NamelessPlayer wrote:

UT 2004 was borderline unplayable on an Athlon XP 1800+ with a Radeon 9600 XT. That system stands no chance. […]
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ratfink wrote:

Here's what we used to use [win2k generally, eventually xp]: […]
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Here's what we used to use [win2k generally, eventually xp]:

- ut2004 used to be playable on a 1ghz p3 with ti4

- warcraft3 was fine with p3 866 and mx440

- dawn of war played well with athlon xp2000/ti4800 or xp3000/6600

i didn't think doom3 was fluid until i got a 6800gt with athlon x2.

UT 2004 was borderline unplayable on an Athlon XP 1800+ with a Radeon 9600 XT. That system stands no chance.

I'm not sure exactly when it would've become playable enough for its fast pace, given that I skipped from the above straight to a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and GeForce 8800 GT, which made it very playable, but I'd expect an Athlon 64 to be the practical minimum for maintaining 60 FPS. You don't want any less when it comes to Unreal Tournament, and Unreal Engine 2 was known to be quite CPU-limited at the time, especially when UT 2004 didn't even use any shader effects.

And yes, the aforementioned AXP 1800+/9600 XT system choked on Doom 3. I can only imagine what GeForce 4 MX owners had to put up with.

UT04 on an MX 440 was "playable" at 800x600 if memory serves...was certainly more of a sideshow oddity than something I'd want to live with. 🤣

I do, however, remember running UT04 quite nicely on my XP 3000+ and later 3.3GHz Prescott. I'm guessing there's bound to be some differing opinions here though, if you're considering 60 fps to be a "borderline minimum" for gameplay.