Socket 939 with 1MB of cache is 8% to 10% faster than a Socket 754 with 512k cache, so the 754 chips are not a complete free lunch.

There is no doubt that not many buyers are willing to part with $825 for an FX53, and you don't have to step down very far in performance to reach the 3400+. The price of the 3400+, however, is a much more mainstream $290. There are two versions of the the 3400+. The original runs at 2.2GHz and has 1MB of on-chip cache, while the latest Newcastle design runs at 2.4GHz and has a 512K cache. Since we found that Doom 3 responds a bit better to on-chip cache than to a clock speed increase, we recommend that you buy the 1MB cache version for Doom 3 if you can find one. They are disappearing fast as Newcastle core takes over, but the 1MB cache chip is definitely a bit faster in Doom 3. However, the difference is not huge, and either 3400+ will do an outstanding job of driving Doom 3.

Mainstream Motherboard

Our Socket 754 Roundup: Comparing Generation 2 took a close look at the 2^nd generation of Socket 754 Athlon 64 motherboards based on the updated nVidia nForce3-250 family and the VIA K8T800 PRO. While there are bargains available from close-out first-generation boards, you are better off buying one of the boards based on the newer chipsets for A64. The reason is simple - the new boards have many more features than the earlier boards. Also, from a performance standpoint, both new chipsets feature higher Hyper Transport speeds and working AGP/PCI locks. The Higher HT and working lock translate into better performance and much higher overclocking capabilities than the first generation nVidia and VIA motherboards.

The MSI K8N Neo Platinum was our Silver Editors Choice in the 754 roundup, but several developments have tilted our choice in that direction. It is now about 25% cheaper than the Gold winner in that roundup, and the MSI is readily available at a good price from many vendors. This of course adds up to good value.

It also helps that the MSI uses the nForce3-250Gb chipset, and therefore, supports all the distinctive nF3 features like on-chip Gigabit LAN, nVidia Firewall, and nVidia RAID, which allows the user to combine SATA and IDE drives in any way they want to create RAID arrays. The rest of the feature set is also top-notch, as you would find on any top-of-the-line motherboard. The MSI K8N Neo has top-line features and performance at a very reasonable price.

Last, but certainly important, is the fact that nVidia 6 series video cards actually perform a bit better on nVidia chipset motherboards. This means that you will be combining an nVidia nForce3-250GB board with the nVidia 6800 GT, which should boost Doom 3 performance a little bit.

You can read more about the MSI K8N Neo Platinum in our review at http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2063.

Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on the AMD motherboards from many different reputable vendors:



If you cannot find the lowest prices on the products that we've recommended on this page, it's because we don't list some of them in our RealTime pricing engine. Until we do, we suggest that you do an independent search online at the various vendors' web sites. Just pick and choose where you want to buy your products by looking for a vendor located under the "Vendor" heading.