Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER combination delivers a solid 1080p experience in Doom, but the data shows a clear ceiling as resolution increases. This pairing sits at rank 1483 out of 1681 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. The measured frames per second reveal a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s six cores and twelve threads provide ample headroom for the game’s engine at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Doom?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all settings presets produce playable frame rates, with the Low preset hitting 146.2 FPS and the Ultra preset at 90 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low and Medium exceed 60 FPS, while at 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its closest rivals?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 14286, which is 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT. It sits just ahead of the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics by 0.2%, showing the card is tightly clustered with these competitors.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 2600 a bottleneck for this game?

A: Benchmark results indicate the CPU is not the limiting factor at most settings. The processor’s multi-threaded Cinebench R23 score of 11186 and PassMark multithread score of 13160 suggest ample computational headroom; the FPS drops between settings presets at the same resolution point to GPU limitations instead.

Q: What settings preset should be avoided at 4K?

A: The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 produces only 32.1 FPS, which is the lowest measured result across the entire dataset. Even the High preset at this resolution manages just 37.5 FPS, indicating that 4K gaming is not viable with this hardware.

Q: How much performance does dropping from High to Low settings gain?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 146.2 FPS compared to 107.4 FPS on High, a gain of roughly 36%. At 2560x1440, the improvement is from 71.7 FPS to 93.7 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it rises from 37.5 FPS to 51.1 FPS.

Q: Does this system support modern graphics APIs?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The PassMark DirectX 12 score of 50 and DirectX 11 score of 104 indicate that the game’s API choice can significantly impact performance, though the measured FPS data already reflects the engine’s utilization.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is built on the TU116 chip using the Turing architecture on a 12 nm process from TSMC. It carries 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The card’s base clock runs at 1530 MHz with a boost clock of 1785 MHz, while memory operates at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). These specifications produce 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s.

In Doom, the GPU’s memory subsystem and shading power directly dictate the frame rates. The measured FPS at 1920x1080 shows a spread from 90 FPS on Ultra to 146.2 FPS on Low, which is a 62.4% performance delta between the two presets. This spread narrows at higher resolutions: at 2560x1440 the difference between Ultra (59 FPS) and Low (93.7 FPS) is 58.8%, and at 3840x2160 it is 59.2% (32.1 FPS vs 51.1 FPS). The consistent relative gap across resolutions indicates the GPU’s shading units and texture rate (157.1 GTexel/s) are the primary constraint, not memory bandwidth.

The card’s PassMark G3D score of 12699 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1278 place it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics—are within 0.5% of its average score, confirming that the GTX 1660 SUPER is a mid-range part that competes closely with integrated and low-end discrete solutions. The 48 ROPs and 88 TMUs are sufficient for 1080p but struggle to fill 4K frames, which explains the sub-40 FPS results at 3840x2160.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable decline as resolution increases, but the rate of decline reveals where the bottleneck lies. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on High settings drops the average FPS from 107.4 to 71.7, a 33.2% reduction. The subsequent jump to 3840x2160 on the same preset brings the average down to 37.5 FPS, another 47.7% reduction. This pattern is consistent across all presets, indicating the GPU is the limiting component.

The Low preset shows the same scaling behavior: 146.2 FPS at 1080p, 93.7 FPS at 1440p, and 51.1 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 35.9%, and from 1440p to 4K it is 45.5%. The fact that the relative drops remain similar regardless of settings suggests the CPU is not introducing a variable bottleneck; if the Ryzen 5 2600 were struggling, the gap between Low and High settings at the same resolution would widen as CPU load increases. Instead, the data shows that the GPU’s fill rate and shading capacity determine the frame rate at every resolution.

At 3840x2160, even the Low preset cannot reach 60 FPS, hitting 51.1 FPS. This is a clear indicator that the GTX 1660 SUPER lacks the raw pixel throughput for 4K gaming in Doom. The Ultra preset at this resolution delivers 32.1 FPS, which is barely playable for a fast-paced FPS. The scaling pattern suggests that 2560x1440 is the practical ceiling for this combo, and only with reduced settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides twelve measured FPS points across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 146.2 FPS, Medium drops to 130.9 FPS, High comes in at 107.4 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 90 FPS. All of these are comfortably above 60 FPS, with even the most demanding preset leaving headroom for a high-refresh-rate monitor.

At 2560x1440, the performance tiers shift. Low settings produce 93.7 FPS, Medium yields 85.8 FPS, High manages 71.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 59 FPS. The Ultra preset is the only one that dips below the 60 FPS threshold at this resolution, which is worth noting for players who prioritize visual fidelity over smoothness. The gap between Ultra and Low at 1440p is 34.7 FPS, a significant margin that shows how much the game’s advanced effects cost on this hardware.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely below playable thresholds. Low settings reach 51.1 FPS, Medium drops to 45.5 FPS, High falls to 37.5 FPS, and Ultra sits at 32.1 FPS. None of these meet the 60 FPS target, and even the Low preset’s 51.1 FPS would feel sluggish in a game that demands quick reactions. The data suggests that 4K is only viable for screenshots or non-interactive scenarios with this GPU.

The combo ranks 1483 out of 1681 combinations tested in Doom, placing it in the 12th percentile of all tested systems. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 55 versus the CPU’s 77 indicates that the graphics card is the weaker component in this pairing, which aligns with the FPS scaling data.

Settings Recommendations

For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset at 90 FPS provides the best balance of visual quality and performance. The data shows that even the most demanding settings keep the frame rate above 90 FPS, so there is no reason to compromise on graphics at this resolution. If a player has a 144 Hz monitor, dropping to Medium at 130.9 FPS or Low at 146.2 FPS would make better use of the display’s refresh rate.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 71.7 FPS is the sweet spot. It delivers a smooth experience above 60 FPS while retaining most of the visual effects. The Medium preset at 85.8 FPS is a viable alternative for those who prefer higher frame rates, and the Low preset at 93.7 FPS is available for competitive play. The Ultra preset at 59 FPS is borderline; the data shows it just misses the 60 FPS mark, so it is only recommended for players who prioritize image quality over frame pacing.

At 3840x2160, no preset meets the 60 FPS threshold. The Low preset at 51.1 FPS is the only option that approaches playability, but it still falls short. The recommendation is to avoid 4K with this GPU and instead use 2560x1440 with High settings, which offers a significantly better experience in the measured results. The 32.1 FPS Ultra result at 4K is not viable for active gameplay.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a six-core, twelve-thread processor based on the Zen architecture (Pinnacle Ridge) manufactured on a 12 nm process by GlobalFoundries. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 96 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is dual-channel DDR4 with 46.9 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Doom, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across resolutions. The processor’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11186 and single-core score of 1579 indicate that it can handle the game’s physics and AI calculations without becoming a bottleneck. The PassMark single-thread score of 2239 is modest by modern standards, but Doom’s id Tech 6 engine is well-optimized for multi-threaded workloads.

The CPU’s percentile ranking of 77 places it well above the GPU’s 55, confirming that the Ryzen 5 2600 has more relative headroom than the GTX 1660 SUPER. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-1345U (0.4% behind) and the Intel Core i5-11600KF (0.6% ahead), with the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U 0.6% ahead. The 12 threads allow the CPU to maintain consistent frame times even when background tasks compete for resources.

The measured FPS at 1080p Low (146.2 FPS) versus 1080p Ultra (90 FPS) shows a 62.4% drop, which is entirely attributable to GPU load. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the Low preset would not scale so dramatically with resolution. The data indicates that the Ryzen 5 2600 is sufficient for Doom at all tested settings, and the GPU is the component that determines the final frame rate.