Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a robust experience in Doom, with performance that scales predictably across resolutions and settings. The data reveals a system capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p and solid 60+ FPS at 4K, though the relationship between the CPU's Zen 4 architecture and the GPU's RDNA 2.0 design creates interesting bottlenecks at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Doom?

A: The 1920x1080 resolution yields the highest frame rates, with an average of 227.4 FPS at Low settings and 169.1 FPS at High settings. This makes 1080p the clear choice for maximum smoothness, while 2560x1440 offers a balance with 108.5 FPS at High settings.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High settings?

A: The Ultra preset demands a significant performance cost. At 1920x1080, Ultra drops to 139.2 FPS from High's 169.1 FPS, a decrease of roughly 30 FPS. At 3840x2160, Ultra falls to 50 FPS, which is below the 61 FPS achieved at High settings.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: At 1080p, the data suggests a CPU limitation, as the frame rate ceiling appears constrained. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, with average FPS dropping to 61 at High settings. The transition between these resolutions reveals a shift in the limiting component.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Medium settings?

A: The gap between Low and Medium is relatively small. At 2560x1440, Low averages 149.2 FPS while Medium achieves 132.9 FPS, a difference of about 16 FPS. This suggests Medium offers a good visual upgrade without a massive performance penalty.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This pairing ranks 945th out of 1681 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the middle of the pack. The percentile ranking indicates that while it is not a top-tier configuration, it provides competent performance for the game's demands.

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

A: Yes, but only at certain settings. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average FPS is 61, which is playable. However, Ultra settings drop to 50 FPS, suggesting that High is the practical ceiling for 4K with this hardware.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture using the Navi 22 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory operates across a 192-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. With a boost clock of 2581 MHz and a game clock of 2424 MHz, the GPU's raw throughput is substantial, evidenced by its 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 413.0 GTexel/s texture rate.

In Doom, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 3840x2160, the frame rates across settings—61 FPS at High, 68.9 FPS at Medium, and 79.2 FPS at Low—demonstrate how the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are taxed by higher pixel counts. The 64 ROPs and 160 TMUs handle the game's geometry and effects, but the data implies that at 4K, the RX 6700 XT is working near its limits, especially with Ultra settings where performance drops to 50 FPS.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its capability. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 19786 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 108032, placing it in the 77th percentile of all GPUs. When compared to its nearest rivals, the RX 6700 XT sits within 1.3% of the NVIDIA RTX A5000's average score, showing that it holds its own against higher-tier workstation cards. The 12 GB VRAM is ample for Doom's textures, and the 384.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures that memory throughput is rarely a constraint, even at 4K with High settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Phoenix, and manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. Its base clock of 4.20 GHz boosts up to 4.70 GHz, and it features 16 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's 65 W TDP is modest, but its single-thread performance is notable, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3684.

In Doom, the CPU's influence is most apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 1920x1080, the frame rates range from 139.2 FPS at Ultra to 227.4 FPS at Low, but the scaling between settings is not linear. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p is only 26.6 FPS (227.4 to 200.8), suggesting that the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at these frame rates. However, the fact that Ultra at 1080p (139.2 FPS) is lower than High at 1440p (108.5 FPS) indicates a complex interaction where the CPU's thread scheduling and cache hierarchy may limit the maximum achievable FPS.

The CPU's benchmark performance places it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25064. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, has a nearly identical average score of 25057, with a 0% deltaPct. This suggests that despite the architectural advantages of Zen 4, the 8400F's performance is on par with older, higher-core-count parts in synthetic tests. The 3DMark max-thread score of 6165 and Passmark multithread score of 24530 indicate that the CPU can handle multi-threaded workloads, but in Doom, the game's engine may not fully utilize all 12 threads, leaving single-thread performance as the more critical factor.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Ryzen 5 8400F and RX 6700 XT ranks 945th out of 1681 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the 56th percentile of all configurations, meaning roughly 44% of tested combos perform better. The rank reflects a mid-tier standing, which aligns with the hardware's individual percentiles—the CPU at 82nd percentile and GPU at 77th percentile—but the combo's ranking is lower than either component's individual standing.

