Doom

# Doom with AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D + AMD Radeon RX 9060

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 delivers a playable Doom experience across most settings and resolutions, though the data reveals a system that is firmly GPU-bound at higher resolutions and increasingly CPU-limited only at 1080p with low settings. The combo ranks 1686th out of 2930 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the field, which is consistent with a mid-range GPU paired with a capable but not top-tier CPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo achieves in Doom?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 211, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the peak performance ceiling for this combination in the measured data.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 45. This is the lowest average across all tested configurations, indicating that Ultra at 4K is the most demanding scenario for this hardware.

Q: Is the system more limited by the CPU or GPU in Doom?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. From 1080p to 4K, the average FPS at High settings drops from 155 to 54, a 65% reduction, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance rather than CPU limitation.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all processors?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D falls in the 85th percentile of all CPUs based on average benchmark scores. Its average benchmark score is 37018, placing it within 0.3% of rivals like the Intel Core i9-12900T.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and does it matter for Doom?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. Given the game's release in 2016 and the measured FPS at various settings, this VRAM allocation appears sufficient for the tested configurations, as no VRAM-related stutter is evident in the data.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 sits in the 59th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 16014, which is within 1% of the AMD Radeon RX 7700 and 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1686 out of 2930 combinations in Doom places it in the 42.5th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 57.5% of combinations deliver higher performance in this game. This ranking reflects a balanced but modest pairing: the CPU is a strong performer at the 85th percentile, while the GPU sits lower at the 59th percentile. The gap between these two percentile values indicates that the graphics card is the constraining element for overall gaming performance.

When examining the CPU's nearest rivals, the data shows a tight cluster. The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D's average benchmark score of 37018 is only 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36945) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (36938), while it trails the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093) by 0.2% and the Intel Core i9-12900T (37112) by 0.3%. This suggests the CPU is competitively positioned within its performance class, with no significant advantage or disadvantage relative to these alternatives.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals show a similar pattern of proximity. The RX 9060's average score of 16014 is 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129), 1% above the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15852), and 2.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679). These narrow deltas indicate that the GPU operates in a well-populated performance tier where small differences separate competing products.

The overall combo rank of 1686 suggests that while each component is individually competitive in its segment, the combination does not boost the system to the upper echelons of Doom performance. This is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows strong 1080p performance but increasingly constrained results as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, with the magnitude of the drop indicating where the bottleneck lies. At High settings, the average FPS moves from 155 at 1920x1080 to 101 at 2560x1440, then to 54 at 3840x2160. This represents a 35% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 47% reduction from 1440p to 4K.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep, with the average FPS falling by 47% despite only a 2.25x increase in pixel count. This disproportionate drop is a strong indicator of GPU-bound performance — the RX 9060's rendering capabilities are being saturated as pixel throughput demands increase. The 8 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, while sufficient at lower resolutions, become increasingly taxed at 4K.

At Low settings, the scaling pattern shifts. From 1080p (211 FPS) to 1440p (137 FPS), the drop is 35%, but from 1440p to 4K (74 FPS), the reduction is 46%. This similar proportional decline across settings suggests that resolution scaling in Doom is primarily a function of GPU fill-rate and memory bandwidth, not CPU processing power.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent at 1080p with Low settings, where the 211 FPS average approaches the upper limits of what the Ryzen 5 5500X3D can feed. The 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.00 GHz, provide sufficient processing power for most scenarios, but the data suggests that at this lowest-resolution, lowest-settings configuration, the CPU is nearing its saturation point. This is evidenced by the fact that increasing settings at 1080p (which increases GPU load) does not cause a proportional FPS drop — from Low to Ultra at 1080p, the average only falls from 211 to 127, a 40% reduction, whereas at 4K the same settings change produces a 39% reduction (74 to 45), indicating the GPU is consistently the dominant constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 211 FPS, Medium settings yield 184 FPS (with a minimum of 156 and maximum of 212), High settings achieve 155 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 127 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 84 FPS, representing a 40% performance penalty for maximum visual quality. Notably, the Medium settings row shows a minimum of 156 FPS, which is only 1 FPS below the High settings average, indicating that even the lowest framerate at Medium remains highly playable.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance envelope contracts. Low settings average 137 FPS, Medium settings average 119 FPS (minimum 101, maximum 137), High settings average 101 FPS, and Ultra settings average 82 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p at each settings tier is consistent: Low drops by 35%, Medium by 35%, High by 35%, and Ultra by 35%. This uniformity across settings reinforces the resolution-bound nature of the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the combo's performance becomes more marginal. Low settings average 74 FPS, Medium settings average 65 FPS (minimum 55, maximum 74), High settings average 54 FPS, and Ultra settings average 45 FPS. The Medium settings row at 4K shows a minimum of 55 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered ideal for smooth gameplay. Ultra settings at 4K, with a 45 FPS average, would likely produce noticeable judder during fast-paced action sequences.

