Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 delivers a performance profile in Doom that is heavily dictated by resolution and settings, with the data showing a clear transition from a CPU-bound state at 1080p to a GPU-bound state at 4K. The measured frame rates across the board indicate a highly capable combination for this title, though the scaling behavior reveals important nuances about where the bottleneck lies.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate deltas between 1080p and 4K are substantial, showcasing the expected inverse relationship between resolution and performance. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 217.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 139.2 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 78 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 64% drop from 1080p to 4K, a significant reduction that points to the GPU becoming the limiting component as pixel count increases.

The scaling pattern across different settings tells a more detailed story. At Low settings, the drop is even steeper: from 295.4 FPS at 1080p down to 101.5 FPS at 4K, a 66% reduction. This larger percentage drop at lower settings suggests that when the CPU is not heavily taxed by graphical effects, the GPU's raw throughput becomes the primary constraint. Conversely, at Ultra settings, the decline from 176.4 FPS at 1080p to 59.9 FPS at 4K is a 66% reduction as well, though the absolute numbers are lower across the board.

The intermediate resolutions reveal a more balanced picture. At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain respectably high, with 190.1 FPS at Low and 113.5 FPS at Ultra. This resolution appears to be the sweet spot where neither component is overwhelmingly dominant. The fact that the 1080p to 1440p drop (at High, from 217.5 to 139.2 FPS) is proportionally similar to the 1440p to 4K drop (from 139.2 to 78 FPS) indicates a relatively linear scaling curve, which is typical for a well-optimized engine like the one powering Doom.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 9070's specifications directly inform its behavior in this title. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, the card provides 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for the texture loads and geometry of Doom at any of the tested settings. The memory clock runs at 2518 MHz, translating to 20.1 Gbps effective, ensuring that memory bandwidth does not become a bottleneck even at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's clock profile shows a base of 1330 MHz, a game clock of 2070 MHz, and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. The large gap between base and boost clocks indicates that the card can aggressively scale its frequency under load, which is crucial for maintaining high frame rates in a fast-paced FPS. The 3584 shading units and 128 ROPs provide the computational and pixel throughput needed to sustain the frame rates observed, with a pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s.

At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate drops to 59.9 FPS, which is the only tested configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold. This suggests that the GPU's 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is being pushed to its limits when all graphical features are enabled at maximum resolution. The fact that 4K High yields 78 FPS while 4K Medium yields 92.9 FPS indicates that the Ultra preset includes effects that are disproportionately expensive on the GPU, likely related to advanced lighting or post-processing.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of all tested combinations, this pairing sits at rank 575 out of 1681 combos, placing it in the 34th percentile of all systems evaluated for Doom. This ranking reflects a solid mid-to-upper tier position, though not at the very top of the performance hierarchy.

The CPU itself ranks in the 82nd percentile against all processors, with an average benchmark score of 25064. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X with a nearly identical score of 25057 (0% delta), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 at 25099 (-0.1% delta), and the AMD EPYC 9474F at 25103 (-0.2% delta). The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F trails slightly at 24993, a 0.3% delta. This clustering of scores indicates that the 8400F's CPU performance is well within the expected range for its class, with no single dominant rival.

The GPU's benchmark standing is less flattering in aggregate terms. It ranks in the 79th percentile against all GPUs, with an average score of 34780. Its nearest rivals are unexpected: the NVIDIA A2 at 34866 (-0.2% delta), the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 at 34677 (0.3% delta), and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 at 34541 (0.7% delta). These comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks that may not directly translate to gaming performance, as the RX 9070's strength in Doom is clearly demonstrated by the measured frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptional across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 295.4 FPS, Medium reaches 258.9 FPS, High delivers 217.5 FPS, and even Ultra maintains a robust 176.4 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames far faster than the processor can feed it.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain highly playable. Low settings yield 190.1 FPS, Medium drops to 166.2 FPS, High settles at 139.2 FPS, and Ultra still manages 113.5 FPS. The deltas between settings at this resolution are more compressed than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is starting to assert its influence on performance.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's dominance becomes evident. Low settings produce 101.5 FPS, Medium 92.9 FPS, High 78 FPS, and Ultra falls to 59.9 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is 41.6 FPS, which is narrower than the 119 FPS spread at 1080p. This compression at 4K indicates that the GPU is saturated even at Low settings, and the additional graphical features in higher presets have diminishing absolute impacts on frame rate.

The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, which is notable for a game that is generally well-optimized. The 176.4 FPS at 1080p Ultra versus the 59.9 FPS at 4K Ultra represents a 66% reduction, highlighting the extreme load that 4K rendering places on the GPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Phoenix, fabricated on TSMC's 4 nm process. Its base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz provide solid single-thread performance, which is critical for gaming workloads. The 16 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core ensure that frequently accessed data remains close to the execution units.

In Doom, which is known to scale well with multi-threaded CPUs, the 8400F's 12 threads are more than adequate. The CPU's benchmark results reinforce this: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 20851, while single-core scores 2943. The 3DMark tests show scaling from 1874 at 2 threads to 6165 at max threads, indicating good multi-threading efficiency.

The CPU's performance in gaming is further contextualized by its 82nd percentile ranking among all processors. Its passmark multithread score of 24530 and single-thread score of 3684 demonstrate balanced capability. However, the data from the measured FPS reveals that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor. The jump from 1080p High at 217.5 FPS to 1440p High at 139.2 FPS is a 36% reduction, while the jump from 1440p High to 4K High is a 44% reduction. The relatively smaller drop at the lower resolution transition suggests the CPU cannot feed the GPU fast enough to maintain the higher frame rates that the GPU could theoretically produce.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensure that memory throughput is not a bottleneck. The 4 nm process and 25,000 million transistors on a 178 mm² die contribute to efficient operation, though these architectural details are less directly relevant to gaming performance than the core and clock characteristics.