Doom

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on the Zen 4 (Raphael) architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, drawing a 65 W TDP. This desktop part sits in the 7000 series and supports DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth, alongside PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes from the CPU itself. The cache hierarchy consists of 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and a 32 MB shared L3 pool.

In Doom, the CPU's single-thread and multi-thread characteristics both matter, though the game's id Tech engine is known for scaling well across cores. The measured 3DMark scores show a single-thread result of 974 and a 2-thread score of 1902, which jumps to 3621 at 4 threads and 5372 at 8 threads, before reaching 6376 at 16 threads and 6379 at max threads. This near-linear scaling from 2 to 8 threads, followed by a plateau, indicates the CPU's 6 physical cores with simultaneous multithreading provide ample headroom for Doom's workload. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22799 and single-core score of 3218 further confirm strong per-core performance, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates in a fast-paced FPS where draw calls and physics updates often bottleneck at the CPU level.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the 7500F's average benchmark score of 24993 places it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-11850H (24974) and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (24897). It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X by 0.3% (25057) and the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F by 0.3% (25064). These margins are negligible, suggesting that at 1080p with low settings, where frame rates exceed 300 FPS, the CPU is not a limiting factor—the data shows the processor delivers consistent performance across the board. The 82nd percentile versus all CPUs reinforces that this is a solidly upper-mid-range part, and in a game like Doom, which is not excessively thread-hungry beyond 8 threads, the 6-core/12-thread configuration proves sufficient to feed even a high-end GPU.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS data across four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) at three resolutions provides a clear picture of the optimal settings for this combo. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 301.7 FPS, Medium reaches 265 FPS, High delivers 222.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to 183.7 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 118 FPS, but the more relevant comparison is between High and Ultra: the step from High to Ultra costs 38.8 FPS (222.5 to 183.7), which is a 17.4% reduction. Meanwhile, the step from Medium to High costs 42.5 FPS (265 to 222.5), a 16% reduction. This suggests diminishing returns are not yet severe at High, and the visual uplift from High to Ultra is typically modest in Doom's fast-paced combat where motion blur and particle effects dominate.

At 1440p, the pattern shifts: Low yields 196.7 FPS, Medium 170.8 FPS, High 143.9 FPS, and Ultra 116.4 FPS. Here, High to Ultra costs 27.5 FPS (143.9 to 116.4), a 19.1% drop, while Medium to High costs 26.9 FPS (170.8 to 143.9), a 15.7% drop. The High preset remains the sweet spot, maintaining frame rates well above 120 FPS, which is crucial for competitive play on high-refresh-rate monitors. At 4K, the story changes: Low hits 107.9 FPS, Medium 94.7 FPS, High 80.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 61.4 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra here is 19.2 FPS (80.6 to 61.4), a 23.8% reduction, making Ultra less attractive when frame pacing and responsiveness matter.

The data indicates that the High preset offers the best balance across all resolutions. At 1080p, it provides 222.5 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end displays; at 1440p, 143.9 FPS keeps gameplay fluid; at 4K, 80.6 FPS remains playable without sacrificing the visual fidelity that makes Doom's gore and lighting effects shine. Ultra, by contrast, only makes sense at 1080p where 183.7 FPS is still high, but the 4K Ultra result of 61.4 FPS borders on the edge of acceptable for a twitch shooter. Therefore, the recommended preset is High, as it delivers the most consistent experience per the measured rows, avoiding the steep performance penalties of Ultra while retaining the core visual features.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling behavior reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, but with notable CPU headroom at 1080p. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 222.5 to 143.9, a 35.3% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at High, it falls further to 80.6, a 44% reduction from the 1440p figure. The total drop from 1080p High to 4K High is 141.9 FPS, representing a 63.8% decrease. This steep decline is consistent with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced in absolute terms: 301.7 FPS at 1080p drops to 196.7 at 1440p (34.8% reduction) and then to 107.9 at 4K (45.1% reduction from 1440p). The fact that Low settings still produce a 63.8% total drop from 1080p to 4K indicates that even with minimal graphical load, the RTX 3080's rendering throughput is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The GPU's 10 GB of GDDR6X memory with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth and 320-bit bus width must push increasingly large framebuffers, and the 8704 shading units are taxed proportionally.

