Doom

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers a formidable performance tier in Doom, ranking 409th out of 1,681 tested combos. This places the pairing in the top quarter of all configurations, underscoring its capability to drive the 2016 FPS title at high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings. The data shows a system that is well-balanced for this game, with the CPU’s strong single-thread performance complementing the GPU’s rasterization power, resulting in a smooth and responsive experience that easily surpasses the 60 FPS threshold even at the most demanding settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 409 out of 1,681 tested pairings puts it in the 75th percentile of all configurations tested. This is a strong showing, indicating that the Ryzen 5 9600X and RTX 4070 together are well-suited for Doom’s engine, which is known for its scalability. The ranking suggests that this pairing outperforms the majority of other CPU-GPU combos in the database, leaving only a smaller segment of high-end or specialized builds ahead of it.

The individual components also hold their own against their direct competitors. The Ryzen 5 9600X achieves an average benchmark score of 28,246, placing it at the 85th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals, the Intel Core i5-13490F and AMD Ryzen 5 230, are nearly identical in performance, with the 9600X being a mere 0.3% ahead of both. The AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and Intel Core i5-14500T are also extremely close, trailing by just 0.4% and 0.5%, respectively. This indicates that the 9600X sits at a performance parity point with several other mid-range processors, making its contribution to the combo’s rank dependent on other factors like clock speed and memory bandwidth.

For the GPU, the RTX 4070’s average benchmark score of 37,283 puts it at the 81st percentile among all GPUs. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, is 0.6% behind, while the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A and RTX 4080 Mobile are 1.9% and 2.2% ahead, respectively. The AMD Radeon RX 5300M trails by 2.5%. This data shows the RTX 4070 is a high-performing card, though its position relative to these rivals is less dominant than the CPU’s, suggesting the GPU is the more likely bottleneck in this pairing, especially at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system?

A: The data shows that at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 312.1 FPS. For a balance of visual quality and performance, the 2560x1440 High setting at 148.9 FPS is also a strong option, while 3840x2160 High still delivers a playable 82.9 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X has an average benchmark score of 28,246. This is 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i5-13490F and AMD Ryzen 5 230, and 0.4% and 0.5% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and Intel Core i5-14500T, respectively.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting component at 4K resolution?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU becomes the primary limiter at 3840x2160. The average FPS drops from 312.1 at 1080p Low to 111 at 4K Low, a significant reduction that points to the RTX 4070’s rendering capacity as the constraining factor.

Q: What is the performance difference between the lowest and highest settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the system produces 206.2 FPS on Low settings and 124.4 FPS on Ultra settings. This represents a 39.7% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: Does this combo maintain high frame rates even at the most demanding preset?

A: Yes. At 1920x1080 Ultra, the average FPS is 191.5, and at 2560x1440 Ultra, it is 124.4. Even at 3840x2160 Ultra, the system maintains an average of 67.1 FPS, which is above the standard 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the single-thread performance of the CPU?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X scores 1,253 in the 3dmark_single_thread test and 4,570 in the passmark_single_thread test. These scores are indicative of strong per-core performance, which is beneficial for games like Doom.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It operates with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, providing substantial single-thread headroom that is crucial for Doom’s game logic and physics. The CPU’s 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core help reduce latency, ensuring that the game’s data-heavy workloads are processed efficiently.

Benchmark data shows the CPU excels in both lightly-threaded and multi-threaded scenarios. Its 3dmark_single_thread score of 1,253 and cinebench_r23_singlecore score of 3,603 demonstrate excellent per-core performance. In multi-threaded tests like cinebench_r23_multicore (25,525) and passmark_multithread (30,027), the 6-core design proves capable of handling more complex tasks, though for a game like Doom, the single-thread strength is more directly relevant.

The 9600X’s performance relative to its rivals is remarkably tight. Its average benchmark score of 28,246 is within 0.5% of the Intel Core i5-13490F, AMD Ryzen 5 230, AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, and Intel Core i5-14500T. This suggests that in CPU-bound scenarios, the choice between these processors would yield nearly identical results. However, the 9600X’s higher boost clock of 5.40 GHz compared to its peers likely contributes to its slight edge in single-threaded tasks, which can be a differentiator in maintaining high minimum frame rates in Doom.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a configuration that scales predictably with both resolution and graphical settings. At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its peak performance, achieving an average of 312.1 FPS on Low settings. This drops to 272.2 FPS on Medium, 230.2 FPS on High, and 191.5 FPS on Ultra. The progression shows a 38.6% decrease in performance from Low to Ultra at 1080p, indicating that while the RTX 4070 is capable of extremely high frame rates, the Ultra preset still imposes a significant load.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a clear step down. The average FPS ranges from 206.2 on Low to 176.7 on Medium, 148.9 on High, and 124.4 on Ultra. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 39.7%, which is similar to the 1080p scaling. This consistency suggests that the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth are being utilized in a balanced manner, with the CPU still able to feed frames adequately at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the performance impact becomes more pronounced. The average FPS drops to 111 on Low, 98.9 on Medium, 82.9 on High, and 67.1 on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 39.6%, which is consistent with the lower resolutions. However, the absolute numbers are notably lower, highlighting the increased pixel count as the primary challenge for the RTX 4070. Even at the highest settings, the system maintains an average above 60 FPS, making 4K Ultra a viable option for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and expected trend: as resolution increases, average FPS decreases. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the performance drop at High settings is from 230.2 FPS to 148.9 FPS, a reduction of 35.3%. Moving from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, the High setting average drops from 148.9 FPS to 82.9 FPS, a further reduction of 44.3%. This steeper decline at higher resolutions indicates that the rendering load is scaling super-linearly with pixel count, putting more pressure on the GPU.

This scaling pattern reveals that the RTX 4070 is the limiting component as resolution increases. At 1080p, the frame rates are so high (above 230 FPS on High) that the CPU’s single-thread performance could become a factor in keeping up. However, at 1440p and especially 4K, the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth become the dominant constraints. The RTX 4070’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for Doom, but the sheer number of pixels at 3840x2160 (over 8 million) requires more processing time per frame.

The settings scaling also points to the GPU as the primary limiter. The percentage drop from Low to Ultra is remarkably consistent across all resolutions (38.6% at 1080p, 39.7% at 1440p, and 39.6% at 4K). This uniformity suggests that the graphical settings are primarily affecting GPU workload, while the CPU’s role remains relatively constant. The fact that the system can still achieve 67.1 FPS at 4K Ultra demonstrates that the Ryzen 5 9600X has ample headroom to support the RTX 4070 even in the most demanding scenarios, with neither component causing a disproportionate bottleneck.