Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Doom reveals a predictable but steep scaling curve as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the Ryzen 5 9600X and Radeon RX 6700 XT combination delivers 232.9 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same Low preset drops that figure to 151.6 FPS, a reduction of roughly 35%. The jump to 3840x2160 at Low settings further compresses performance to 81.7 FPS, representing a 46% decline from the 1440p result. This pattern indicates that at lower resolutions, the system has ample headroom, but 4K begins to strain the GPU significantly.

The scaling behavior across settings tiers tells a more nuanced story. At 1080p, the spread between Low (232.9 FPS) and Ultra (140.6 FPS) is 92.3 FPS, showing that quality presets have a substantial impact even at the lowest resolution tested. At 1440p, that same Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 63.9 FPS (151.6 down to 87.7 FPS). At 4K, the gap compresses further to 34.9 FPS (81.7 down to 46.8 FPS). This convergence suggests that as resolution climbs, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU's ability to feed frames becomes less relevant.

The 4K Ultra result of 46.8 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS figure in the entire dataset. This is a critical threshold for a fast-paced FPS like Doom, where fluid motion is essential. The data indicates that this combo can handle 4K at Medium settings (71.8 FPS) comfortably, but Ultra pushes the GPU past its comfort zone. The 4K High result of 58.3 FPS sits just below the 60 FPS mark, suggesting that players targeting 4K would need to make compromises between visual fidelity and frame rate.

What does this say about the limiting component? At 1080p and even 1440p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU's role becomes more prominent. The 232.9 FPS Low result at 1080p shows the system is not GPU-bound in that scenario. However, the 4K results demonstrate a clear GPU bottleneck, with the RX 6700 XT struggling to maintain high frame rates as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep across all settings, underscoring the memory bandwidth and fill rate demands of 4K rendering.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 9600X brings six cores and twelve threads to this pairing, built on the Zen 5 architecture with a 4 nm process. Its base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz provide substantial single-threaded horsepower, which matters for Doom's engine. The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce this: a 3DMark single-thread score of 1253 and a Geekbench single-core result of 3363. Multi-threaded performance is also strong, with Cinebench R23 multicore hitting 25525 and Geekbench multicore at 15182.

For a 2016-era FPS title like Doom, the CPU's single-thread performance is often the deciding factor for maximum frame rates. The 1080p Low result of 232.9 FPS indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU well beyond typical display refresh rates. The boost clock of 5.40 GHz is particularly relevant here; higher clocks translate directly into faster draw call processing and game logic updates. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache provides a healthy buffer for frequently accessed game data.

The 3DMark 16-thread score of 7585 and max-thread score of 7590 show that the CPU scales well with additional threads, though the difference between these scores is negligible. This suggests that Doom does not heavily utilize more than a handful of threads, making the six-core, twelve-thread configuration more than adequate. The PassMark multithread score of 30027 and single-thread score of 4570 place this CPU in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, indicating strong overall performance.

The L2 cache of 1 MB per core and L1 cache of 80 KB per core are generous, reducing latency for frequently executed code paths. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, which pairs well with the GPU's 384.0 GB/s memory bandwidth for smooth data flow. The 65W TDP suggests efficient operation, though this does not directly impact gaming performance. In the context of Doom, the Ryzen 5 9600X appears to be the non-limiting component in most scenarios, with the GPU taking over as the primary constraint at higher resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT ranks 929th out of 1681 tested combos for Doom. This places it in the middle-to-upper portion of the database, at roughly the 55th percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings tested for this game. The rank reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning more than the CPU's capability. The RX 6700 XT sits in the 77th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs. The combo rank being lower than both individual component percentiles suggests that Doom's performance is constrained by the GPU in this pairing.

The GPU's nearest rivals provide context for its performance tier. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 scores 33493 on average, just 0.7% higher than the RX 6700 XT's 33721 average benchmark score. Interestingly, the RX 6700 XT actually outperforms the RX 6800 in this specific average despite the latter being a higher-tier card in the same product family. The NVIDIA RTX A5000 scores 33294, which is 1.3% lower than the RX 6700 XT. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 and RX 480 both score slightly higher at 34050 and 34059 respectively, though these deltas of -1% are within typical run-to-run variance.

