DOOM 3 Performance

DOOM 3 is a game that needs no introduction, and continues in a long line of id Software Quake and DOOM first-person shooters. This latest installment is one serious 3D game test, including potentially the highest-end graphics yet seen on the PC. It is also a different type of game benchmark, especially compared to Quake 3, as it has a greater reliance on the 3D video card for high-end framerate results. This makes it less-than an optimum current CPU performance test, but may still bear fruit as newer and faster processors make an appearance.

The DOOM 3 benchmark results are quite a bit closer than the previous games, and both Intel and AMD high-end processors put in a good showing. The Pentium 4 670 scores very high, and comes extremely close to matching the Pentium 4-3.73 GHz EE, falling only a fraction of a FPS shy. Once again, the Pentium D 820 simply can't keep up on single-threaded games, and falls to last place. This is not unexpected, especially given that even the 3.2 GHz Pentium Extreme Edition 840 finished second last.

Unreal Tournament 2003 Flyby Performance

Unreal Tournament 2003 includes a benchmark program that automatically tests in two separate modes. The one we're going to be looking at is Flyby, which takes a canned tour of the UT game world and then offers up a framerate score and really hammers both the CPU and video card. The Botmatch results are no longer shown, instead leaving that for the improved Unreal Tournament 2004 to supply.

The Intel processors can't match the high-end AMD framerates in Unreal Tournament 2003 Flyby benchmarking, but the Pentium 4 670 proves once again to be a very tough competitor for the Pentium 4-3.73 GHz EE. The 2.8 GHz Pentium D 820 takes its usual spot at the bottom of the performance chart, and does its best to emulate a single-core Pentium 4-2.8 GHz.

Unreal Tournament 2004 Performance

Unreal Tournament 2004 is an upgraded version of the popular UT series, and also includes support for Botmatch demos. This is the next evolution for Unreal Tournament graphics and performance, and is yet another serious test for current PC hardware. Botmatch performance is also more reflective of CPU power than Flyby, giving UT 2004 special significance in processor testing. For this benchmark, we've used the UMark GUI interface with the following options and settings: 3 botmatch maps, 12 players and maximum detail graphics.

The scenario doesn't shift very much when we move to Unreal Tournament 2004, and again the Pentium 4 670 and Pentium 4-3.73 EE GHz processors are the pick of the Intel litter. AMD still has the overall speed advantage, and the Pentium D 820 does nothing to climb up from the bottom rung of the performance ladder.