The discrepancy between component percentiles and combo rank suggests that the pairing is not perfectly balanced for Doom's specific workload. The CPU's strong single-thread performance (Passmark single-thread score of 3684) should theoretically support high frame rates, but the GPU's mid-range positioning (Passmark G3D score of 19786) may cap performance at higher resolutions. The data implies that this combo is better suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the CPU can keep pace, rather than 4K, where the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

Compared to other combos in the database, this configuration offers consistent performance across all settings at 1080p and 1440p, but it does not excel in any single area. The 945th rank indicates that users seeking top-tier Doom performance would need to look at higher-end GPUs or CPUs, but for a balanced mid-range system, this combo delivers acceptable results.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on the optimal settings for this combo. For 1920x1080, the High preset at 169.1 FPS is the best choice, as it offers a significant visual upgrade over Medium (200.8 FPS) while maintaining a frame rate well above 144 Hz. The Ultra preset at 139.2 FPS is still smooth, but the 30 FPS drop from High may not justify the visual gains.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 108.5 FPS is the recommended setting, as it balances visual fidelity with performance. The Medium preset at 132.9 FPS is also viable for users prioritizing frame rate, but the difference between Medium and High is only 24.4 FPS, making High the better value for image quality.

For 3840x2160, the High preset at 61 FPS is the only playable option for a smooth experience. The Medium preset at 68.9 FPS is marginally faster, but the visual difference between Medium and High is more noticeable at 4K. The Ultra preset at 50 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold and should be avoided. Overall, the High preset across all resolutions provides the best balance of performance and visual quality for this hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 227.4 at Low to 139.2 at Ultra. The Medium preset achieves 200.8 FPS, while High delivers 169.1 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 38.8% reduction, indicating that the GPU handles the game's visual effects well at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 149.2 FPS at Low, 132.9 FPS at Medium, 108.5 FPS at High, and 90.2 FPS at Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 39.5%, a slightly larger percentage than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is becoming more stressed as resolution increases.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 79.2 FPS at Low, 68.9 FPS at Medium, 61 FPS at High, and 50 FPS at Ultra. The reduction from Low to Ultra is 36.9%, which is smaller than at lower resolutions, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are the primary constraints at 4K. The data shows that the frame rate drops are not linear, with the largest single-step decrease occurring between Low and Medium at each resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the shifting bottleneck between CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 227.4 at 1080p to 149.2 at 1440p (a 34.4% reduction) and then to 79.2 at 4K (a 46.9% reduction from 1440p). This suggests that at Low settings, the GPU is the dominant constraint, as the CPU can feed frames at these rates without issue.

At High settings, the averages are 169.1 FPS at 1080p, 108.5 FPS at 1440p (a 35.8% reduction), and 61 FPS at 4K (a 43.8% reduction from 1440p). The percentage reductions are similar to Low, indicating that the GPU remains the limiting factor even as settings increase. However, the absolute frame rates at 1080p High (169.1 FPS) are lower than at 1080p Low (227.4 FPS), showing that the GPU's workload increases with visual fidelity.

The Ultra settings show a different pattern. At 1080p, Ultra achieves 139.2 FPS, which is 38.8% lower than Low. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 90.2 FPS (a 35.2% reduction from 1080p), and at 4K, it falls to 50 FPS (a 44.6% reduction from 1440p). The 4K Ultra frame rate of 50 FPS is the only sub-60 result in the dataset, confirming that this combo cannot maintain smooth performance at the highest settings and resolution. The data implies that the RX 6700 XT's 12 GB VRAM and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 4K High, but the GPU's compute resources (13.21 TFLOPS) are stretched at Ultra, making the CPU's role less relevant as resolution scales upward.