Doom

This pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and the Intel Arc B390 is a lopsided combination for Doom: a flagship-class CPU from AMD's Zen 3 lineup sitting next to an entry-level integrated GPU. The recorded data shows the CPU is more than capable of feeding this game many times over, while the graphics side sits at just the 9th percentile of all GPUs in the database, and that imbalance defines every result below. Doom released in May 2016 and remains a well-optimized Vulkan-era shooter, which is why this build still manages playable frame rates in two of the three resolutions tested.

Similar Performance Alternatives

On the processor side, the Ryzen 9 5950X sits in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 51,947. Its nearest rivals are remarkably close: the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX averages 52,073 (a delta of -0.2 percent), the AMD EPYC 8124P averages 52,121 (-0.3 percent), the Intel Core i9-13900F averages 51,730 (0.4 percent), and the Intel Core i7-14700 averages 52,301 (-0.7 percent). In practical terms, any of these four chips would deliver essentially identical performance in Doom alongside the same GPU. The game simply does not stress a 16-core, 32-thread processor; even the single-thread results (a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,614 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2,083) are far beyond what this title requires.

The graphics side is a different story. The Arc B390 is an integrated Xe3-LPG design on Intel's 3 nm Panther Lake silicon, with 1,536 shading units, a 2,500 MHz boost clock, an 80 W TDP, and system-shared memory. Its lone database benchmark, 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, produced a score of 1,482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals are all low-tier parts: the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1,463 average, 1.3 percent behind), the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1,460, 1.5 percent behind), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (1,446, 2.5 percent behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (1,443, 2.7 percent behind). Anyone building around a discrete card in this performance neighborhood should expect the same Doom results, and swapping the CPU for any of its four rivals will change nothing measurable.

How This Combo Ranks

Across the database, this CPU and GPU combination ranks 3,300th out of 3,712 tested combinations in Doom. That places it in the bottom tier of tested pairings, roughly eleven percent from the very bottom of the table. The reason is entirely the GPU: a 9th-percentile graphics solution paired with a 91st-percentile CPU produces a gaming experience governed by the weaker half. The ranking also tells you what to expect from the numbers in the measured data. This is not a combination that comes close to the top of the chart at any resolution, but the ranking alone understates playability, because Doom is light enough on the GPU that even a bottom-tier pairing clears the 60 FPS threshold at 1080p and, just barely, at 1440p.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Doom at 1080p?

A: Yes, comfortably. At 1920x1080, every preset from Low through Ultra averages at least 60 FPS. Low reaches 107 FPS, Medium 93 FPS, High 78 FPS, and Ultra 64 FPS.

Q: Can it run Doom at 1440p?

A: Yes, with settings discipline. At 2560x1440, Low averages 69 FPS and Medium averages exactly 60 FPS. High (51 FPS) and Ultra (41 FPS) fall below the playable threshold.

Q: Can it run Doom at 4K?

A: No. At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS. Low averages 37 FPS, Medium 33 FPS, High 28 FPS, and Ultra 22 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck in this game?

A: Not even close. The Ryzen 9 5950X sits in the 91st percentile of all CPUs with 16 cores and 32 threads. Doom's demands are trivial next to a chip that scores 26,017 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. The Arc B390 GPU is the limiting component at every resolution.

Q: What FPS does this build get at 1080p Ultra?

A: An average of 64 FPS, the highest preset that stays above the 60 FPS playable threshold.

Q: Does raising the resolution from 1080p to 1440p hurt performance much?

A: Yes, measurably. On Medium, the average drops from 93 FPS at 1080p to 60 FPS at 1440p, a loss of roughly a third of the frame rate from the pixel-count increase alone.

The Verdict

The verdict by resolution is clear-cut. At 1920x1080, this PC runs Doom well: all four presets are playable, and the best setting is Ultra at an average of 64 FPS. At 2560x1440, the verdict is conditional: Low (69 FPS) and Medium (60 FPS) clear the 60 FPS threshold, with Medium being the best playable preset at exactly 60 FPS. At 3840x2160, the verdict is no: no preset is playable, and even Low manages only 37 FPS. In short, buy or keep this pairing only if you play at 1080p, or at 1440p with Medium settings or lower. A 4K monitor is out of the question for this configuration in Doom.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling data makes the division of labor obvious. From 1080p to 1440p on Medium, the average falls from 93 FPS to 60 FPS; from 1440p to 4K on the same preset, it falls again to 33 FPS. Frame rate scales almost directly with resolution at every preset, which is the classic signature of a GPU-limited configuration. The Ryzen 9 5950X, with a single-thread PassMark score of 3,470 and a multi-thread score of 45,424, is never the constraint. If the CPU were the limiter, changing the resolution would barely move the frame rate; instead, every step up in pixel count costs a large chunk of performance.

The preset scaling tells the same story from the other direction. At 1080p, dropping from Ultra to Low raises the average from 64 FPS to 107 FPS, a gain of two-thirds. At 1440p, the same drop goes from 41 to 69 FPS. Those are render-quality cuts paid to the GPU, not the CPU. For this game on this build, the graphics component matters exclusively: at 1080p it still has just enough headroom for Ultra, at 1440p it forces you to Medium, and at 4K it is simply overwhelmed regardless of preset. The processor headroom is wasted here, since Doom cannot use a fraction of the 5950X's 32 threads, and any of its nearest CPU rivals would produce identical frame rates.

Best Settings per Resolution

The most demanding preset that holds at or above 60 FPS at each resolution, based on the measured data:

• 1920x1080: Ultra, averaging 64 FPS. This is the best outcome for this build. Every preset is playable at this resolution, so there is no reason to drop below Ultra: Low and Medium (107 and 93 FPS) are only useful if you want headroom above the refresh range.
• 2560x1440: Medium, averaging 60 FPS. Medium sits exactly at the playable threshold, with a recorded range of 51 to 69 FPS across the measurement window, so expect occasional dips below 60 in heavy scenes. Low at 69 FPS is the safer pick for consistent smoothness. High (51 FPS) and Ultra (41 FPS) should be avoided.
• 3840x2160: none playable. The best result at 4K is Low at 37 FPS, well short of the 60 FPS threshold, and Ultra bottoms out at 22 FPS. No preset qualifies as the recommended setting at this resolution.

The practical takeaway: run 1080p Ultra for the best experience, treat 1440p Medium as the ceiling, and leave 4K to a configuration with a far stronger GPU.