Doom

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates for Doom with the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT show a clear hierarchy across presets, with the High preset delivering the most balanced experience. At 1920x1080, the High preset produces 230 FPS average, which is substantially above the 185.8 FPS of Ultra while still providing enhanced visual quality over the 256.5 FPS Medium and 270.7 FPS Low presets. The performance gap between High and Ultra at 1080p is 44.2 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a significant rendering cost for its incremental visual gains.

Moving to 2560x1440, the High preset maintains 152.1 FPS, which remains comfortably within high-refresh-rate territory. The Ultra preset drops to 120.9 FPS, still playable but with a 31.2 FPS deficit versus High. At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers 81.4 FPS, which is the optimal choice for 4K gaming on this combination. The Ultra preset at 4K falls to 63.5 FPS, a 17.9 FPS reduction that may introduce noticeable stutter on variable refresh rate displays. The data suggests that High is the recommended preset across all resolutions, as it consistently outperforms Ultra by margins ranging from 17.9 FPS at 4K to 44.2 FPS at 1080p, while the visual difference between High and Ultra in Doom is typically modest.

For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset offers 270.7 FPS at 1080p and 204.2 FPS at 1440p, but the jump from Low to High only costs 40.7 FPS at 1080p and 52.1 FPS at 1440p—a reasonable trade for improved image quality. The Medium preset sits between, offering 256.5 FPS at 1080p and 175.1 FPS at 1440p, but it does not provide enough of an advantage over High to justify the visual downgrade. The measured data indicates that High is the sweet spot for this hardware pairing, delivering frame rates that exceed 144 Hz at 1440p and approach 240 Hz at 1080p.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Zen 2 architecture, built on a 7 nm process at TSMC. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.20 GHz, combined with 32 MB of shared L3 cache, provide the computational foundation for Doom's game logic and physics. The CPU's benchmark results show a single-thread score of 696 in 3dmark, which is relevant for a game engine that relies heavily on primary thread performance. The multi-threaded results are more robust: 4605 in 3dmark_16_threads and 4603 in 3dmark_max_threads, indicating that the processor's 12 threads scale effectively when the workload expands.

The Ryzen 5 3600's position relative to its nearest rivals is remarkably tight. Its average benchmark score of 18129 places it within 0.3% of the AMD EPYC 9274F (18189, -0.3% delta), 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (18101, +0.2% delta), and 0.1% of the Intel Core i5-11400 (18150, -0.1% delta). This clustering suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in Doom's performance at the tested resolutions, as the game's frame rates scale primarily with GPU workload. The processor's 76th percentile ranking against all CPUs indicates competent but not exceptional performance, which aligns with its mid-range positioning.

In Doom specifically, the CPU's role becomes more pronounced at lower resolutions where the GPU is less burdened. At 1080p, the difference between the Low preset (270.7 FPS) and Ultra preset (185.8 FPS) is 84.9 FPS, a gap that reflects both GPU and CPU load changes. However, the CPU's 12 threads and 4.20 GHz boost clock appear sufficient to feed the RX 9070 XT even at 270.7 FPS, as the frame rates remain high and consistent. The PassMark single-thread score of 2562 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2124 indicate that the processor's per-core performance is adequate for Doom's engine, which typically does not require extreme single-thread throughput beyond what this chip provides.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is a substantial GPU with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. Its RDNA 4.0 architecture, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC, includes 4096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units. The GPU's clock speeds are notable: a base clock of 1660 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2970 MHz. This configuration yields 48.66 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which directly influences Doom's rendering throughput.

The GPU's memory configuration is particularly relevant for Doom at high resolutions. The 16 GB VRAM capacity ensures that texture data and geometry buffers remain resident even at 4K Ultra settings, while the 644.6 GB/s bandwidth supports the high pixel and texture rates. The GPU's pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s are ample for Doom's Vulkan-based renderer, which is known for efficient draw call handling and minimal CPU overhead.

The RX 9070 XT's benchmark scores position it at the 82nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 39647. Its nearest rivals show a similar tight clustering to the CPU: the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (39703, -0.1% delta), NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568, +0.2% delta), AMD Radeon Pro 575X (39836, -0.5% delta), and AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (39879, -0.6% delta) all fall within a narrow band. This suggests that the GPU's raw compute capability is competitive with these parts, though Doom's actual performance is more dependent on the specific rendering paths and driver optimizations.

