I had just gotten Doom 3 *cough* WAREZ *cough* because I wanted to see how bad it would run, here you can read about my findings.

Installation went pretty smooth it didn't even ask for more space.

I started up the game expecting an error to pop up any time telling me to reset the gfx core or something ( it is underclocked due to vertical lines). Surprisingly it actually started, i decided to just press new game and then select the mid skill level. The loading time was quite fast considering how new the game is and how old my pc is.

When the loading was done I expected it to go vertical lines on me, it even made that one frame flicker it does when the lines appear, but this time the ID logo showed up (was i ever happy to see that logo.)
when the main part of the intro was done and the camera switches off the screen and on to looking at the people I saw a horrible sight! the grafics were sporked all the characters had been split in half one side being dark and somewhat correctly textured, while the other half was bright and held almost no texture at all.

The fps was nothing to brag about either, so I've decided that it's simply not worth the trouble at least not untill i get that upgrading done at which point I intend to pay for the game as well.

the ATI driver argument is about 2 years out of date.  i have yet to have a driver  proublem with my Radeon 9700 pro since i bought it.  The Radeon 8500 is just about scratching the bottom of the doom 3 barrel so id say its the card.

I'm not about to blame the card for rendering lighting wrong. It's a simple matter of proper normals and brightness levels per pixel on the model. Sure, it's old, but so are Geforce 2 cards that _don't_ show this discrepancy. This is not part of 'the old argument' since I've never bitched about ATI's drivers for quake3. In fact, I think it runs Quake 3 fine AND makes it look better than the old Nvidia cards.
Makes sense to me that the drivers can't handle the new rendering methods properly though. I'm sure the card itself can.

Also, I won't buy an ATI card, unless their next card is up to par with Nvidia's work again. Their 6800 just blows the 9800 out of the water..

You guessed JUST right it's the 8500 I'm running it on WAS* it's now archived under U, U for Unplayable.

Tab i asume you mean that it blows the x800 out of the water?
Well I think it's a sad trend but look at this
http://pc.ign.com/articles/535/535268p1.html?fromint=1
It says that HL2 runs 30% faster on ATI than on Nvidia. IMO certain game developers and certain GFX companies are getting a bit too friendly with each other, at least for the consumers' good.
I don't like the fact that I have to choose which games I want good performance in.

I probably mean that, then. It just came up as the latest-and-greatest in the benchmarks I was browsing through. Interesting bit about Athlon 64 procs ruling the day, too.

Agreed on the chipmaker + gamemaker grouphugs. That just plain sucks. What will they think of next, discounts if you buy two new PC's, just to be able to play all the games?

That's why PCI express is gonna rock.
On another note, go warez!

Just a reminder, we don't like Warez around here.

Don't link it, don't offer to link it in a PM, and try to refrain from talking about it...

There's no need for that, Angst. The game isn't even available in the shops here, at this time.
I've downloaded it, installed it, gave it a go to to see how horrible it would run (which was about as bad as I had expected, especially including this effect) and deleted it. I will buy Doom3 and Half-Life 2, when I am going to play them.

First rule of the Book of Tabun: Never be grateful for anything that is a commercial venture. :]

Amen.