Why FastDoom Is Fast
Published on: 2025-07-04 19:05:43
Mar 04, 2025
Why fastDOOM is fast
During the winter of 2024, I restored an IBM PS/1 486-DX2 66Mhz, "Mini-Tower", model 2168. It was the computer I always wanted as a teenager but could never afford. Words cannot do justice to the joy I felt while working on this machine.
As soon as I got something able to boot, I benchmarked the one software I wanted to run.
C:\DOOM>doom.exe -timedemo demo1 timed 1710 gametics in 2783 realtics
Doom doesn't give the fps right away. You have to do a bit of math to get the framerate. In this instance, that's 1710/2783*35 = 21.5 fps. An honorable performance for the best machine money could (reasonably) buy in Dec 1993 (specs, chipset, video, disk1, disk2, speedsys).
I was resigned to playing under Ibuprofen until I heard of fastDOOM. I am usually not a fan of ports because they tend to add features without cohesion (except for the dreamy Chocolate DOOM) but I gave it a try out of curiosity.
C:\DOOM>fdoom.exe -timedemo demo1 Timed 1710 gametics in 1
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