Doom 3 config tweak, performance boost

**TechZ** · August 5th, 2004, 08:26 AM

A major performance increasing tweak has been identified for Doom 3

I dunno if it's just me, but I noticed this trick beefed up my DOOM3 performance by a lot.

In your DOOM 3 directory, find "DoomConfig.cfg" (x:Program FilesDoom 3base). Open DoomConfig.cfg in Notepad.

Find the line:

seta image_cacheMegs "32"

I changed 32 to 96.
(you can also try 128, 256...)
I got a nice boost in performance. I dunno if the tweak worked or not (maybe my machine did something wierd, have no clue), so I'm just seeing if this works for others as well, or if a different setting works better than others.
Another Tweak:

As you already know after installation the game consits only of the doom3.exe and some .PK4 files. Those PK4 files includes the entire game (sounds, videos, textures etc.) in high compressed form. Normally those files were decompresse during the game. Go to your Doom 3 installation directoy and get inside the folder "Base". There are some .PK4 files you have to open each of them with WinRAR 3.3 and extract their entire contents to the Base dir in you Doom 3 installation folder (replace all files if they are any duplicates). Now you have to delete all .PK4 files in the Base folder to prevent the game to use those compressed files again. Now the game starts and runs mutch faster!

**Darksteel** · August 8th, 2004, 04:08 PM

I tried changing the cacheMegs setting and it seems to have improved performance quite a bit. I also unpacked the pk4 files, but when I tried to play mutliplayer it said i was missing the pak files and wouldnt let me play. When I put the files i extracted back into the base directory it let me play just fine.

**Radical Dreamer** · August 9th, 2004, 06:20 AM

I just changed the cache size, we'll see how the performance goes....but its weird, my machine's size was set to 20 instead of the 32 they say its set to, anyway I bumped to 96

**delmer_1** · August 9th, 2004, 07:22 AM

mine was also set to 20, i set it to 512 and it is running much better. i went from average framerates in the mid-to-high 20s to the low-to-mid 40s. i will try unpacking the files tonight to see if it gets any better.

Also, for those of you with ATI cards, the 4.9 beta catalyst drivers do offer a performance increase in doom 3 also.

**Radical Dreamer** · August 9th, 2004, 08:14 AM

Originally Posted by delmer_1

mine was also set to 20, i set it to 512 and it is running much better. i went from average framerates in the mid-to-high 20s to the low-to-mid 40s. i will try unpacking the files tonight to see if it gets any better.

Also, for those of you with ATI cards, the 4.9 beta catalyst drivers do offer a performance increase in doom 3 also.

How much increase? I hate using beta drivers

**delmer_1** · August 9th, 2004, 08:23 AM

not a huge increase...i updated the drivers before changing the config....

i tried running 800x600 on ultra settings....getting an average of 22fps, installed the 4.9 betas and went to an average of 28fps. not a big difference..but at those low framerates..i welcomed anything. (i also dropped it back down to High and then changed the cache to get it to a decent framerate)