Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER pairing delivers a robust 1080p experience in Doom, with performance scaling predictably as resolution increases. This combination sits in the 56th percentile of tested configurations, indicating a solid mid-pack performer that excels at high refresh rates on Full HD but demands settings adjustments for smooth 4K gameplay. The data reveals a system where the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the CPU's substantial 96 MB of L3 cache helps maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 156 FPS at 1080p to 101 FPS at 1440p, then falls steeply to 55 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a further 45% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1440p, but the pixel throughput demands of 4K begin to overwhelm the GPU.

Examining the Low settings results reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 212 FPS, which drops to 137 FPS at 1440p and 74 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are similar across settings, suggesting that resolution scaling is consistent regardless of graphical fidelity. However, the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 85 FPS (212 vs 127 FPS). At 4K, that gap shrinks to 29 FPS (74 vs 45 FPS), indicating that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even reducing settings provides diminishing returns.

The 4K Medium result shows an average of 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS and maximum of 74 FPS, which aligns with the surrounding data points. This consistency suggests that the performance ceiling at 4K is dictated by the GPU's raw compute capability (9.062 TFLOPS FP32) rather than memory bandwidth or CPU limitations. The RTX 2070 SUPER's 64 ROPs and 160 TMUs are adequate for 1440p but become bottlenecks at 4K, particularly with Ultra settings pushing the average down to 45 FPS.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 at High settings provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, achieving 101 FPS average. At 1080p, the system exceeds 155 FPS across all settings, making it ideal for high refresh rate monitors, while 4K requires Medium settings to stay above 60 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 156 FPS at 1080p to 55 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 101 FPS or roughly 65%. This substantial loss indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 5500X3D bottleneck the RTX 2070 SUPER?

A: Based on the 1080p results, where the system reaches 212 FPS at Low settings, the CPU is not significantly bottlenecking the GPU. The 6-core, 12-thread processor with a 4.00 GHz boost clock can feed the GPU adequately at lower resolutions, though the 3.00 GHz base clock may limit sustained performance in CPU-heavy scenes.

Q: What settings should be used for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The data shows 65 FPS at 4K Medium with a minimum of 55 FPS, making it the only 4K setting that reliably stays near 60 FPS. Ultra settings at 4K drop to 45 FPS, which may be playable for some but falls below the smoothness threshold most PC gamers prefer.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 20282 is roughly 1% lower than the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, 1.2% lower than the RTX 3070 Mobile, 1.3% lower than the Intel Arc B570, and 1.5% lower than the Intel Arc A750. These differences are small enough to be within run-to-run variance.

Q: Is this combo better suited for competitive or single-player Doom play?

A: The 1080p results, with 184 FPS at Medium and 156 FPS at High, are well-suited for competitive play where high frame rates matter. The 4K results are more aligned with single-player experiences, where 55 FPS at High settings provides a visually rich but less competitive experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, particularly as resolution increases. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for all tested settings at 1080p and 1440p. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, providing the data throughput necessary for Doom's fast-paced texture streaming.

The GPU's architecture, based on the TU104 chip on a 12 nm process, includes 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s directly influence performance in Doom, which relies heavily on texture detail and lighting effects. At 1080p, these specifications allow the card to push 212 FPS at Low settings, indicating that the GPU has ample headroom when CPU-bound scenes occur.

The RTX 2070 SUPER's boost clock of 1770 MHz (base 1605 MHz) allows it to maintain high utilization during extended gaming sessions. The 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, while not directly utilized by Doom's traditional rendering path, contribute to the card's overall compute capability. The 9.062 TFLOPS FP32 performance is the key metric for rasterized workloads, and the data shows this is the primary bottleneck at 4K Ultra where the average drops to 45 FPS.

The GPU's 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the upper-mid range. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are within a 1.5% performance band, confirming that the RTX 2070 SUPER is a well-balanced card for its generation. The 215 W TDP and dual-slot design with 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin power connectors suggest that this card requires a capable power supply, with the suggested 550 W PSU being a reasonable recommendation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings achieve 212 FPS average, Medium reaches 184 FPS (with a minimum of 157 FPS and maximum of 212 FPS), High hits 156 FPS, and Ultra maintains 127 FPS. These numbers indicate that the Ryzen 5 5500X3D and RTX 2070 SUPER combination is ideally suited for 1080p gaming, with even the most demanding settings keeping frame rates well above 120 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows the expected decline. Low settings produce 137 FPS, Medium averages 119 FPS (minimum 101 FPS, maximum 137 FPS), High delivers 101 FPS, and Ultra drops to 82 FPS. The 1440p results demonstrate that this combo can handle high refresh rate gaming at this resolution, though Ultra settings may require a G-Sync or FreeSync display to smooth out frame pacing.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops become significant. Low settings yield 74 FPS, Medium averages 65 FPS (minimum 55 FPS, maximum 74 FPS), High falls to 55 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 45 FPS. The 4K results reveal that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB memory capacity and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for Medium settings, but the GPU's compute resources limit performance at higher quality presets.

The progression from 1080p to 4K at High settings illustrates the GPU bottleneck clearly: 156 FPS → 101 FPS → 55 FPS. The percentage drops are 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 46% from 1440p to 4K, which aligns with the pixel count increases (2.25x and 2.25x respectively). This linear scaling suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution, allowing the GPU to operate at its full potential.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1654th out of 2930 tested combinations, placing it in the 56th percentile of all systems tested in Doom. This mid-pack ranking reflects the balanced nature of the Ryzen 5 5500X3D and RTX 2070 SUPER pairing, which excels at 1080p but falls behind more modern combinations at higher resolutions.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 85th among all processors is notably higher than the GPU's 65th percentile, suggesting that the processor has more headroom than the graphics card in this pairing. This imbalance becomes apparent at 4K, where the GPU reaches its limits while the CPU likely has capacity to spare. The CPU's average benchmark score of 37018 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, with the Ryzen 5 5600F scoring 0.2% higher, the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scoring 0.2% lower, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 scoring 0.2% higher, and the Intel Core i9-12900T scoring 0.3% lower.

In terms of the GPU's synthetic performance, the RTX 2070 SUPER's average score of 20282 places it in the 65th percentile. Its nearest rivals all score within a narrow band: the Quadro M4000M is 1% higher, the RTX 3070 Mobile is 1.2% higher, the Arc B570 is 1.3% higher, and the Arc A750 is 1.5% higher. These small margins confirm that the RTX 2070 SUPER remains competitive with slightly newer or mobile variants, though its end-of-life production status means driver optimizations may slow.

The overall combo ranking suggests that while this system is not a top-tier performer, it delivers solid results for its component class. The 1080p performance, in particular, ranks well above the 56th percentile, as evidenced by the high frame rates at all settings. Gamers with 1080p or 1440p displays will find this combo more than adequate for Doom.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D's contribution to Doom's performance is most evident at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the primary constraint. The processor's 6 cores and 12 threads, based on the Zen 3 architecture with a Vermeer codename, provide sufficient computational power for Doom's game logic and physics. The 4.00 GHz boost clock ensures responsive frame pacing, while the 3.00 GHz base clock handles sustained workloads.

The defining feature of this CPU is its 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is substantially larger than typical processors. This large cache helps reduce memory latency and can improve performance in games that benefit from frequent data reuse. The dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth provides adequate data throughput for the CPU's needs, though higher-speed memory could further improve performance in CPU-bound scenarios.

The CPU's PassMark scores provide context for its gaming performance. The multithread score of 20363 and single-thread score of 2941 indicate a capable mid-range processor. The physics score of 2282 and integer math score of 60033 suggest strong computational throughput for game calculations. The floating-point math score of 34511 is particularly relevant for Doom's rendering calculations, though the GPU handles most of the heavy lifting.

The 7 nm process node from TSMC, with a die size of 74 mm², contributes to the CPU's efficiency relative to its 105 W TDP. The AMD Socket AM4 platform with PCIe Gen 4 support (20 lanes) provides adequate bandwidth for the RTX 2070 SUPER, though the GPU uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all processors confirms its strong mid-range positioning, with nearest rivals showing less than a 0.3% performance difference.

In Doom specifically, the CPU's role becomes more pronounced at 1080p where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. At these high frame rates, the CPU must process game logic and submit draw calls quickly enough to keep the GPU fed. The 5500X3D's boost clock of 4.00 GHz and substantial L3 cache help maintain consistent frame times, as evidenced by the minimum FPS values at Medium settings (157 FPS at 1080p, 101 FPS at 1440p, 55 FPS at 4K) which remain close to the averages.