The CPU's nearest rivals show a similarly tight clustering. The Intel Core i5-13490F scores 28173 (0.3% lower than the 9600X's 28246 average), while the AMD Ryzen 5 230 scores 28164 (also 0.3% lower). The AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS scores 28369 (0.4% higher) and the Intel Core i5-14500T scores 28377 (0.5% higher). These sub-1% differences indicate that the 9600X is positioned in a highly competitive segment where no single processor holds a meaningful advantage in aggregate benchmark scores.

The rank of 929 out of 1681 means that roughly 752 tested combos perform worse and 929 perform better in Doom specifically. This is a solid mid-pack result, reflecting the RX 6700 XT's status as a capable 1440p card that can handle 1080p with ease but shows its limits at 4K Ultra. The data suggests that pairing this GPU with a stronger CPU would yield minimal gains in Doom, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers consistently high frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 232.9 FPS, Medium drops to 202 FPS, High comes in at 169.2 FPS, and Ultra manages 140.6 FPS. These figures represent a 65.7% uplift from Ultra to Low, showing that graphics settings have a meaningful impact even at 1080p. All results are well above the 60 FPS threshold, and even the Ultra preset exceeds 140 FPS, making this resolution entirely GPU-limited in the sense that the CPU can push far more frames than the GPU can render at higher quality settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's workload increasing. Low settings deliver 151.6 FPS, Medium produces 132.7 FPS, High achieves 108.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 87.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 63.9 FPS, a narrower margin than at 1080p. Every 1440p result stays above 87 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors. The data indicates that 1440p is the sweet spot for this combination, balancing visual quality with frame rates that exceed 100 FPS at Medium settings and above.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become apparent. Low settings produce 81.7 FPS, Medium yields 71.8 FPS, High drops to 58.3 FPS, and Ultra falls to 46.8 FPS. The Ultra result is the only sub-60 FPS measurement across the entire dataset, and it represents a 42.6% reduction from the Low setting at the same resolution. The High preset at 58.3 FPS just misses the 60 FPS target, suggesting that players with 4K displays would need to use Medium settings or lower to maintain fluid gameplay. The scaling from 1440p High (108.7 FPS) to 4K High (58.3 FPS) shows a 46.4% performance drop, highlighting the substantial pixel throughput demands of 4K rendering.

Across all resolutions, the Low-to-Ultra scaling factor remains consistent at roughly 1.65x at 1080p, 1.73x at 1440p, and 1.75x at 4K. This suggests that the graphics settings have a similar relative impact regardless of resolution, with the absolute frame rate differences shrinking as the GPU becomes more heavily loaded. The measured data confirms that this combo is capable of high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring settings compromises.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process, featuring 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. Its boost clock of 2581 MHz and game clock of 2424 MHz are relatively high for the RX 6000 series, contributing to the card's strong rasterization performance. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a limiting factor at 4K with high-quality textures.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 40 ray tracing cores, though Doom does not leverage ray tracing. The pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s are solid figures that translate directly to fill-rate-bound scenarios. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2435 and PassMark G3D score of 19786 place this GPU in the 77th percentile among all GPUs, indicating above-average performance for its generation.

The 230W TDP and dual-slot design with 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connectors suggest a card that requires adequate power delivery, though the suggested 550W PSU is modest for this class. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides ample bandwidth for the GPU's memory subsystem. The card's 267 mm length and 110 mm height make it compatible with most mid-tower cases.

In Doom specifically, the GPU's VRAM capacity of 12 GB is more than sufficient for the game's textures, even at 4K Ultra settings. The memory bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s, however, may contribute to the performance drop at 4K, where the render target sizes increase dramatically. The data shows that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where the 46.8 FPS result falls below playable thresholds for a fast-paced FPS. At 1080p and 1440p, the GPU delivers frame rates that far exceed typical display refresh rates, demonstrating that this card is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at those resolutions.