Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Doom, positioning the system in the top quarter of all tested configurations. The pairing of a 6-core Zen 3 processor with a 16 GB RDNA 4 graphics card produces a smooth experience across all resolutions, though the performance scaling reveals distinct bottleneck characteristics that shift depending on the settings and resolution chosen.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data clearly indicates that the Ultra preset provides the most balanced experience for this hardware combination, albeit with a significant performance cost. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 189 FPS average, which is still far above the refresh rate of most monitors and represents a 38 FPS drop from the High preset’s 231 FPS. The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 yields 122 FPS, which remains comfortably playable on high-refresh displays, while at 3840x2160 the Ultra preset drops to 66 FPS, which is still within the range of smooth gameplay for many users.

For players prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, the Ultra preset is the clear choice, as the performance sacrifice is minimal at 1080p and 1440p relative to the massive frame rate headroom available. The data shows a consistent pattern where the High preset offers a substantial improvement over Ultra, with gains of 42 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p, and 15 FPS at 4K. This suggests that Ultra is not overly demanding for this GPU, and the visual enhancements likely justify the frame rate reduction.

The Medium preset presents an interesting middle ground, delivering 273 FPS at 1080p, 177 FPS at 1440p, and 96 FPS at 4K. The jump from Medium to High yields diminishing returns of 42 FPS at 1080p, 28 FPS at 1440p, and 15 FPS at 4K, while the jump from Low to Medium provides gains of 33 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K. This consistent delta suggests that Medium represents the sweet spot for competitive play, offering frame rates above 170 FPS at 1440p while maintaining reasonable visual quality.

The Low preset produces extraordinary frame rates, hitting 306 FPS at 1080p and 203 FPS at 1440p, but the visual compromise is substantial. Given that the High preset still achieves 231 FPS at 1080p and 149 FPS at 1440p, there is little reason to sacrifice visual fidelity for the additional frame rate headroom, unless targeting the absolute maximum refresh rate displays available.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D brings 6 cores and 12 threads to this pairing, with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz. The processor’s 96 MB of shared L3 cache is a notable asset for gaming workloads, and the benchmark data shows a Passmark multithread score of 20363 and a single-thread score of 2941. The processor achieves an 85th percentile ranking against all CPUs, indicating strong overall performance for a desktop part.

In the context of Doom, the CPU’s role becomes apparent when examining the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 306 FPS, which approaches the practical limits of what the CPU can feed to the GPU. The single-thread score of 2941 suggests that the processor is capable of sustaining very high frame rates, but the data indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings.

The processor’s nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, which scores 36945 in the average benchmark with a delta of 0.2 percent, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225, also at a 0.2 percent delta. The Intel Core i9-12900T scores 37112 with a -0.3 percent delta, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37093 with a -0.2 percent delta. These tiny deltas confirm that the 5500X3D is positioned in a highly competitive performance bracket, where the 96 MB L3 cache likely provides a gaming-specific advantage not captured by the aggregate benchmark scores.

The 105 W TDP and 7 nm process node indicate an efficient design, and the DDR4 memory support with dual-channel configuration provides 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth. While this memory bandwidth is modest by modern standards, the large L3 cache helps mitigate the impact on gaming performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The data shows that the Low preset at 1920x1080 produces the highest average frame rate of 306 FPS, followed by Medium at 273 FPS, High at 231 FPS, and Ultra at 189 FPS.

Q: How does the performance scale from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 231 FPS at 1080p to 149 FPS at 1440p, then to 81 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35.5 percent reduction when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 45.6 percent reduction when moving from 1440p to 4K.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, the Ultra preset at 3840x2160 achieves an average of 66 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold generally considered the minimum for smooth gameplay, though it is notably lower than the High preset’s 81 FPS.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset is the only setting with reported minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p, the range spans from 232 to 314 FPS with an average of 273. At 1440p, the range is 150 to 203 FPS with an average of 177. At 4K, the range is 81 to 110 FPS with an average of 96.

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

A: The combination ranks 714th out of 2930 tested combos, placing it in the top 24.4 percent of all configurations tested in Doom.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 203 FPS while the Ultra preset achieves 122 FPS, representing a 66.4 percent frame rate advantage for Low settings over Ultra settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 714 out of 2930 tested combinations places this system in the 75.6th percentile of all configurations, meaning it outperforms roughly three-quarters of tested setups in Doom. This ranking is impressive given the mid-range positioning of the CPU, which achieves an 85th percentile ranking against all CPUs, and the GPU, which only achieves a 55th percentile ranking against all GPUs.

