Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 pairing delivers a classic mid-range experience in Doom, but the data reveals a clear hierarchy where resolution dictates the performance ceiling. This combination ranks 3068th out of 3712 tested combos, placing it in the lower-mid tier of the database, yet the measured frame rates show it remains highly playable across most settings. The benchmark results paint a picture of a system that is GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while at 1080p it begins to leverage the CPU’s strengths, creating a nuanced performance profile worth dissecting.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K exposes a steep performance cliff, indicating that the GTX 1070 is the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 158 FPS, but dropping to 2560x1440 reduces that to 102 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it falls further to 55 FPS. This represents a 65% drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, a dramatic scaling curve that suggests the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are being saturated. The GTX 1070’s 256.3 GB/s bandwidth and 107.7 GPixel/s pixel rate are likely the bottlenecks here, as the 8 GB of GDDR5 memory struggles to feed the massive 4K framebuffer.

The scaling pattern intensifies with higher settings. At Ultra, the frame rates plummet from 95 FPS at 1080p to 61 FPS at 1440p, and finally to a barely playable 33 FPS at 4K. This 65% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Ultra mirrors the Low setting drop, suggesting that the GPU is consistently the limiting component regardless of graphical complexity. Interestingly, the gap between 1080p and 1440p is smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K, indicating that the GTX 1070 can still handle a moderate resolution jump but collapses under the weight of 4K’s 8.3 million pixels. The data implies that for this combo, 1440p is the practical ceiling for smooth gameplay, while 4K should be reserved for less demanding titles or lower presets.

GPU Role

The GTX 1070, with its 1920 shading units and 64 ROPs, shows its age in these results, yet it still delivers respectable numbers for a GPU from the Pascal generation. Its base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz provide a solid foundation, but the memory configuration—8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus—becomes a critical factor at higher resolutions. The 256.3 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the texture-heavy environments of Doom likely exceed the memory subsystem’s capacity, leading to the observed frame rate drops.

The GPU’s compute capabilities, measured at 6.463 TFLOPS FP32, contribute to its ability to handle the game’s dynamic lighting and particle effects. However, the benchmark results show that the GTX 1070’s performance percentile of 47 versus all GPUs places it in the middle of the pack, and its nearest rivals—such as the AMD FirePro W5000 and NVIDIA Quadro M2000M—are similarly positioned, with deltaPct values within 0.7% of its average score. This indicates that while the GTX 1070 is not a high-end part, it is a consistent performer that can handle Doom at moderate settings, with the 4K Ultra result of 33 FPS being the only truly suboptimal outcome.

The VRAM allocation appears to be a non-issue at 1080p and 1440p, where the game’s texture sizes fit comfortably within 8 GB, but at 4K Ultra, the combination of high-resolution textures and anti-aliasing likely pushes memory usage to its limits. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (33 FPS) versus 4K High (41 FPS) shows a 19% performance penalty, suggesting that the Ultra preset introduces memory-heavy features that the GTX 1070 cannot sustain. This is a classic sign of a GPU that is hitting its memory bandwidth ceiling rather than a compute limitation, as the drop from Medium to Ultra at 4K is more pronounced than at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Examining the measured rows, the Medium preset emerges as the most balanced choice across all resolutions, offering a significant boost over Ultra while maintaining playability. At 1080p, Medium delivers 137 FPS, which is 44% higher than Ultra’s 95 FPS, yet still 21 FPS below Low’s 158 FPS. The min FPS for Medium at 1080p is 117, ensuring smooth gameplay even in intense combat sequences. This pattern repeats at 1440p, where Medium hits 89 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS, and at 4K, it maintains 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS, making it the only preset that remains above 40 FPS at 4K.

For users prioritizing a locked 60 FPS experience, the data suggests that 1440p with High settings is the sweet spot, as it achieves 75 FPS average. At 1080p, High offers 116 FPS, which is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors, but the jump to Ultra only yields a 21 FPS loss, making High a better value for visual fidelity. Conversely, Low settings are only recommended for competitive play at 1080p, where the 158 FPS result maximizes frame pacing, but the visual degradation is substantial. The Ultra preset, while offering the best image quality, should be avoided at 4K due to the 33 FPS average, but it remains viable at 1080p with 95 FPS.

The recommendation is clear: Medium is the default choice for this combo, providing a 58% performance increase over Ultra at 4K and a 44% increase at 1080p, with minimal visual compromise. High is a suitable alternative for 1440p users who want better shadows and effects, while Low is reserved for esports-style play. The data does not support using Ultra at 4K, as the frame rate dips below the playable threshold, and the min FPS data for Medium at 4K (41 FPS) suggests that even this preset struggles in demanding scenes.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured FPS, 1920x1080 is the most consistent resolution, with all presets except Ultra exceeding 100 FPS. At 2560x1440, Medium and High remain above 75 FPS, while 3840x2160 only achieves playable frame rates on Low and Medium presets.

Q: How does the GTX 1070’s 8 GB VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: The data shows a significant drop at 4K, with Ultra at 33 FPS and High at 41 FPS, indicating that the 8 GB frame buffer is likely insufficient for the game’s high-resolution textures. The Medium preset at 4K (48 FPS) suggests that reducing memory-intensive settings helps, but the GPU still struggles to maintain smooth frame rates.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 a bottleneck for the GTX 1070?

