Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers a remarkably robust experience in Doom, with all tested settings exceeding the 60 FPS threshold at every resolution. The data indicates that this combination is not merely capable but provides substantial headroom for high-refresh-rate displays, making the choice of settings more about display capabilities than about achieving playability.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data shows a clear hierarchy across the four quality presets, with the most significant performance gap occurring between Medium and Ultra. At 1080p, the measured average frame rates are 269.3 FPS for Low, 256.2 FPS for Medium, 243.1 FPS for High, and 204.6 FPS for Ultra. The transition from Low to Ultra at this resolution represents a 64.7 FPS drop, but even the most demanding preset maintains an average above 200 FPS. This suggests that for users with 1080p displays, the Ultra preset is the optimal choice, as the performance penalty is relatively minor compared to the visual quality gains typically associated with moving from Medium to Ultra.

At 1440p, the measured averages are 218.5 FPS for Low, 189.2 FPS for Medium, 160.9 FPS for High, and 134.2 FPS for Ultra. The High preset at this resolution provides a balanced experience, delivering 160.9 FPS average while presumably retaining the majority of visual enhancements over Medium. The Ultra preset at 1440p still maintains an average of 134.2 FPS, which is suitable for most high-refresh-rate monitors, though the 26.7 FPS gap between High and Ultra may be perceptible to sensitive users.

The 4K results present a more nuanced picture. The measured averages are 115.9 FPS for Low, 102 FPS for Medium, 86.6 FPS for High, and 68.8 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K appears to be the sweet spot for this combination, delivering 102 FPS average while avoiding the more substantial performance degradation seen at High and Ultra. The Ultra preset at 4K, while still playable at 68.8 FPS average, represents the first setting where the frame rate dips below the 70 FPS threshold, suggesting that users prioritizing smoothness over maximum visual fidelity should consider the High preset instead.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7900 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the high frame rates observed. The GPU features 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, providing 800.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This bandwidth is more than sufficient for Doom's texture streaming requirements, even at 4K resolution with High or Ultra settings. The GPU's 5376 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 192 render output units provide substantial raw compute capability, with an FP32 rating of 51.48 TFLOPS.

The clock behavior of the RX 7900 XT is notable. With a base clock of 1387 MHz, a game clock of 2025 MHz, and a boost clock of 2394 MHz, the GPU demonstrates a wide operating range. In Doom, which is known for its efficient Vulkan-based rendering, the GPU likely sustains clocks closer to the boost frequency under sustained load, contributing to the high average frame rates. The GPU's 300 W TDP and 2x 8-pin power connector configuration indicate that it is a power-hungry component, but the measured performance justifies this requirement.

The GPU's benchmark scores support its strong gaming performance. The PassMark G3D score of 29009 places it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 38358 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile at 38349 (0% deltaPct). This parity in synthetic benchmarks translates to the excellent real-world results seen in Doom, where the GPU's raw throughput is more than adequate for the game's demands.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a predictable pattern, but with some interesting nuances. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 243.1 to 160.9, a 33.8% reduction. This is a substantial decrease, indicating that the rendering load increases significantly with pixel count. From 1440p to 4K at High settings, the drop is from 160.9 to 86.6, a 46.2% reduction. This second step is proportionally larger, suggesting that the GPU is becoming increasingly limited as resolution increases.

The scaling pattern changes with the Low preset. From 1080p to 1440p, the drop is from 269.3 to 218.5 FPS, a 18.9% reduction. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is from 218.5 to 115.9 FPS, a 47% reduction. The relatively smaller drop at the first resolution step for Low settings suggests that the CPU may be limiting performance at 1080p with lower graphics loads. At 1080p Low, the 269.3 FPS average is close to the practical limit of what the Ryzen 5 3600's 6 cores and 12 threads can feed to the GPU.

The Ultra preset shows the most consistent scaling. From 1080p to 1440p, the drop is from 204.6 to 134.2 FPS (34.4% reduction), and from 1440p to 4K, the drop is from 134.2 to 68.8 FPS (48.7% reduction). This consistency indicates that at Ultra settings, the GPU is the primary bottleneck at all resolutions, whereas at lower settings, the CPU becomes a co-limiting factor at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ranks 403rd out of 1681 tested combinations for Doom. This places it in the top 24% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing given the CPU's age relative to the GPU. The ranking suggests that while the RX 7900 XT is a high-end GPU, the Ryzen 5 3600's performance ceiling prevents this combo from reaching the upper echelons of the ranking chart.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 18129 places it in the 76th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the Intel Core i5-11400 at 18150 (-0.1% deltaPct). This near-parity with the i5-11400 indicates that the Ryzen 5 3600 is still competitive in 2024, even though it launched in 2019. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads, based on the Zen 2 architecture, provide sufficient multi-threading for modern games, though the 32 MB shared L3 cache is the largest single cache allocation in its class.

The GPU's ranking is notably higher than the CPU's. The RX 7900 XT's average benchmark score of 38358 places it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile at 38349 (0% deltaPct). This near-exact match suggests that in synthetic benchmarks, the desktop RX 7900 XT and the mobile RTX 5080 offer comparable raw performance, though real-world gaming results may differ due to thermal and power constraints.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600's role in this combination is to supply the GPU with a steady stream of draw calls and game logic updates. The CPU's base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.20 GHz provide adequate single-thread performance for Doom's engine, which relies heavily on a few primary threads. The CPU's single-thread benchmark scores reinforce this: a 3DMark single-thread score of 696 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2124 indicate solid per-core performance.

The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for Doom's multi-threaded workload. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4605 and max-thread score of 4603 show that the CPU scales well with additional threads, though the near-identical scores suggest that the 12-thread configuration is fully utilized. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15045 and PassMark multithread score of 17700 confirm that the CPU can handle the background tasks and game logic without becoming a bottleneck.

However, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the 269.3 FPS average is likely approaching the CPU's frame-delivery limit, as the GPU is capable of rendering many more frames per second if fed with data fast enough. The fact that the frame rate at 1080p Low (269.3 FPS) is only 23.3% higher than at 1080p Ultra (204.6 FPS), despite the significantly lower GPU load, suggests that the CPU is constraining frame delivery at the lowest settings. At higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU's performance is sufficient to keep up with the GPU's rendering capabilities.