Doom

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 brings six cores and twelve threads to this Doom configuration, running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. This part belongs to the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Matisse, and is built on a 7 nm process node at TSMC, using 3,800 million transistors on a 74 mm² die. The cache layout is substantial for the era: 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 pool. Memory bandwidth is rated at 51.2 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR4 bus.

In synthetic workloads, the processor demonstrates strong scaling from few threads to many. The 3DMark single-thread score is 696, while the 2-thread test reaches 1361, and the 4-thread test climbs to 2579. By the time all twelve threads are engaged, the 3DMark max-threads score is 4603, which is nearly identical to the 16-thread result of 4605. That pattern suggests the chip's multi-threading efficiency saturates around its physical core count, with simultaneous multithreading providing modest gains beyond that point. Cinebench R23 results reinforce this: the single-core score is 2124, while multi-core reaches 15045, indicating roughly 7x scaling from one core to twelve threads — a typical result for a six-core, twelve-thread part.

The CPU's percentile ranking against all processors is 76, meaning it outperforms three-quarters of the database population. Its average benchmark score is 18129, placing it in close competition with several rivals. The Intel Core i5-11400 scores 18150, a delta of -0.1 percent; the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS scores 18101, a delta of 0.2 percent; the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 scores 18158, a delta of -0.2 percent; and the AMD EPYC 9274F scores 18189, a delta of -0.3 percent. These deltas are all within a fraction of a percent, indicating that the Ryzen 5 3600 sits in a tight performance cluster where no single rival has a decisive edge in aggregate CPU throughput.

For a game like Doom, which was released in 2016, the CPU requirements are far less demanding than modern titles. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 152.1 FPS on average. That figure is high enough that the CPU is likely not the primary bottleneck — a six-core, twelve-thread Zen 2 part with a 4.20 GHz boost clock has ample headroom for this engine. However, the gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p is substantial: 152.1 FPS versus 89.5 FPS, a drop of roughly 41 percent. That delta suggests the GPU is increasingly limited as settings rise, but the CPU must still feed frames fast enough to avoid capping performance. Given that the 1080p Low result exceeds 150 FPS, the processor is clearly capable of sustaining high frame rates in this title.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a Turing-architecture part built on a 12 nm process at TSMC, with 6,600 million transistors on a 284 mm² die. Its base clock is 1500 MHz, boosting to 1770 MHz, and memory runs at 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective speed. The card has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Compute resources include 1536 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units, delivering 5.437 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 10.87 TFLOPS of FP16 performance via a 2:1 ratio. Pixel rate is 84.96 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 169.9 GTexel/s.

In GPU benchmarks, the card scores 12871 in Passmark G3D and 60863 in Geekbench OpenCL. Its Vulkan score is 58014, while DirectX 12 results are more modest at 51 in Passmark and 1061 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The GPU's percentile ranking is 55, placing it just above the median of all GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score is 13925, with nearest rivals clustering closely: the AMD Radeon RX 570X scores 13871 (a delta of 0.4 percent), the NVIDIA Tesla K10 scores 14029 (a delta of -0.7 percent), the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile scores 13821 (a delta of 0.8 percent), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 scores 13812 (a delta of 0.8 percent). These minute deltas show the GTX 1660 Ti is positioned in a densely packed performance tier.

For Doom, the 6 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for the game's textures at any of the tested settings, including Ultra at 4K. The memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s is a more relevant constraint, particularly at higher resolutions where fill-rate demands increase. The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: at 1080p Low, the card pushes 152.1 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it falls to 34.2 FPS. That is a 77 percent reduction, which strongly indicates the GPU is the limiting component as resolution and settings scale upward. The card's 48 ROPs and 169.9 GTexel/s texture rate are adequate for 1080p but become strained at 4K, especially with Ultra settings that increase both geometric and shading complexity.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combination achieves in Doom?

A: The highest measured average is 152.1 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 scores 18129 on average, which is 0.1 percent behind the Intel Core i5-11400 (18150) and 0.2 percent ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (18101). All nearest rivals are within 0.3 percent of each other.

Q: Does the GTX 1660 Ti outperform the AMD Radeon RX 570X in GPU benchmarks?

A: Yes, the GTX 1660 Ti has an average benchmark score of 13925, while the RX 570X scores 13871, a delta of 0.4 percent in favor of the NVIDIA card.

Q: What is the largest FPS drop between settings at the same resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the drop from Low (49.7 FPS) to Ultra (34.2 FPS) is 15.5 FPS, a 31 percent reduction. At 1920x1080, the drop from Low (152.1 FPS) to Ultra (89.5 FPS) is 62.6 FPS, a 41 percent reduction.

Q: Is the system capable of 60 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings?

A: Yes, the measured average is 71.5 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings, which exceeds the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the GPU's DirectX 12 performance compare to its DirectX 11 performance?