A: At 1080p, the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz appear sufficient, as the Low preset reaches 158 FPS. However, the benchmark results do not separate CPU and GPU usage, so the bottleneck depends on the specific scene, but the data implies the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: What preset offers the best frame time consistency?

A: The Medium preset shows the only min FPS values in the dataset, with 117 FPS at 1080p and 41 FPS at 4K. This suggests that Medium provides more stable frame pacing than other presets, which lack min FPS data, making it the safest choice for consistent performance.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 3068th out of 3712 tested combinations, placing it in the 17th percentile of the database. This indicates that while it can run Doom, many other systems outperform it, particularly at higher resolutions where the GTX 1070’s age becomes apparent.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Doom?*

A: Yes, but only at Low (55 FPS) or Medium (48 FPS) settings. High and Ultra presets fall below 45 FPS, which may be acceptable for some players but is not ideal for fast-paced FPS gameplay.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5500’s contribution to Doom’s performance is most evident at 1080p with lower settings, where the GPU is less stressed and the CPU’s capabilities come to the forefront. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the CPU leverages its Zen 3 architecture to maintain high frame rates, as evidenced by the 158 FPS result at 1080p Low. The boost clock of 4.20 GHz and a base clock of 3.60 GHz provide ample single-thread performance, which is critical for Doom’s game logic and physics calculations. The CPU’s 16 MB L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, though the dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory bus (51.2 GB/s) is a modest constraint.

However, as resolution increases, the CPU’s role diminishes. At 4K, the frame rates drop to 55 FPS at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is now the bottleneck, not the CPU. This is typical behavior for a game like Doom, where the rendering workload scales with pixel count while the CPU’s workload remains relatively constant. The CPU’s benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16429 and a single-core score of 2319, suggest it is a capable processor, but its percentile of 73 versus all CPUs shows it is not top-tier. In this combo, the CPU is likely never the limiting factor, as the GTX 1070’s mid-range performance creates a GPU-bound scenario at all but the lowest settings.

The data implies that the Ryzen 5 5500 has headroom to support a more powerful GPU, but in this pairing, it is underutilized at higher resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the 137 FPS result indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU effectively, but the 44% drop from Low to Ultra at 1080p suggests that the GPU’s settings have a greater impact on performance than the CPU’s capabilities. This is a classic sign of a balanced mid-range system, where neither component is excessively dominant, but the GPU’s limits are reached first.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results, with Low at 158 FPS, Medium at 137 FPS (min 117, max 158), High at 116 FPS, and Ultra at 95 FPS. The progression shows a consistent 20-25% performance drop per preset tier, with the gap between Low and Medium being 21 FPS, Medium to High 21 FPS, and High to Ultra 21 FPS. This linear scaling suggests that Doom’s settings are well-optimized, with each tier adding similar graphical complexity. The min FPS for Medium (117) indicates that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate stays well above 100 FPS, making 1080p the most comfortable resolution for this system.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly: Low at 102 FPS, Medium at 89 FPS (min 75, max 102), High at 75 FPS, and Ultra at 61 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 35% across all presets, which is expected given the 77% increase in pixel count. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 75 ensures that the experience remains smooth, but Ultra’s 61 FPS average may dip below 60 in heavy combat, making High a safer choice for 1440p. The data shows that the GTX 1070 can handle 1440p with reduced settings, but it is not a native 1440p card for this game.

At 3840x2160, the results are marginal: Low at 55 FPS, Medium at 48 FPS (min 41, max 55), High at 41 FPS, and Ultra at 33 FPS. The 4K resolution demands four times the pixels of 1080p, and the GTX 1070’s performance collapses accordingly. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 41 is barely playable, while Ultra’s 33 FPS is below the threshold for a smooth experience. The 4K data suggests that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming unless the user is willing to accept Low settings, which still only manage 55 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 22 FPS, showing that settings have a moderate impact but cannot overcome the GPU’s fundamental limitations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 3068 out of 3712 tested combinations places it in the bottom 17% of the database, which aligns with the GTX 1070’s mid-range status and the Ryzen 5 5500’s entry-level positioning. This ranking reflects the system’s overall capability across all games, but for Doom specifically, the measured FPS shows it performs better than its rank might suggest, particularly at 1080p where it achieves excellent frame rates. The GPU’s percentile of 47 versus all GPUs indicates that it is an average performer, while the CPU’s percentile of 73 shows it is above average, creating an imbalance where the GPU is the weaker link.

Compared to the nearest rival combos in the database, the GTX 1070’s closest competitors—such as the AMD FirePro W5000 and NVIDIA Quadro M2000M—have average scores within 0.7% of the GTX 1070, indicating that these GPUs offer similar performance. However, the Ryzen 5 5500’s rivals, like the Intel Core i5-12500 and i7-10700F, have scores within 0.7% of the CPU, suggesting that the processor is well-matched with its peers. The combo’s rank of 3068 is a reflection of both components’ mid-tier status, but the Doom results show that this system is still capable of delivering a highly playable experience at 1080p and 1440p, with only 4K requiring significant compromises. The data indicates that while this combo may not be a top performer, it offers a balanced experience for a game like Doom, where optimization and lower settings can yield impressive results.