Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination delivers a highly playable experience in Doom, with performance scaling predictably as resolution and settings increase. The measured data reveals a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU's capabilities become more relevant at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p to 4K shows a clear and consistent pattern of frame rate degradation across all settings presets. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 141.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 89.5 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 51.8 FPS. Moving further to 3840x2160 brings the average down to 51.1 FPS, which represents a 90.2 FPS drop from the 1080p result. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 3060 Ti is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the pixel workload increases substantially.

The scaling pattern shifts when examining Low settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 189.8 FPS, but this drops to 124.8 FPS at 1440p and 68.4 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 34%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is approximately 45%. This non-linear scaling suggests that at 4K Low, the GPU is still the dominant constraint, but the CPU's six cores and twelve threads are better able to feed the graphics card at lower resolutions where the frame rate ceiling is higher.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic resolution sensitivity, with 113.9 FPS at 1080p falling to 77.2 FPS at 1440p and finally 40.8 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is less than half of the 1080p Ultra figure, indicating that the combination of high resolution and maximum graphical fidelity overwhelms the 8 GB GDDR6 memory and the GA104 chip's compute resources. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, users should select Medium or Low presets to maintain playable frame rates, as the 58.1 FPS at Medium is the only 4K setting above the 51.1 FPS High result and well ahead of the 40.8 FPS Ultra score.

How This Combo Ranks

In Doom specifically, this hardware pairing achieves a combo rank of 1224 out of 1681 tested combinations. This places the system in the lower-middle tier of all possible CPU and GPU pairings, which is somewhat surprising given the individual component performance. The RTX 3060 Ti alone sits at the 69th percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 5500 achieves the 79th percentile among all CPUs. The combination's rank suggests that Doom's engine, which is known for efficient multi-threading, may not fully leverage this particular pairing's strengths.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks provide context for its expected gaming behavior. The Intel Core i5-12500 scores 20897 on average, a mere 0.1% higher than the Ryzen 5 5500's 20875 average. Similarly, the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE is 0.1% behind, and the Intel Core i5-12600T trails by 0.2%. These minuscule deltas indicate that the Ryzen 5 5500's Zen 3 architecture delivers performance nearly identical to its closest competitors, meaning any frame rate differences in Doom would be attributable to the GPU rather than CPU headroom.

The GPU's nearest rivals show a similar pattern. The AMD Radeon RX 6700M averages 25180, just 0.2% ahead of the RTX 3060 Ti's 25120. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 and AMD Radeon 890M are 0.5% behind, while the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP trails by 0.7%. These small deltas confirm that the RTX 3060 Ti performs in line with its direct competitors, reinforcing that the combo's rank of 1224 out of 1681 is more a function of the game's specific demands than any deficiency in either component.

GPU Role

The RTX 3060 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture using Samsung's 8 nm process, packing 17,400 million transistors into a 392 mm² die. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory operates across a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is adequate for Doom at 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the High settings results of 141.3 FPS and 89.5 FPS respectively. However, at 4K, the memory bandwidth and capacity become limiting factors, with the Ultra preset dropping to 40.8 FPS.

The GPU's clock speeds are modest for the Ampere generation, with a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. These frequencies, combined with 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation units, produce a peak FP32 throughput of 16.20 TFLOPS. This compute capability is sufficient for Doom's Vulkan-based rendering, but the 4K results show that the architecture's strengths in ray tracing and tensor operations are not relevant to this game's traditional rasterization workload.

The 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores present on this chip remain largely idle during Doom gameplay, as the game does not utilize these features. This means the GPU's raw rasterization performance, measured at 133.2 GPixel/s pixel rate and 253.1 GTexel/s texture rate, is the primary determinant of frame rates. The 200 W TDP and dual-slot cooler suggest the card can sustain boost clocks during extended sessions, but the measured data does not include thermal throttling information.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p displays, the High preset at 141.3 FPS provides an excellent balance of visual quality and performance, while Medium at 165.1 FPS offers a smoother experience with only a modest reduction in fidelity. The Low preset reaches 189.8 FPS, which is beneficial for competitive play or high refresh rate monitors, but the visual compromise may not be worth the extra 48.5 FPS over High for most users. Ultra at 113.9 FPS remains above 60 FPS, making it viable for those prioritizing image quality.

At 1440p, the High preset's 89.5 FPS is the recommended choice for most users, as it stays well above the 60 FPS threshold while delivering strong visual quality. Medium at 108.7 FPS offers a noticeable improvement in smoothness, making it the better option for 120 Hz or 144 Hz displays. The Low preset at 124.8 FPS maximizes frame rates but sacrifices too much visual detail for the modest gain over Medium. Ultra at 77.2 FPS is playable but represents a significant drop from High, suggesting that the extra rendering features are not worth the 12.3 FPS penalty.

For 4K, the data clearly indicates that Ultra at 40.8 FPS is not a viable option for consistent gameplay. The High preset at 51.1 FPS is borderline, while Medium at 58.1 FPS approaches the 60 FPS target. The Low preset at 68.4 FPS is the only 4K setting that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 4K displays. Users with 4K monitors should accept the visual limitations of Low settings or consider reducing resolution to 1440p for a better overall experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings produces frame rates from 113.9 FPS at Ultra to 189.8 FPS at Low. The progression is linear: Medium achieves 165.1 FPS, which is 24.7 FPS below Low but 51.2 FPS above Ultra. High sits at 141.3 FPS, representing a 27.4 FPS drop from Medium and a 27.4 FPS increase over Ultra. This consistent scaling indicates that each preset tier adds a similar computational burden at this resolution.

The 2560x1440 results show a compressed range, from 77.2 FPS at Ultra to 124.8 FPS at Low. Medium's 108.7 FPS is 16.1 FPS below Low, while High's 89.5 FPS is 19.2 FPS below Medium. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to 12.3 FPS, suggesting that the GPU's resources are becoming more constrained as resolution increases, reducing the relative impact of each additional visual feature.

At 3840x2160, the range narrows further to 40.8 FPS at Ultra and 68.4 FPS at Low. Medium achieves 58.1 FPS, which is 10.3 FPS below Low, while High at 51.1 FPS is 7.0 FPS below Medium. The Ultra to High gap shrinks to 10.3 FPS, demonstrating that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even the most demanding preset cannot fully utilize the available hardware resources. The diminishing returns between settings at 4K highlight the importance of selecting lower presets to maintain playable frame rates.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 with Medium settings delivers 108.7 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining good visual quality. At 4K, only Low settings exceed 60 FPS with 68.4 FPS, making 1440p the preferred resolution for a balance of performance and fidelity.

Q: How much faster is Low compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 189.8 FPS while Ultra reaches 113.9 FPS. This represents a 75.9 FPS difference, meaning Low is approximately 67% faster than Ultra at this resolution.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with the RTX 3060 Ti in Doom?

A: Yes, but only with reduced settings. The Low preset at 3840x2160 produces 68.4 FPS, while Medium yields 58.1 FPS. The High preset falls to 51.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 40.8 FPS, so users must accept Low or Medium for smooth 4K play.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems?

A: The combination of AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1224 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the performance distribution.

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

A: At High settings, the system achieves 141.3 FPS at 1920x1080 and 51.1 FPS at 3840x2160. The 4K result is 90.2 FPS lower, representing a reduction of approximately 64% from the 1080p score.

Q: Which component limits performance at 4K Ultra?

A: The 40.8 FPS result at 3840x2160 Ultra indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at this resolution with maximum settings.