At 1080p, the CPU's role becomes more apparent. The delta between Low (301.7 FPS) and Ultra (183.7 FPS) at 1080p is 118 FPS, which is larger than the delta at 1440p (196.7 to 116.4, a 80.3 FPS gap) and at 4K (107.9 to 61.4, a 46.5 FPS gap). This widening gap at lower resolutions suggests that the CPU can still drive higher frame rates when the GPU is not saturated, but the GPU's capability caps the maximum FPS as resolution increases. The 3DMark single-thread score of 974 and the 2-thread score of 1902 indicate that the CPU can handle the game's main thread and secondary threads well, but at 4K, the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the hard ceiling. The data clearly shows a transition: at 1080p, the combo is partially CPU-limited at low settings (301.7 FPS approaches the CPU's practical limit), while at 4K, it is overwhelmingly GPU-limited, with all presets falling below 108 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a rank of 501 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the top 29.8% of all configurations, which is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a previous-generation high-end GPU. The percentile versus all GPUs for the RTX 3080 is 80, and the percentile versus all CPUs for the 7500F is 82, indicating both components sit comfortably above the median. However, the combo rank of 501 suggests that in Doom specifically, the pairing does not punch above its weight relative to other configurations.

The RTX 3080's average benchmark score of 35787 places it just 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860) and 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (36101). It is 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon 880M (35646) and 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile (35435). These rival comparisons show that the GPU is competitive with a range of modern and previous-generation parts, but none of these rivals are paired with the 7500F in the measured data, so the combo rank reflects the specific interaction of this CPU and GPU.

In the context of the 1681 combos, being ranked 501 means there are 1180 configurations that perform better. This is not unexpected, as the RTX 3080, while still capable, is an end-of-life product that has been superseded by newer architectures. The CPU's 82nd percentile ranking suggests it is not the bottleneck in this pairing; the GPU's 80th percentile aligns closely with the combo's overall position. The measured FPS data confirms that this combo excels at 1080p and 1440p, where it delivers frame rates well above 140 FPS on High settings, but at 4K, it falls to 80.6 FPS on High, which is where the rank likely suffers relative to combos with newer GPUs. The rank of 501 out of 1681 is a solid mid-tier result, indicating that this combo is well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming but not for 4K ultra settings.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip at Samsung's 8 nm process, containing 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. It operates with a base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1710 MHz, while the memory runs at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective speed. The 10 GB of GDDR6X memory is configured on a 320-bit bus, providing 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, 96 ROPs, 68 RT cores, and 272 tensor cores, with a peak FP32 throughput of 29.77 TFLOPS.

In Doom, the GPU's role is dominant at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. At 4K, the difference between Low (107.9 FPS) and Ultra (61.4 FPS) is 46.5 FPS, which is a 43.1% reduction. This indicates that the GPU's compute and memory subsystems are heavily taxed by the increased pixel count and texture detail. The 10 GB VRAM is sufficient for Doom's requirements, as even at 4K Ultra, the game does not exceed this capacity, and the measured FPS of 61.4 suggests no VRAM-related stuttering or frame drops. The 760.3 GB/s bandwidth is ample for the game's streaming needs, given that the frame rates remain consistent across presets.

The GPU's boost clock of 1710 MHz, combined with 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, drives the high frame rates seen at 1080p and 1440p. At 1080p High, the 222.5 FPS result shows the GPU is not the limiting factor, as the CPU can feed it sufficiently. However, at 4K, the GPU's pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s become the constraints, with the 80.6 FPS at High and 61.4 FPS at Ultra reflecting the raw throughput limits. The GPU's 80th percentile versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35787, places it close to rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (36101, 0.9% faster) and the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860, 0.2% faster). These margins are small, indicating that the RTX 3080 remains competitive with newer mid-range GPUs, but its end-of-life status means it cannot match the top-tier performance of the latest flagships. In Doom, the GPU's role is to provide the visual fidelity and high frame rates that the CPU enables, and the data shows it does so effectively up to 1440p, with 4K requiring a reduction to High settings for a smooth experience.