In Doom, the GPU's role is dominant at higher resolutions. The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is substantial: 230 FPS at 1080p falls to 152.1 FPS at 1440p (a 33.9% reduction) and then to 81.4 FPS at 4K (a 46.5% reduction from 1440p). This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly the bottleneck as resolution rises, with the CPU's contribution diminishing. The GPU's 16 GB VRAM and high bandwidth prevent memory-related stuttering even at 4K Ultra, where the 63.5 FPS result still represents playable performance for a fast-paced FPS title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming with this hardware?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 produces 152.1 FPS average, which is 31.2 FPS higher than Ultra's 120.9 FPS. Given that High maintains a significant frame rate advantage while offering most of Ultra's visual features, it is the recommended choice for 1440p.

Q: How does the RX 9070 XT compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 9070 XT's average benchmark score of 39647 is within 0.6% of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (39879, -0.6% delta) and 0.5% of the AMD Radeon Pro 575X (39836, -0.5% delta). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (39703, -0.1% delta) by a negligible margin and leads the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568, +0.2% delta) by an equally small amount.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 a bottleneck for the RX 9070 XT in Doom?

A: The data does not indicate a significant CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combination reaches 270.7 FPS, which is extremely high and suggests the CPU can feed the GPU effectively. The CPU's 12 threads and 4.20 GHz boost clock appear sufficient for Doom's engine, even at high frame rates.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the system delivers 185.8 FPS. At 4K Ultra, it drops to 63.5 FPS. This represents a 122.3 FPS reduction, which is a 65.8% performance loss, indicating the GPU is heavily taxed at 4K with maximum settings.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its single-threaded performance?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 scores 4605 in 3dmark_16_threads versus 696 in 3dmark_single_thread, showing strong multi-thread scaling. In Cinebench R23, the multicore score is 15045 while the single-core score is 2124, which reflects a similar pattern. This scaling benefits modern games that utilize multiple threads.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth and how does it affect Doom?

A: The RX 9070 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. This high bandwidth supports the GPU's pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s, ensuring that Doom's texture streaming and high-resolution rendering do not become memory-bound.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across resolutions reveal a predictable scaling pattern that identifies the GPU as the primary limiting component in Doom. At High settings, the system produces 230 FPS at 1920x1080, which drops to 152.1 FPS at 2560x1440—a 33.9% reduction. The further drop to 81.4 FPS at 3840x2160 represents a 46.5% reduction from 1440p and a 64.6% reduction from 1080p. This steep decline with resolution indicates that the GPU's rendering throughput, rather than CPU limitations, governs performance at higher pixel counts.

The scaling behavior at Ultra settings is even more pronounced. The system achieves 185.8 FPS at 1080p, falls to 120.9 FPS at 1440p (a 34.9% reduction), and drops to 63.5 FPS at 4K (a 47.5% reduction from 1440p and 65.8% from 1080p). The consistency of these percentage drops across presets suggests that the GPU's workload scales linearly with pixel count, which is typical for a rasterization-heavy game like Doom. The CPU's role remains secondary, as evidenced by the fact that even at 1080p Low (270.7 FPS), the frame rate does not plateau, implying the CPU can sustain higher output than the GPU can deliver.

The data also shows that the performance gap between Low and Ultra presets widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low (270.7 FPS) and Ultra (185.8 FPS) is 84.9 FPS. At 1440p, the difference shrinks to 83.3 FPS (204.2 vs 120.9), and at 4K, it narrows to 44.2 FPS (107.7 vs 63.5). This narrowing indicates that at 4K, the GPU becomes so saturated that even reducing settings from Ultra to Low cannot fully compensate for the pixel load. The 107.7 FPS at 4K Low versus 63.5 FPS at 4K Ultra shows that settings changes have a diminishing impact as resolution increases, confirming the GPU-bound nature of Doom at higher resolutions. For users targeting 4K, the High preset at 81.4 FPS offers the best compromise, as it retains most of the visual quality while staying above the 60 FPS threshold.