The data also reveals interesting min/max relationships. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 156 FPS is 85% of the average, while at 1440p Medium, the minimum of 101 FPS is also 85% of the average. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 55 FPS is 85% of the average. This consistent 85% ratio suggests that frametime variance scales proportionally with resolution, which is typical of GPU-bound scenarios where rendering load fluctuations are the primary source of variability.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. The GPU contains 29,700 million transistors on a 199 mm² die, with 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The boost clock is rated at 2990 MHz, with a game clock of 2400 MHz and a base clock of 1700 MHz.

The memory subsystem comprises 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, running at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) for a total bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. This configuration delivers a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is rated at 21.43 TFLOPS, which is identical to the FP16 rating, indicating a 1:1 ratio.

In Doom, these specifications translate to the measured performance across resolutions. The 8 GB VRAM capacity appears adequate for the game's requirements, as no configuration in the measured data shows signs of memory-related performance collapse. The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, while modest by modern standards, is sufficient for a game from this era at the tested settings.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide additional context. The PassMark G3D score is 17631, with a DirectX 11 score of 182 and a DirectX 12 score of 44. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 3322, while Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores are 88183 and 39476 respectively. The low DirectX 12 score relative to other APIs may indicate that the GPU's RDNA 4.0 architecture performs better under Vulkan or older DirectX versions, though Doom's engine typically leverages OpenGL or Vulkan rather than DirectX 12.

The GPU's 59th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the mid-range tier. The nearest rival comparison shows it trading blows with the RTX 3060 Ti (0.7% lower score) and RX 7700 (1% higher score), which suggests that in Doom, the RX 9060 should deliver performance roughly comparable to these cards, subject to driver and architecture-specific optimizations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and desired framerate. At 1920x1080, all settings tiers deliver playable performance. Ultra settings at 127 FPS average exceed the 120 FPS threshold many competitive players prefer, while High settings at 155 FPS provide additional headroom. Even the most demanding configuration at 1080p remains well above 60 FPS, so players can prioritize visual quality without compromising playability.

At 2560x1440, High settings at 101 FPS offer the best balance of visual fidelity and smoothness. Ultra settings at 82 FPS remain playable, but the 19 FPS difference between High and Ultra may not justify the visual improvements for all players. Medium settings at 119 FPS provide a high-refresh-rate option, though the visual downgrade from High is noticeable. Low settings at 137 FPS are unnecessary at this resolution, as the GPU has sufficient headroom for better quality.

At 3840x2160, the recommendations tighten. Medium settings at 65 FPS average is the only tier that clears the 60 FPS threshold, though the minimum of 55 FPS means occasional dips below this mark. High settings at 54 FPS would be acceptable for slower-paced gameplay, but Doom's fast action makes this marginal. Ultra settings at 45 FPS should be avoided unless absolute visual quality is prioritized over smoothness. Low settings at 74 FPS provide the most consistent experience at 4K, but the visual compromise is substantial.

The data also shows that the step from Medium to High produces a consistent 11-15% FPS reduction across all resolutions, while the step from High to Ultra produces a 18-19% reduction. This suggests that the High to Ultra transition is the least efficient in terms of performance per visual quality gain, making High settings the sweet spot for most users who want a balance between appearance and framerate.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer. It operates on the AMD Socket AM4 platform with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz. The CPU has a 105 W TDP and is manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process with a die size of 74 mm².

The cache hierarchy is notable for the 96 MB shared L3 cache, which is substantial and likely contributes to the CPU's strong benchmark performance. The L1 cache is 64 KB per core, and the L2 cache is 512 KB per core. Memory support includes DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, along with ECC memory support.

The CPU's benchmark results show a PassMark multithread score of 20363, a single-thread score of 2941, and an average benchmark score of 37018. Its 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates solid performance, with the nearest rivals showing scores within 0.3% — the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F at 36945, AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 at 37093, Intel Core Ultra 5 225 at 36938, and Intel Core i9-12900T at 37112.

In Doom, the CPU's role becomes most apparent at lower resolutions where GPU load is reduced. At 1080p Low settings, the 211 FPS average suggests the CPU can sustain very high framerates, but the fact that this is the ceiling across all tested configurations indicates that the Ryzen 5 5500X3D is capable of feeding the GPU at these levels. The 4.00 GHz boost clock across 6 cores provides adequate single-thread performance for the game's engine, which is primarily single-threaded in its core loop.

The 96 MB L3 cache is particularly relevant for Doom, as the game's level geometry and texture data benefit from larger cache sizes, reducing memory latency and improving frametime consistency. This is reflected in the measured minimum FPS values, which remain within 85% of the average across all resolutions, indicating stable performance without significant CPU-side bottlenecks.

At higher resolutions, the CPU's influence diminishes as the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The consistent FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K across all settings tiers confirms that the Ryzen 5 5500X3D does not introduce a CPU bottleneck until the GPU is pushed to its absolute limits at 4K Ultra, where the 45 FPS average is clearly GPU-bound rather than CPU-limited.