Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers a high-refresh-rate experience in Doom, with benchmark results showing a clear progression from CPU-bound territory at 1080p to GPU-bound performance at 4K. Across all four settings presets, the measured average frame rates indicate that this pairing is well-balanced for the game’s fast-paced action, though the scaling pattern reveals where each component’s influence peaks.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all quality presets, which is typical for a game like Doom that relies heavily on the GPU for rendering. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 316.2 FPS, but this falls to 200.5 FPS at 1440p and further to 108.8 FPS at 4K. This represents a 65.6% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the RTX 4070’s rendering throughput is the dominant factor at higher resolutions.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, starting at 188.7 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 121.2 FPS at 1440p, and then plummeting to 68.8 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra figure is less than half of the 1080p Ultra result, which suggests that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shader throughput are being heavily taxed at the highest settings. In contrast, the High preset scales more gracefully: 232.8 FPS at 1080p, 149.4 FPS at 1440p, and 83.1 FPS at 4K, a 64.3% total drop.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference is 127.5 FPS (316.2 vs 188.7), while at 4K it shrinks to 40.0 FPS (108.8 vs 68.8). This narrowing indicates that at 4K, the GPU is the limiting component regardless of settings, whereas at 1080p, the CPU’s ability to feed frames becomes more relevant. The Medium preset sits predictably between Low and High at all resolutions, with 276.2 FPS at 1080p, 179.9 FPS at 1440p, and 99.1 FPS at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Doom?

A: The maximum measured average is 316.2 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the combo averages 68.8 FPS, while 1080p Ultra reaches 188.7 FPS, a reduction of 119.9 FPS.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 bottlenecking the RTX 4070 at any resolution?

A: Benchmark results indicate the CPU becomes more influential at 1080p, where the frame rate spread between Low and Ultra is largest (127.5 FPS), suggesting the GPU has headroom that the CPU cannot fully exploit.

Q: What is the combo’s ranking among all tested configurations for this game?

A: This pairing ranks 407th out of 1681 tested combos for Doom, placing it in the top quarter of all configurations.

Q: What memory specifications does the RTX 4070 use?

A: The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500’s single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread score?

A: The CPU scores 836 in 3dmark_single_thread and 5386 in 3dmark_16_threads, while Cinebench R23 shows 2319 single-core and 16429 multi-core.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070’s specifications directly explain its performance in Doom’s resolution scaling. With a boost clock of 2475 MHz and 5888 shading units, the GPU delivers substantial raw compute, reflected in its 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 throughput. The 12 GB GDDR6X memory operates at 1313 MHz with a 21 Gbps effective rate, yielding 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth across the 192-bit bus. These figures support the observed frame rates, particularly at 1440p where the combo maintains over 120 FPS even at Ultra settings.

The GPU’s 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores are present but less relevant for Doom’s traditional rasterization workload. The 64 ROPs and 184 TMUs handle pixel and texture processing, with pixel rate at 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate at 455.4 GTexel/s. The 5 nm process node from TSMC, with 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, contributes to the efficiency that allows 200 W TDP operation while sustaining high clocks.

Benchmark data shows the GPU holds an 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37283. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests include the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (deltaPct -0.6) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (deltaPct -2.2), indicating the desktop RTX 4070 sits in a competitive performance tier. The measured 4K Ultra result of 68.8 FPS demonstrates that the GPU’s bandwidth is sufficient for playable frame rates at the highest settings, though the drop from 99.1 FPS at Medium shows how settings complexity impacts memory throughput.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 407 out of 1681 tested configurations, this pairing sits in the 75.8th percentile of all tested combos for Doom. This places it comfortably ahead of the median system, though not at the very top tier of performance. The ranking reflects the balance between the Ryzen 5 5500’s mid-range CPU capabilities and the RTX 4070’s high-end GPU performance.

The rank is consistent across the resolution spectrum, as the combo delivers 232.8 FPS at 1080p High and 83.1 FPS at 4K High. These figures suggest that the system can drive high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p and 1440p, while 4K gaming is viable at reduced settings or with adaptive sync. The 407th position indicates that roughly 406 combos achieve higher frame rates, likely featuring flagship CPUs and GPUs, but this pairing outperforms the majority of systems tested.

The data shows that the combo’s rank is more dependent on GPU performance than CPU, given the steep scaling from 1080p to 4K. The RTX 4070’s 81st GPU percentile versus the Ryzen 5 5500’s 79th CPU percentile suggests a slight GPU bias, which is favorable for Doom’s GPU-intensive rendering. This alignment means the system avoids severe bottlenecks, though the 1080p results hint at CPU limitations in high-frame-rate scenarios.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5500 provides six cores and twelve threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost up to 4.20 GHz. This Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Cezanne, is built on TSMC’s 7 nm process with 10,700 million transistors on a 180 mm² die. The 16 MB L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth provide adequate data throughput for game logic and asset streaming.

In Doom, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p, where the frame rates exceed 300 FPS at Low settings. At 316.2 FPS, the game engine’s draw call processing and physics calculations become the limiting factor, as the GPU has ample headroom. The 3dmark_single_thread score of 836 and passmark_single_thread score of 3058 indicate competent single-core performance, which is crucial for Doom’s primary thread. However, the multi-thread results — 5386 in 3dmark_16_threads and 16429 in Cinebench R23 multicore — show that the CPU can leverage all twelve threads when needed.

The CPU’s 79th percentile ranking among all processors places it near the Intel Core i5-12500 (deltaPct -0.1) and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE (deltaPct -0.1) in synthetic benchmarks. This positioning confirms that the Ryzen 5 5500 is a solid mid-range option that does not severely restrict the RTX 4070 in most scenarios. The 65 W TDP and PCIe Gen 3 interface are modest, but they do not impede Doom’s performance, as the game’s data transfer requirements are well within the platform’s capabilities.

The measured frame rates at 1080p demonstrate that the CPU can push over 300 FPS in less demanding scenes, but the gap between Low and Ultra settings (127.5 FPS) suggests that GPU load changes affect the CPU’s ability to maintain maximum throughput. At 4K, the CPU’s influence diminishes, as frame rates drop below 110 FPS even at Low settings, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions.