Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and AMD Radeon RX 6600 pairing in Doom delivers a benchmark story that is heavily dictated by the GPU, though the CPU’s six cores and twelve threads ensure the system never becomes the primary bottleneck at the settings tested. The 5600X operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, built on the Zen 3 architecture (codenamed Vermeer) using a 7 nm process. This processor’s strong single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 917 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2622, is sufficient to feed the Radeon RX 6600 at high frame rates. In the context of Doom, a 2016 FPS title, the CPU’s 32 MB of L3 cache and 12 threads provide ample headroom. Benchmark results show that at 1080p Low settings, the system reaches 177.5 FPS average, a figure that is far more likely to be limited by the graphics card’s rendering throughput than by the CPU’s processing capabilities. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 20680 places it in the 78th percentile among all tested processors, and its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT (deltaPct -0.3) and Intel Core i7-10700 (deltaPct -0.3), show that the 5600X is competitive within its performance tier. The data suggests the CPU’s role here is to provide consistent frame pacing, not to push frame rates higher; the scaling from Low to Ultra settings reveals that the GPU is the workload’s primary driver.

The GPU’s role is far more prominent in this configuration. The AMD Radeon RX 6600, featuring the Navi 23 chip on RDNA 2.0 architecture, comes with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. Its boost clock of 2491 MHz and game clock of 2044 MHz are paired with 1792 shading units, and the card’s FP32 performance is rated at 8.928 TFLOPS. In Doom, the GPU’s workload scales directly with resolution and preset quality. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 177.5, but dropping to 4K Low reduces that to 64.3 FPS, a decline that underscores the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute limits at higher pixel counts. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 25235 puts it in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon 890M (deltaPct 0) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (deltaPct 0.5). The RX 6600’s performance in Doom is characterized by a steep drop-off as settings increase; for instance, at 1440p, moving from Low (115.2 FPS) to Ultra (69.1 FPS) represents a 40% reduction in frame rate. This pattern indicates that the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory interface become taxed at higher presets, especially at 4K, where the Ultra preset yields only 34.4 FPS. The GPU is clearly the limiting component in this combo, as the CPU’s performance remains relatively stable across different settings, while the GPU’s output varies dramatically.

Resolution scaling analysis reveals a consistent trend: frame rates drop sharply as resolution increases, with the most significant penalty occurring between 1440p and 4K. At High settings, the system achieves 129.9 FPS at 1080p, 86.8 FPS at 1440p, and 46 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 47% drop from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is similar for other presets. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 177.5 FPS at 1080p to 115.2 FPS at 1440p (a 35% reduction), and then to 64.3 FPS at 4K (a 44% reduction). The scaling behavior indicates that the limiting component is the GPU, as the CPU’s workload does not change significantly with resolution. The 1080p results, particularly at Low and Medium settings (177.5 FPS and 154.1 FPS respectively), show that the CPU is capable of driving the GPU to high output levels, but the GPU’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are unable to sustain those rates at higher resolutions. For example, at 4K Ultra, the system produces just 34.4 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, suggesting that the GPU is overwhelmed by the combination of high resolution and maximum quality settings. The data clearly shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where frame rates remain playable, rather than 4K, where performance degrades significantly.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of all tested combinations, this pairing of the Ryzen 5 5600X and Radeon RX 6600 ranks 1328 out of 1681 combos in Doom, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the benchmark database. This rank reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning, as the CPU is relatively capable, but the overall frame rates are held back by the graphics card. The combo’s performance is not exceptional, but it is far from the bottom of the list, indicating that it can handle the game at reasonable settings. The data shows that the RX 6600’s nearest GPU rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (deltaPct -0.2) and the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (deltaPct 0.2), produce similar average scores, which suggests that the RX 6600 is in a competitive segment. However, the combo’s rank at 1328 indicates that many other combinations of CPUs and GPUs deliver higher frame rates in Doom, likely due to more powerful graphics cards. The CPU’s rank is less of a factor; the 5600X sits near several rivals with nearly identical average scores, including the Intel Core i5-12490F (deltaPct -0.5) and Intel Xeon 6325P (deltaPct 0.7). This suggests that the CPU is not the weak link, and swapping it for a different processor would not yield significant gains. Instead, the data implies that to improve the combo’s rank, a stronger GPU would be necessary, as the current configuration is clearly GPU-bound in most scenarios. The rank of 1328 out of 1681 provides a clear picture: this is a mid-pack performer that excels at 1080p but struggles at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 129.9 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while the Ultra preset still manages 107.3 FPS. For players prioritizing visual fidelity at 1080p, the Ultra preset is viable, but the High preset offers a better balance, as it retains a high frame rate with only a modest reduction in quality. At 1440p, the High preset produces 86.8 FPS, which is playable, but the Medium preset at 99.7 FPS provides a smoother experience with only a slight visual compromise. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 69.1 FPS, which is still playable but approaches the lower bound of acceptable performance. At 4K, the situation is more challenging. The Low preset reaches 64.3 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target, but the Medium preset falls to 52.8 FPS, and the High preset to 46 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is not viable, with an average of only 34.4 FPS. Therefore, for 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only reasonable choice, and even then, performance is marginal. The data suggests that the best experience is achieved at 1080p with the High or Ultra preset, or at 1440p with the Medium preset, as these configurations provide frame rates that are high enough for responsive gameplay while maintaining acceptable visual quality. For users who prioritize frame rate above all else, the 1080p Low setting at 177.5 FPS offers the highest headroom, but it comes at the cost of visual fidelity. The measured rows indicate that the Medium preset at 1440p, with 99.7 FPS, is the sweet spot for a balanced experience, offering a frame rate that is nearly double the 4K High result while still providing a resolution that is significantly sharper than 1080p.