Doom

FAQ

Q: What is the overall ranking of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X + AMD Radeon RX 570 combo in Doom?

A: The combo ranks 1580 out of 1681 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 6% of all systems tested for this game. This indicates the pairing is significantly underpowered for demanding scenarios at higher settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X sits within 0.5% of the Intel Core i5-13490F (0.3% ahead), AMD Ryzen 5 230 (0.3% ahead), AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (0.4% behind), and Intel Core i5-14500T (0.5% behind). These differences are negligible in real-world gaming.

Q: What is the best playable preset at 1920x1080?

A: The Low preset delivers 94.8 FPS average, which is the highest of any setting at this resolution. Medium achieves 80.5 FPS, High 68.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 58.2 FPS.

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

A: The data shows the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The RX 570 has a 4 GB VRAM capacity and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the CPU is a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 5 part with a 5.40 GHz boost clock. The GPU's age (2017) relative to the CPU (2024) creates a clear imbalance.

Q: What happens to FPS when moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 68.6 at 1920x1080 to 42.9 at 2560x1440, a 37.5% performance loss. This steep decline confirms the GPU struggles as pixel count increases.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: No. Even at Low settings, 4K only reaches 33.8 FPS average. Ultra settings at 3840x2160 produce just 20.9 FPS, which is far below acceptable playability.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache. This CPU is clearly not the limiting factor in Doom, as its synthetic benchmark scores place it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs.

In multi-threaded workloads, the 9600X scores 25,525 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 10,720 in Cinebench R20, while its single-core Cinebench R23 score of 3,603 highlights strong per-thread performance. The PassMark multi-thread score of 30,027 and single-thread score of 4,570 further confirm this is a capable modern processor. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmark database — the Intel Core i5-13490F, AMD Ryzen 5 230, AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, and Intel Core i5-14500T — all score within 0.5% of the 9600X, indicating the CPU is not a differentiator.

Given that Doom is a 2016 title with modest CPU demands, the 9600X's 6 cores and 12 threads are more than sufficient to feed the RX 570. The measured frame rates show no signs of CPU-induced stutter or thread saturation, even at lower resolutions where CPU load is proportionally higher. The CPU's 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth and DDR5 support further ensure data delivery is not a bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy of presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 94.8 FPS, which is the only setting that approaches the 100 FPS mark. Medium achieves 80.5 FPS, High 68.6 FPS, and Ultra 58.2 FPS. For competitive play or high-refresh monitors, Low is the only viable choice, as it provides a 17.8% improvement over Medium and a 38.7% improvement over Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more constrained. Low produces 62.8 FPS, which is playable, while Medium drops to 52.3 FPS and High to 42.9 FPS. Ultra at 1440p falls to 38.8 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. For 1440p users, Low is the recommended preset if aiming for 60+ FPS; those willing to accept 50-55 FPS may use Medium.

At 3840x2160, no preset delivers acceptable performance. Low reaches 33.8 FPS, Medium 29.8 FPS, High 24.2 FPS, and Ultra 20.9 FPS. None of these are playable for a fast-paced FPS. The data suggests that 4K is entirely off the table for this combo.

The optimal balance between visual quality and performance is the Medium preset at 1080p, which delivers 80.5 FPS — a 18.7% improvement over High and a 38.3% improvement over Ultra, while still offering better visuals than Low.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X + AMD Radeon RX 570 combination ranks 1580 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the bottom 6% of all systems. This is a remarkably poor showing, especially considering the CPU's strength. The ranking is driven almost entirely by the GPU, which was released in 2017 and is now end-of-life.

The GPU's percentile of 74 places it above the median, but its average benchmark score of 30,158 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30,109), AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30,097), NVIDIA Tesla M60 (29,969), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (29,928). These rivals are within 0.8% of the RX 570's score, suggesting the 570 still holds its own in synthetic tests. However, in Doom specifically, the 4 GB VRAM and GCN 4.0 architecture limit real-world performance.

The combo's rank is worse than the GPU's 74th percentile would suggest, indicating that Doom's engine is particularly sensitive to the RX 570's weaknesses. The 4 GB memory capacity is likely a significant factor, as modern settings presets may exceed this at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is built on the Polaris 20 chip using the GCN 4.0 architecture and a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. It features 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. The GPU has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The RX 570's pixel rate is 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate is 159.2 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS. These figures are clearly from an older generation, and the GPU's 150 W TDP and PCIe 3.0 x16 interface reflect its 2017 origins. The GPU supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, which is sufficient for Doom.

In Doom, the GPU is the overwhelming bottleneck. The evidence is clear: at 1080p Low, the combo hits 94.8 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 58.2 FPS — a 38.6% reduction. At 4K, even Low settings only produce 33.8 FPS. The 4 GB VRAM is likely the primary constraint, as Doom's texture-heavy environments can exceed this capacity at higher resolutions. The 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, while respectable for its era, is insufficient for 4K workloads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: Low 94.8, Medium 80.5, High 68.6, and Ultra 58.2. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 36.6 FPS drop, which is a 38.6% reduction. This is a typical pattern for a GPU-limited scenario, where each successive preset tier costs a roughly 10-15 FPS penalty.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 62.8, Medium 52.3, High 42.9, and Ultra 38.8. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 24.0 FPS (a 38.2% reduction), but the absolute values are much lower. The step from Medium to High costs 9.4 FPS, while High to Ultra costs only 4.1 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at the top end.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 33.8, Medium 29.8, High 24.2, and Ultra 20.9. The Low-to-Ultra spread is just 12.9 FPS, indicating the GPU is so overwhelmed that preset changes have limited effect. The 4K results are uniformly unplayable, with even Low falling 26.2 FPS short of the 60 FPS target.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component. At Low settings, the progression is 94.8 → 62.8 → 33.8 FPS as resolution goes from 1080p to 1440p to 4K. This represents a 33.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 64.3% drop from 1080p to 4K.

At High settings, the progression is 68.6 → 42.9 → 24.2 FPS, with a 37.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 64.7% drop to 4K. The consistent ~64% reduction from 1080p to 4K across all settings is a strong indicator of a GPU bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting, the scaling would flatten at lower resolutions, but the data shows continuous degradation.

The pixel count at 4K is exactly four times that of 1080p, yet the FPS does not drop to one-quarter (which would be 23.7 FPS at Low). Instead, the 4K Low result of 33.8 FPS is better than one-quarter, suggesting some headroom remains. However, at Ultra, 4K produces 20.9 FPS, which is worse than one-quarter of the 1080p Ultra result (14.5 FPS would be one-quarter, but 20.9 is higher). This indicates the GPU is operating near its memory bandwidth limit at 4K, with the 224.0 GB/s bandwidth constraining performance more than raw compute. The 4 GB VRAM capacity likely causes texture swapping at 4K, further degrading performance.