Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 produces a highly capable 1080p gaming configuration in Doom, with performance scaling that reveals the GPU as the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. Benchmark data across twelve measured configurations shows a clear hierarchy of settings and resolutions, with the combo ranking in the 79th percentile of all tested combinations.

Settings Recommendations

The Ultra preset provides the most visually demanding experience, but the measured results show it is the least efficient choice across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, Ultra delivers 107.7 FPS average, which is 21.1 FPS below High settings at 128.8 FPS. This 16.4% performance penalty is substantial, and the visual uplift from High to Ultra in Doom is typically less impactful than the frame rate loss suggests. For players prioritizing smooth motion, High settings at 1080p offer the best balance, delivering 128.8 FPS while maintaining the core visual features that make the game’s fast-paced combat readable.

The Medium preset presents an interesting alternative, achieving 154.6 FPS at 1080p, a 20.0% improvement over High. This configuration is optimal for high-refresh-rate displays, as it clears the 144 Hz threshold with margin to spare. The Low preset reaches 175.2 FPS at 1080p, but the reduction in texture quality and effects can make distant enemies harder to spot in the game’s dark corridors. Given that the jump from Medium to High costs 25.8 FPS, High is recommended for most users, while Medium suits competitive play.

At 2560x1440, High settings still produce an average of 85.4 FPS, which is playable but below the 100 FPS mark that many FPS players consider ideal. Medium at 1440p reaches 100.8 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 1440p displays. Ultra at 1440p drops to 68.5 FPS, which introduces noticeable input latency in a game requiring rapid target acquisition. The Low preset at 1440p yields 115.9 FPS, confirming that the GPU is the bottleneck here, as reducing settings recovers substantial performance.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves a consistently smooth experience. High settings produce 43.7 FPS, Medium 56.3 FPS, and Low 64.8 FPS. Even the lowest settings struggle to maintain 60 FPS average, and the minimum frame rates (not recorded in this data) would likely dip below acceptable thresholds during intense combat sequences. Players with 4K displays should consider this config unsuitable for Doom without resolution scaling.

FAQ

Q: Does the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F bottleneck the Radeon RX 6600 in Doom?

A: No. The frame rate scaling between resolutions indicates the GPU is the limiting component. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 175.2 FPS, while at 4K Low it drops to 64.8 FPS, a 63.0% reduction. This steep decline with resolution increase is characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios, not CPU limitations.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth using on this hardware?

A: No. Ultra settings incur a significant performance penalty with minimal benefit. At 1080p, Ultra averages 107.7 FPS versus 128.8 FPS on High, a 21.1 FPS difference. At 1440p, the gap widens to 16.9 FPS (85.4 vs 68.5). The visual differences between High and Ultra are typically subtle in Doom’s fast action.

Q: Can this combo handle 144 Hz gaming?

A: At 1080p Medium settings, yes, with 154.6 FPS average. The Low preset reaches 175.2 FPS. However, at 1440p, no preset achieves 144 FPS; the highest is Low at 115.9 FPS. High refresh rate gaming requires 1080p with Medium or Low settings.

Q: How does this combo compare to its closest rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 25235 places it 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6700M and 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, while sitting 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP. The CPU’s average score of 25064 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (0% delta).

Q: What is the best resolution for this configuration?

A: 1920x1080 is clearly optimal. Every preset at 1080p exceeds 100 FPS except Ultra, which still manages 107.7 FPS. At 1440p, only Low and Medium exceed 100 FPS, and at 4K, no preset reaches 65 FPS average.

Q: Is the RX 6600’s 8 GB VRAM sufficient for Doom at 4K Ultra?

A: The data shows performance at 4K Ultra averages 36.4 FPS, which is poor regardless of VRAM capacity. While VRAM usage is not measured in this data, the frame rate is below playable thresholds, indicating that neither VRAM nor compute power is adequate for 4K Ultra in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The performance degradation from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook GPU-bound scaling pattern. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 128.8 FPS at 1080p to 85.4 FPS at 1440p (a 33.7% drop) and then to 43.7 FPS at 4K (a 66.1% drop from 1080p). This non-linear decline is consistent with the pixel count scaling: 1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has 4 times the pixels. The measured drops of 33.7% and 66.1% are slightly less than the theoretical pixel scaling would predict, suggesting some efficiency gains at higher resolutions.