The disparity between the CPU’s high percentile (85th) and the GPU’s more modest percentile (55th) suggests that the overall combo ranking is constrained by the graphics card’s relative performance compared to other GPUs in the database. The GPU’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon HD 7770M and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570, have average scores of 13536 and 13515 respectively, with deltas of 0.1 and 0.2 percent, indicating that the RX 9070 XT’s average benchmark score of 13543 is closely matched with much older and lower-tier cards in the aggregate benchmark.

However, the actual gaming performance tells a different story, as the measured FPS data demonstrates that this combination delivers extremely high frame rates in Doom. The discrepancy between the aggregate benchmark percentile and real-world gaming performance highlights the importance of game-specific testing, as the RX 9070 XT’s 16 GB of VRAM and high clock speeds likely provide advantages in modern titles that older GPUs cannot match.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling analysis reveals a consistent pattern where frame rates drop proportionally with increasing pixel count. At High settings, the average FPS decreases from 231 at 1080p to 149 at 1440p, a reduction of 82 FPS or 35.5 percent. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the frame rate drops from 149 to 81 FPS, a reduction of 68 FPS or 45.6 percent. The percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is significantly larger than from 1080p to 1440p, suggesting the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions.

At Low settings, the scaling is more dramatic: 306 FPS at 1080p, 203 FPS at 1440p, and 110 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 103 FPS or 33.7 percent, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 93 FPS or 45.8 percent. This larger absolute reduction at low settings indicates that the CPU is capable of pushing very high frame rates at 1080p, but the GPU’s rendering workload becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases.

The Ultra preset exhibits the smallest absolute frame rate differences: 189 FPS at 1080p, 122 FPS at 1440p, and 66 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 67 FPS or 35.4 percent, and from 1440p to 4K is 56 FPS or 45.9 percent. The consistent percentage drops across all settings suggest that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at resolutions above 1080p, as the scaling behavior remains consistent regardless of the CPU workload.

The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed the GPU even at low settings, but the GPU reaches its limit as resolution increases, particularly at 4K where even Low settings only produce 110 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings produce 306 FPS, Medium produces 273 FPS with a range of 232 to 314 FPS, High produces 231 FPS, and Ultra produces 189 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 117 FPS, representing a 61.9 percent performance gap between the most and least demanding presets.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are: Low at 203 FPS, Medium at 177 FPS with a range of 150 to 203 FPS, High at 149 FPS, and Ultra at 122 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 81 FPS, a 66.4 percent gap. The Medium preset’s minimum FPS of 150 indicates that even at the lowest measured frame time, the system remains well above the 60 FPS playability threshold.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are: Low at 110 FPS, Medium at 96 FPS with a range of 81 to 110 FPS, High at 81 FPS, and Ultra at 66 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 44 FPS, a 66.7 percent gap. At 4K, the Medium preset’s minimum FPS of 81 indicates that frame times remain consistent even under load, with no significant stuttering observed in the measured data.

The progression from 1080p to 4K shows that the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings remains relatively constant at around 62-67 percent across all resolutions, indicating that the relative cost of each preset is consistent regardless of resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1660 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2970 MHz, with memory running at 2518 MHz or 20.1 Gbps effective. The RDNA 4.0 architecture on a 4 nm process node includes 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs, with 64 ray tracing cores.

The GPU’s benchmark scores show a Passmark G3D score of 26795 and a Passmark GPU compute score of 15864, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 7260. The Vulkan score of 65879 in Geekbench suggests strong API-level performance, which is relevant for Doom’s Vulkan support. However, the GPU’s 55th percentile ranking against all GPUs is surprisingly low, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon HD 7770M and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 having nearly identical average scores.

The measured FPS data indicates that the GPU is capable of rendering Doom at very high frame rates, with the 4K High preset achieving 81 FPS and the 1080p Ultra preset achieving 189 FPS. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for Doom’s requirements, and the 644.6 GB/s memory bandwidth provides ample throughput for the game’s texture streaming needs. The GPU’s 304 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate a high-power component, with the suggested PSU rating of 700 W and 2x 8-pin power connectors.

The performance scaling with resolution suggests that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K, where even the Low preset only achieves 110 FPS. This is consistent with the GPU’s relatively modest percentile ranking, as the RX 9070 XT’s raw compute power, while sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, does not scale to maintain extreme frame rates at 4K. The 48.66 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 380.2 GPixel/s pixel rate indicate a capable mid-to-high-end GPU that is well-matched with the Ryzen 5 5500X3D for Doom’s demanding rendering workloads.