Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination delivers a highly capable Doom experience, but the optimal settings depend heavily on your display resolution. The data indicates that this combo performs best at 1080p and 1440p, where it can leverage high refresh rates, while 4K requires a compromise in visual fidelity to maintain playable frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset is the clear choice. The measured average FPS of 120 provides a smooth experience that exceeds the 60 FPS standard and approaches high-refresh territory. While the Low preset yields 200 FPS and Medium yields 174 FPS, the jump to Ultra only costs 54 FPS compared to Low, which is a reasonable trade for the maximum visual quality. The data shows no bottleneck at this resolution, so there is little reason to sacrifice the game's full visual presentation.

At 2560x1440, the High preset emerges as the best balance. It produces an average of 95 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset drops to 78 FPS, which is still playable, but the 17 FPS penalty may not justify the additional graphical load. The Low preset at 129 FPS is unnecessarily fast for most displays, and the Medium preset at 113 FPS offers a middle ground, but High provides the best combination of visual fidelity and headroom above 60 FPS.

For 3840x2160, the recommendation shifts to Low or Medium. The High preset averages 51 FPS, which is below the ideal 60 FPS mark for many users. The Medium preset averages 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS, indicating occasional dips below the target. The Low preset is the only configuration that consistently breaks past the 60 FPS barrier, averaging 70 FPS. Given the data, Medium is the highest setting that maintains an average above 60 FPS, but users sensitive to frame drops may prefer Low for a more consistent experience. The Ultra preset at 42 FPS is not recommended for 4K gameplay.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is the primary driver of performance in Doom, as evidenced by the significant FPS scaling across resolutions and settings. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game at the tested resolutions, as the data does not indicate any memory-related stuttering or crashes.

The GPU's clock speeds are substantial, with a base clock of 2055 MHz, a game clock of 2410 MHz, and a boost clock of 2635 MHz. These clocks, combined with 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs, allow the card to achieve a pixel rate of 168.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 337.3 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 10.79 TFLOPS is the raw compute horsepower that Doom's id Tech 6 engine can utilize effectively.

The card's TDP is 176 W, and it requires a single 8-pin power connector, with a suggested PSU of 450 W. It is based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, which is relevant for modern rendering features. The GPU's benchmark percentile places it at 65, meaning it outperforms a majority of other GPUs in the database. Its nearest rivals in compute benchmarks are the NVIDIA Tesla K40m (0.6% lower score) and the AMD FirePro W7000 (0.7% lower score), which are professional-grade cards, not direct gaming competitors.

The data reveals that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K resolution, where the FPS drops significantly compared to 1080p. At lower resolutions, the CPU's large L3 cache of 96 MB likely helps maintain high frame rates, but the GPU's rendering capacity ultimately caps the performance.

How This Combo Ranks

In the overall database of tested combinations for Doom, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT ranks at 1886 out of 2930 combos. This puts it in the 64th percentile of all tested systems, indicating that it performs better than a majority of the configurations in the database but is not top-tier hardware.

The CPU, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, is a strong component on its own. It has an average benchmark score of 44573, which places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks include the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H (0.2% higher score), the Intel Core i9-13950HX (0.5% higher score), and the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 (0.6% higher score). The Intel Core i5-14600 is the closest competitor, with a score that is 0.7% lower. This indicates the 7500X3D is a very capable processor for gaming.

The GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT, has an average benchmark score of 19765, placing it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro D300 (0.7% higher score) and the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (0.8% higher score), while the NVIDIA Tesla K40m and AMD FirePro W7000 are 0.6% and 0.7% lower respectively. This shows the GPU is a mid-range performer in the broader ecosystem.

The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU means that the system's overall ranking is constrained by the graphics card. The CPU is unlikely to be a bottleneck in Doom, given its high single-thread performance of 3494 in Passmark, but the GPU's limits are reached when pushing higher resolutions and settings. This ranking suggests that the system is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the CPU can feed the GPU effectively, but it is not designed for maximum 4K performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptional across all settings. The Low preset delivers an average of 200 FPS, the Medium preset averages 174 FPS with a minimum of 148 FPS and a maximum of 200 FPS, and the High preset averages 147 FPS. The Ultra preset, while the most demanding, still maintains a high average of 120 FPS. The frame times at this resolution are consistently fast, showing no signs of CPU limitation.

Moving to 2560x1440, the FPS remains very high. The Low preset averages 129 FPS, the Medium preset averages 113 FPS with a minimum of 96 FPS and a maximum of 129 FPS, and the High preset averages 95 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to an average of 78 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a predictable decrease in performance, with the Ultra preset taking the largest hit, suggesting that the GPU's fill rate and shading power are being taxed more heavily.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly, reflecting the GPU's limitations. The Low preset averages 70 FPS, the Medium preset averages 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS, and the High preset averages 51 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to an average of 42 FPS. The data shows a clear trend: the gap between Low and Ultra widens at 4K, indicating that the GPU is the primary constraint at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the bottleneck in this system. At 1080p, the Ultra preset achieves 120 FPS. At 1440p, this drops to 78 FPS, a 35% reduction. At 4K, the Ultra preset drops to 42 FPS, a further 46% reduction from 1440p. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the number of pixels increases dramatically, requiring more shading and texture operations.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D has a large 96 MB L3 cache and high single-thread performance, which is ideal for games like Doom that rely on strong single-core performance. The FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, with the Low preset dropping from 200 to 129 FPS (35.5% reduction) and the High preset dropping from 147 to 95 FPS (35.4% reduction). This uniform scaling indicates that the GPU's workload is scaling linearly with resolution, which is not a sign of a CPU bottleneck.

At 4K, the GPU is clearly overwhelmed. The Ultra preset's 42 FPS average is not playable for a fast-paced FPS. The Low preset's 70 FPS is the only playable option, but it sacrifices most of the visual enhancements. The GPU's 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient, but the raw compute power of 10.79 TFLOPS is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K with higher settings. The system is best suited for 1080p and 1440p, where the GPU can provide high refresh rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use for a 1440p monitor?

A: The High preset is recommended for 2560x1440. It averages 95 FPS, which is well above 60 FPS, and provides a better visual experience than the Low or Medium presets while remaining significantly faster than the Ultra preset, which averages 78 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Doom?

A: Yes, but with compromises. The only presets that achieve an average FPS above 60 are Low (70 FPS) and Medium (61 FPS). The High preset averages 51 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 42 FPS, which are not ideal for a fast-paced FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor even at 1080p. The CPU's high single-thread score of 3494 and large cache suggest it can handle the workload, but the GPU's performance ceiling is reached as the settings are increased. The FPS scales down consistently from Low to Ultra, which is a GPU-bound pattern.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all other tested combos?

A: This specific combination ranks 1886 out of 2930 tested combos for Doom. This places it in the 64th percentile, indicating it offers better performance than most systems in the database, but it is not in the top tier.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Medium and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset averages 174 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 120 FPS. This is a 54 FPS difference, which is a substantial margin. The Ultra preset offers higher visual quality, but the Medium preset provides a much higher frame rate for competitive play.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values recorded for the Medium preset at different resolutions?

A: The Medium preset has recorded minimum FPS values of 148 FPS at 1920x1080, 96 FPS at 2560x1440, and 52 FPS at 3840x2160. These minimums show that frame drops are more pronounced at higher resolutions, especially at 4K where the minimum is close to the 60 FPS threshold.