A: The Passmark DirectX 12 score is 51, while the DirectX 11 score is 103, meaning the card performs roughly twice as well in the older API benchmark.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides twelve measured FPS points across four resolutions and four settings tiers. Starting at 1920x1080, the system delivers 152.1 FPS on Low, 132.5 FPS on Medium, 110.3 FPS on High, and 89.5 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent decline, with each settings tier costing roughly 20-22 FPS on average. The gap between Low and Medium is 19.6 FPS, between Medium and High is 22.2 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 20.8 FPS. This uniformity suggests each preset adds a similar computational burden at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results are 95.5 FPS on Low, 83 FPS on Medium, 71.5 FPS on High, and 60.9 FPS on Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant: Low falls from 152.1 to 95.5 FPS (a 37 percent reduction), while Ultra falls from 89.5 to 60.9 FPS (a 32 percent reduction). At this resolution, the Medium setting still clears 80 FPS, and High stays above 70 FPS. Ultra is the only preset that dips below 65 FPS, but it remains playable at just over 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings yield 49.7 FPS, Medium drops to 47.1 FPS, High falls further to 42.2 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 34.2 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium at 4K is only 2.6 FPS, which is much smaller than the 19.6 FPS gap seen at 1080p. This compression indicates that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that modest settings changes have diminishing returns. The gap between High and Ultra is 8 FPS, which is proportionally larger, showing that Ultra's additional effects carry a steeper cost at this resolution.

The overall combo rank for this CPU-GPU pair in Doom is 1438 out of 1681 combinations, placing it in the lower 15 percent of tested configurations for this game. That ranking reflects that while the system can handle 1080p and 1440p well, it is not competitive with higher-end hardware at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals how the hardware scales under increasing pixel counts. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (152.1 FPS) to 2560x1440 (95.5 FPS) represents a 37 percent reduction, and the further step to 3840x2160 (49.7 FPS) is another 48 percent reduction from the 1440p figure. The total loss from 1080p to 4K at Low is 102.4 FPS, or 67 percent of the original frame rate.

For Ultra settings, the scaling is less steep in absolute terms but similar in proportion. The drop from 1080p Ultra (89.5 FPS) to 1440p Ultra (60.9 FPS) is 32 percent, and the drop from 1440p Ultra to 4K Ultra (34.2 FPS) is 44 percent. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 55.3 FPS, or 62 percent.

These numbers indicate that the GTX 1660 Ti is the limiting component across all resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain flat or drop only slightly as resolution increases, because the same number of draw calls would be processed regardless of pixel count. Instead, the FPS falls by roughly two-thirds from 1080p to 4K, which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth become the primary constraints. The 288.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 84.96 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K, even on Low settings where the frame rate drops below 50 FPS.

The scaling pattern also shows that the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU even at 1080p Low, where the system reaches 152.1 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS target and suggests the Ryzen 5 3600 is not holding back performance in this title. The 4.20 GHz boost clock and 32 MB L3 cache provide ample single-threaded and multi-threaded capability for Doom's engine, which was designed for hardware several generations older.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to 1920x1080 with High settings as the optimal balance for this configuration. At 110.3 FPS, it delivers a smooth experience that exceeds the refresh rate of most standard monitors while maintaining visual fidelity. The jump from High to Ultra costs 20.8 FPS (from 110.3 to 89.5), which is a 19 percent reduction for what is typically a marginal visual improvement in Doom. For players who prioritize frame rate over visual polish, Medium at 132.5 FPS is also viable, but High offers a better compromise between image quality and performance.

At 2560x1440, High settings remain the best choice at 71.5 FPS. This stays comfortably above 60 FPS and provides a sharper image than 1080p. Medium at 83 FPS is an alternative for those who want extra headroom, but the visual difference between Medium and High is often less noticeable at this resolution than the 11.5 FPS gap suggests. Ultra at 60.9 FPS is technically playable but leaves no margin for frame-time spikes, making it a risky choice for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, the system cannot maintain 60 FPS at any settings tier. The best result is Low at 49.7 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced FPS. Medium at 47.1 FPS and High at 42.2 FPS offer incremental improvements in visual quality at the cost of additional frame rate. Ultra at 34.2 FPS is not recommended for any scenario where responsiveness matters. For 4K, the data suggests either lowering the resolution to 1440p or accepting a sub-50 FPS experience with reduced settings.

The combo's rank of 1438 out of 1681 in Doom reflects that this hardware is positioned for 1080p and 1440p gaming rather than 4K. The GTX 1660 Ti's 6 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for the game's texture loads at lower resolutions, but the 4K results demonstrate clear limitations. The CPU, by contrast, shows no signs of bottlenecking, as evidenced by the 152.1 FPS ceiling at 1080p Low. For the best experience, players should target 1080p High or 1440p High, depending on their display's native resolution.