The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 175.2 FPS at 1080p, 115.9 FPS at 1440p (33.8% drop), and 64.8 FPS at 4K (63.0% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across different settings confirms that the Radeon RX 6600’s compute throughput is the dominant constraint. The CPU’s role becomes evident only at 1080p Low, where 175.2 FPS is achieved; this is below the CPU’s theoretical maximum, indicating the GPU still limits even at this low workload.

The scaling behavior implies that reducing resolution is the most effective way to boost frame rates. Moving from 4K High to 1440p High nearly doubles the average FPS from 43.7 to 85.4. Similarly, dropping from 1440p High to 1080p High adds 43.4 FPS. For users with 1440p monitors, the choice between High and Medium settings (85.4 vs 100.8 FPS) is a 15.4 FPS trade-off that favors Medium for smoother gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings spectrum is playable. Low settings deliver the highest average at 175.2 FPS. Medium follows at 154.6 FPS, representing a 20.6 FPS reduction from Low. High produces 128.8 FPS, a 25.8 FPS drop from Medium. Ultra is the slowest at 107.7 FPS, falling 21.1 FPS behind High. The gap between Low and Ultra is 67.5 FPS, demonstrating that settings have a massive impact at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates compress. Low leads with 115.9 FPS, followed by Medium at 100.8 FPS. High achieves 85.4 FPS, and Ultra trails at 68.5 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 47.4 FPS, smaller than at 1080p but still substantial. Notably, Medium at 1440p (100.8 FPS) performs similarly to High at 1080p (128.8 FPS) in terms of the 100 FPS threshold, but the resolution upgrade costs 28.0 FPS.

At 3840x2160, all presets fall below 65 FPS. Low averages 64.8 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration exceeding 60 FPS. Medium drops to 56.3 FPS, High to 43.7 FPS, and Ultra to 36.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 28.4 FPS. These numbers indicate that 4K gaming is only viable at Low settings, and even then, the average sits barely above 60 FPS with likely dips below during intense scenes.

Comparing across resolutions, the 1080p Medium average of 154.6 FPS is 37.0% higher than the 1440p Medium average of 100.8 FPS. The 1440p High average of 85.4 FPS is nearly double the 4K High average of 43.7 FPS. This data consistently shows that resolution is the primary factor in achieving high frame rates with this hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F + AMD Radeon RX 6600 combination ranks 1326th out of 1681 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the 78.9th percentile. This rank reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning; the RX 6600’s average benchmark score of 25235 puts it at the 69th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU’s 25064 average score places it at the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. The combo’s in-game rank is lower than the CPU’s percentile but higher than the GPU’s, suggesting that Doom is more sensitive to GPU performance than CPU performance, which aligns with the resolution scaling analysis.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks show a tight cluster. The RX 6600 scores 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6700M and 0.5% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, while trailing the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP by 0.2%. These minuscule differences in synthetic scores do not directly translate to identical in-game performance, but they indicate that the RX 6600 sits in a densely competitive segment where small architectural advantages matter.

The CPU’s nearest rivals reinforce its strong position. The Ryzen 5 8400F’s score of 25064 is statistically tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (25057, 0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (25099, -0.1% delta). It edges out the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (24993, 0.3% delta). This grouping suggests that the 8400F provides compute performance equivalent to older flagship CPUs, ensuring it does not bottleneck the RX 6600 in Doom.

The combination’s 1326th rank out of 1681 means that 355 tested combos deliver higher average frame rates in Doom. Given the measured 128.8 FPS at 1080p High, the combos ranked above likely feature higher-tier GPUs or CPUs that push frame rates beyond this level. The rank is not a verdict on playability; it simply indicates that this hardware sits in the upper-middle tier of the tested database, offering smooth 1080p and acceptable 1440p performance while struggling at 4K.