Hands-On Report--Mac OS X 10.4.6 Update Significantly Reduces Doom 3 Performance at Lower Resolutions on ATI Graphics

2004–09April 11, 2006Macs Only!Games
If you own a 2GHz or better iMac G5, the very demanding Doom 3 game plays surprisingly well at the default medium quality (MQ) settings (640x480) selected by the application. Doom 3 was first released for the Mac as v1.1 but when it was updated last July to v1.3 some performance was lost as we noted at that time in our speed tests. Fortunately, the release of the Universal Binary version 1.3A of Doom 3 restored the performance lost (and then some) for lower resolutions on ATI graphics as we noted in our speed tests of the 1.3A patch when it was released in February and reconfirmed several days later.

Here are our previously posted results using Mac OS X 10.4.5 and the results using Mac OS X 10.4.6 for our 2GHz iMac G5:

Speed of Doom 3 on 2 GHz iMac G5 (frames/sec)*
Doom 3 (Mac OS X) Versions
10.4.5-10.4.6 Change (%)
Run Number
1.1 (10.4.5)
1.3 (10.4.5)
1.3A (10.4.5)
1.3A (10.4.6)
.
1
31
29
35
30
-14
2
33
31
38
32
-16
3
33
31
38
32
-16
4
33
31
38
32
-16
*Default settings=MQ with 640x480 resolution.

The 10.4.6 update resulted in a performance loss of 16 per cent in Doom 3 v1.3A to a level right between that of v1.1 and v1.3.

The Doom 3 performance loss is not limited to the iMac G5 with ATI 9600 graphics. A more dramatic performance loss occurred on our Intel-based 2GHz iMac Core Duo with ATI X1600 graphics:

Speed of Doom 3 on 2 GHz iMac Core Duo (frames/sec)*
Doom 3 (Mac OS X) Versions
10.4.5-10.4.6 Change (%)
Run Number
1.3A (10.4.5)
1.3A (10.4.6)
.
1
63
nr
-
2
65
51
-22
3
65
51
-22
4
65
51
-22
*Default settings=MQ with 640x480 resolution. nr=not recorded.

Mac OS X 10.4.6 update dropped the Doom 3 at MQ scores on our Intel-based 2GHz iMac Core Duo by a whopping 22 per cent.

What could have caused this? We do not believe any of the ATI graphics drivers were updated in 10.4.6 since they all carry a creation/modification date of 3/26/05. None of the Apple articles on 10.4.6 mention anything about general graphics updates--just a few updates for specific games, none of which are Doom 3. And, we do not see a similar Doom 3 v1.3A performance reduction on our Nvidia GeForce 6600 graphics card. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]



Saw something? Send a tip

The archive ran on reader tips. What did you see, where, and do you want the credit?

Read by the editor. Never published without your say.

More in Games · This month in the archive