Doom

The pairing of AMD’s Ryzen 5 4600G with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090 presents a stark contrast in raw capability, creating a bottleneck dynamic that is clearly visible in the measured frame rates for Doom. The data indicates a system where the GPU is massively overqualified for the CPU’s output, yet the results remain exceptionally playable across all tested settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic CPU-limited scenario at lower resolutions, with the GPU only beginning to assert its dominance as pixel count increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces an average of 278.2 FPS, which drops only slightly to 237.9 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of roughly 15%. This modest decline suggests the processor is the primary limiter, as the RTX 4090 is capable of far higher frame rates but is being held back by the Ryzen 5 4600G's single-thread performance.

Moving to 4K, the scaling becomes more pronounced, indicating a shift toward GPU-bound operation. At 4K Low, the average FPS falls to 154.9, a significant 35% drop from the 1440p figure. This pattern intensifies with higher settings; the 4K High result of 117.2 FPS is 45% lower than the 1440p High score of 213.9 FPS. The transition from 1440p to 4K at Ultra settings shows a similar dramatic reduction, from 173 FPS down to 93.9 FPS. The data confirms that while the CPU constrains performance at 1080p and 1440p, the 4K resolution finally allows the RTX 4090's immense processing power to become the determining factor, as the rendering load overwhelms the processor's ability to feed frames.

The gap between the lowest and highest settings widens considerably at 4K. At 1080p, the spread from Low (278.2 FPS) to Ultra (233.7 FPS) is only 44.5 FPS, a 16% difference. At 4K, the spread between Low (154.9 FPS) and Ultra (93.9 FPS) expands to 61 FPS, a 39% difference. This widening delta is a clear indicator that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck at higher resolutions, as its performance is more sensitive to the increased shading and texture work required by higher quality presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is an absolute powerhouse, and its specifications in the data pack leave no doubt about its capacity. With 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, it offers a staggering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for any texture load Doom can present. The card's compute capabilities are equally immense, with 16,384 shading units and an FP32 throughput of 82.58 TFLOPS. Its base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, make it a top-tier part, ranking in the 91st percentile of all GPUs.

In this specific configuration, the RTX 4090's role is to render frames as fast as the CPU can feed it. At 1080p and 1440p, the GPU is effectively idle much of the time, waiting for the Ryzen 5 4600G to submit draw calls. The benchmark results show this clearly: the difference between 1080p Low (278.2 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (233.7 FPS) is only 44.5 FPS, which is a relatively small performance penalty for a massive increase in visual quality. This indicates that the GPU has ample headroom to handle the extra workload of Ultra settings without significantly impacting the final frame rate, as the CPU remains the limiting factor.

Only at 4K does the RTX 4090 begin to work hard. The 4K Ultra result of 93.9 FPS, while still very playable, shows a substantial performance cost compared to the 4K Low score of 154.9 FPS. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth are finally being fully utilized. The card's performance relative to its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (which it trails by only 0.4% in average benchmark score), is irrelevant in this context, as the RTX 4090's real-world gaming performance is in a class of its own, constrained only by the CPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. It features an 8 MB shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. While it sits in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, its single-thread performance is its weaker aspect, as evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of just 726 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1919. This is the key limitation in a game like Doom, which is known for its demanding single-threaded game logic.

The data shows that the CPU is the definitive bottleneck in this pairing. At 1080p, the frame rates across all settings are remarkably close, with only a small variance between Low and Ultra. This is the classic signature of a CPU limit: the GPU is capable of producing hundreds more frames, but the processor cannot issue instructions fast enough. The 237.9 FPS at 1440p Low versus the 278.2 FPS at 1080p Low shows a mere 14% drop, which is far less than the 44% increase in pixel count, further confirming the CPU is the primary constraint.

Benchmark results for the processor show it is competitive with its immediate peers, such as the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-12450H (0.1% delta). However, these comparisons are for general compute workloads. In this specific gaming scenario, the processor's modest single-thread score means it cannot unlock the RTX 4090's full potential. The 4K results, where the CPU overhead is amortized over a much longer GPU frame time, show that the processor is still capable of delivering high frame rates, but the system’s overall performance is far below what the GPU is capable of on its own.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear path for optimizing the experience. At 1080p, the Ultra preset offers the best visual quality with only a minimal performance hit relative to the lower presets. The 233.7 FPS average at Ultra is only 16% lower than the 278.2 FPS at Low, a negligible difference given the high frame rates involved. Players with 1440p displays should also select the High preset, which delivers 213.9 FPS and provides an excellent balance of visual fidelity and performance, with the Ultra preset at 173 FPS still being a viable option for those prioritizing image quality.

For 4K gaming, the choice is more consequential. The High preset at 117.2 FPS is the recommended sweet spot, offering a smooth and responsive experience that is well above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 93.9 FPS is also perfectly playable and will provide the best image quality, but the 20% performance drop from High to Ultra may not be worth the marginal visual gains for all users. The Medium preset at 134.8 FPS is a solid fallback for those who want higher frame rates, but the Low preset at 154.9 FPS should be avoided, as it sacrifices significant visual quality for a frame rate that exceeds what most displays can even show.

The data suggests that the High preset is the most efficient choice across all resolutions. It consistently offers a significant step up in visual quality from Medium while incurring a relatively small performance penalty compared to Ultra. For this specific system, the CPU limitation at 1080p and 1440p means that even the Ultra preset will not tax the GPU, making it a safe choice for those resolutions. At 4K, however, the High preset is the most logical recommendation, as it provides a large performance cushion over Ultra while still looking excellent.

FAQ

Q: Is this system capable of running Doom at 4K with high settings?

A: Yes. The measured data shows an average of 117.2 FPS at 3840x2160 with the High preset, which is well within the range of smooth, playable performance. Even the Ultra preset produces an average of 93.9 FPS.

Q: Why is the frame rate at 1080p not much higher than at 1440p?

A: The benchmark results indicate the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is the limiting component at lower resolutions. The difference between 1080p Low (278.2 FPS) and 1440p Low (237.9 FPS) is only about 15%, suggesting the CPU cannot feed the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 fast enough to take advantage of the lower resolution.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 being fully utilized in this configuration?

A: Not at 1080p or 1440p. The data shows that the GPU is only fully engaged at 4K resolution, where the rendering load is high enough to shift the bottleneck from the CPU to the GPU. This is evident in the larger frame rate gaps between settings at 4K compared to 1080p.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The High preset is recommended, as it delivers an average of 213.9 FPS. This provides a high level of visual quality with a substantial performance margin over the Ultra preset, which still offers a very high 173 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 4600G compare to its closest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The processor’s average benchmark score places it on par with the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-12450H (0.1% delta). It trails the Intel Core i3-14100T by 0.8% and the Intel Core i3-13100F by 1% in average score.

Q: What is the performance cost of using the Ultra preset at 4K?

A: The measured data shows a drop from 117.2 FPS on High to 93.9 FPS on Ultra at 3840x2160, a reduction of roughly 20%. This is a significant performance penalty that may not be justifiable for the slight visual improvement.