Doom 3
Last up is the irrepressible FPS, Doom 3. We tested here using a custom timedemo in the games High Quality mode. It should probably be taken into account here that ATI's CATALYST A.I. feature, which is enabled by default and thus is also turned on here for testing, has a specific optimisation for Doom 3 which uses replacement code and thus a different procedure for certain rendering functionality in the game engine. Although image quality is basically the same, it is always worth bearing these details in mind when making direct comparisons. What you see here however, is the performance you will get at default with these boards.
NVIDIA have been touting the GeForce 6600 as the Doom 3 card, and so it proves here, with both NV43-based offerings trouncing the Radeon X700 PRO. The NX6600 trails due to its core and memory speed disadvantage over the 6600GT, but still puts in playable framerates at all resolutions.
The story remains more or less the same with AA and AF enabled, until 1600x1200 where lack of video memory brings the two NVIDIA boards down to parity with the ATI card.
