Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti pairing delivers a performance profile in Doom that is fundamentally defined by the GPU at higher resolutions, with the CPU showing its limits only at the most extreme frame rates. The measured data shows a clear pattern: at 1080p, the combination produces exceptional frame rates that exceed 300 FPS on Low settings, while at 4K, even the most demanding preset remains playable. This indicates a system where the graphics card is the primary bottleneck in most scenarios, though the processor’s capabilities become relevant at lower resolutions where frame rates are high enough to stress the CPU.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a substantial performance drop that is consistent with a GPU-limited workload. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 231.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 147.9 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 83.8 FPS, and then further down to 81.2 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 65% decrease in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, which is a steep curve that highlights how much the render resolution impacts the RTX 3080 Ti.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep, with the High preset dropping by 66.7 FPS, while the jump from 1080p to 1440p costs 83.8 FPS. This suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute capacity are being heavily taxed at 4K, as the 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth are pushed to their limits. The data shows that at 4K, the system is firmly GPU-bound, as the Ryzen 5 5600X’s six cores and twelve threads are unlikely to be the limiting factor when the frame rate is below 100 FPS.

At 1080p, the picture changes. The Low preset achieves 314.3 FPS, which is a frame rate where CPU limitations become apparent. The Ryzen 5 5600X’s boost clock of 4.60 GHz and its single-thread performance, as evidenced by a 3dmark single-thread score of 917, are likely the ceiling here. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 127.6 FPS, which is the largest absolute spread across all resolutions, indicating that the GPU is still doing significant work, but the CPU is starting to keep pace with the rendering demands.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, the High preset at 2560x1440 stands out as the optimal choice. It delivers 147.9 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors, while still offering the enhanced visual quality that comes with higher settings. The Medium preset at this resolution provides 177.9 FPS, a 30 FPS improvement, but the visual difference between Medium and High is often more noticeable than the performance gain justifies.

At 4K, the High preset is the recommended starting point, as it achieves 81.2 FPS, which is playable on a 60 Hz display. However, the Ultra preset at 4K drops to 67.2 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The Low preset at 4K yields 110.1 FPS, which is a significant jump from High but comes with a substantial reduction in visual quality. Given that the High preset at 4K maintains an average above 80 FPS, it is the best compromise for resolution-focused users.

For competitive play at 1080p, the Low preset’s 314.3 FPS is the clear choice, as it maximizes frame rate and minimizes input latency. The Medium preset at 270.6 FPS is also viable, but the difference between Low and Medium is 43.7 FPS, which could matter in fast-paced scenarios. The Ultra preset at 1080p still delivers 186.7 FPS, which is more than sufficient for most displays, but the lower presets offer a measurable performance advantage without a proportional visual loss.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080 Ti’s specifications directly explain its behavior in Doom. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, which allows it to sustain high frame rates across all settings. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory, paired with a 384-bit bus and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth, provides the necessary throughput for high-resolution textures and geometry. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 67.2 FPS, which suggests that the GPU’s raw compute power, rated at 34.10 TFLOPS FP32, is being fully utilized.

The GPU’s memory capacity is not a limiting factor in this game, as even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate remains above 60 FPS. The RTX 3080 Ti’s 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are not heavily leveraged by Doom, which is a title that primarily relies on traditional rasterization. However, the GPU’s high texture rate of 532.8 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 186.5 GPixel/s are critical for maintaining high frame rates at lower resolutions, where the fill rate can become a bottleneck.

The benchmark results show that the RTX 3080 Ti performs within 0.5% of the RTX 3090 in aggregate scores, with an average benchmark score of 41224 compared to 41441 for the 3090. This indicates that the 3080 Ti is nearly as capable as the higher-tier card in this context, and its performance in Doom is consistent with this positioning. The GPU’s 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs further reinforces its high-end status.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high across all presets. The Low preset records 314.3 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. The Medium preset follows at 270.6 FPS, a 43.7 FPS drop from Low. The High preset achieves 231.7 FPS, which is 38.9 FPS lower than Medium. The Ultra preset rounds out the 1080p results with 186.7 FPS, a 45 FPS drop from High. This shows a clear progression where each higher preset costs roughly 40-45 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. The Low preset delivers 200.7 FPS, which is still very high. The Medium preset reaches 177.9 FPS, a 22.8 FPS reduction. The High preset comes in at 147.9 FPS, a 30 FPS drop from Medium. The Ultra preset produces 122.1 FPS, which is 25.8 FPS below High. The relative gaps between presets are smaller at 1440p than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are the lowest in the dataset, but remain playable. The Low preset achieves 110.1 FPS, which is surprisingly high for 4K. The Medium preset drops to 96.3 FPS, a 13.8 FPS reduction. The High preset reaches 81.2 FPS, a 15.1 FPS drop. The Ultra preset falls to 67.2 FPS, which is 14 FPS lower than High. The consistent 14-15 FPS drops between presets at 4K suggest that the GPU is uniformly taxed across all settings, with no single setting causing a disproportionate penalty.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combination?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 314.3 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: Is the system capable of 4K gaming at high refresh rates?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers 81.2 FPS and the Low preset reaches 110.1 FPS, which are suitable for 60 Hz displays and entry-level high-refresh-rate monitors, but not for 144 Hz panels.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X has an average benchmark score of 20680, which is 0.3% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT and Intel Core i7-10700, and 0.5% lower than the Intel Core i5-12490F.

Q: What is the performance gap between the RTX 3080 Ti and the RTX 3090?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 41224, which is 0.5% lower than the RTX 3090’s score of 41441.

Q: Which resolution shows the largest difference between Low and Ultra presets?

A: At 1920x1080, the difference between Low and Ultra is 127.6 FPS (314.3 FPS vs 186.7 FPS), which is the largest absolute gap across all tested resolutions.

Q: Does the game utilize the GPU’s full memory bandwidth at 4K?

A: The data shows that the frame rate drops from 110.1 FPS at Low to 67.2 FPS at Ultra in 4K, indicating that the GPU’s memory subsystem is being heavily taxed, though the 12 GB capacity is sufficient for the game’s demands.