Doom

# Doom: AMD Ryzen 7 5700 + AMD Radeon RX 6600 — Benchmark Analysis

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 produces a fascinating split personality in Doom. At 1080p, this combo delivers buttery-smooth framerates that exceed 170 FPS on Low settings, yet at 4K Ultra the same hardware drops to just 38.6 FPS — a dramatic collapse that reveals exactly where the bottleneck lives. The data shows a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-bound as resolution drops, making it a versatile but resolution-sensitive pairing for one of the most optimized shooters of its era.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS rows reveal a steep and predictable performance curve as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo averages 128.1 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 drops that to 82.8 FPS — a 35.4% reduction. At 3840x2160, the average falls to 47.4 FPS, which represents another 42.8% drop from 1440p. This scaling pattern is remarkably consistent, suggesting that the rendering load scales almost linearly with pixel count, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario.

However, the Low settings row tells a different story. At 1080p Low, the system hits 178.5 FPS, but at 1440p Low it only drops to 114 FPS — a 36.1% decrease. At 4K Low, it manages 61.1 FPS, which is a 46.4% drop from 1440p. The steeper percentage decline at 4K Low compared to 4K High hints that the CPU begins to matter more when the GPU has less work to do per frame. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 74.2 FPS (178.5 vs 104.3), while at 4K that same gap shrinks to 22.5 FPS (61.1 vs 38.6). This compression at higher resolutions confirms that the RX 6600 becomes the limiting factor long before the Ryzen 7 5700 breaks a sweat.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 23 chip, and its memory configuration is central to understanding these results. The card carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Doom, a game that is not particularly VRAM-hungry at 1080p, this is ample. But at 4K Ultra, the combination of higher texture detail and increased pixel throughput pushes the GPU to its limits, and the 38.6 FPS result reflects that strain.

Clock speeds tell a nuanced story. The base clock is 1626 MHz, the game clock is 2044 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2491 MHz. The large gap between base and boost — over 800 MHz — indicates that the GPU has significant thermal and power headroom to ramp up when needed. The measured FPS at 1080p High (128.1) suggests the card is running near its boost ceiling, as Doom is well-optimized enough to keep the GPU fed. At 4K, however, the card likely cannot sustain those high clocks due to the heavier load, which explains why the Ultra preset at 4K produces less than one-third of the 1080p Low performance.

The GPU's raw compute capabilities — 8.928 TFLOPS FP32, 1792 shading units, and 64 ROPs — are modest by modern standards but well-matched to a game from 2016. The pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s are the specs that matter for Doom's id Tech engine, which relies heavily on fill-rate and texture bandwidth. The 112 TMUs handle the game's detailed environments well at 1440p, where the High preset still achieves 82.8 FPS, but the 4K Ultra result shows the ROPs being overwhelmed.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is an 8-core, 16-thread processor from the Zen 3 architecture, running on the Cezanne codename at a 7 nm process node. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, which is critical for Doom's game logic and draw-call processing. The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce this: a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2916 and a multi-core score of 20655, with a Passmark single-thread score of 3296.

Doom is known for being well-threaded, and the 5700's 16 threads are more than sufficient. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 6628 and 2-thread score of 1762 show that scaling from 2 to 16 threads improves throughput by 3.76x, indicating good parallel efficiency. However, the game's frame rates at 1080p Low (178.5 FPS) suggest the CPU is nearing its limit — at that resolution and settings, the GPU has relatively little work per frame, so the CPU must feed frames faster, and the 178.5 FPS ceiling appears to be a CPU-side constraint.

The CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for Doom's asset streaming. The 5700's percentile rank of 84 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27220, places it just 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i9-9900K (27043) and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700H (27006). This means the 5700 is a solid mid-range performer that won't hold back the RX 6600 in most scenarios, but at extremely high frame rates (above 170 FPS), the CPU's single-thread performance becomes the limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1346 out of 1681 tested combinations places this pairing in the bottom 20% of all systems tested in Doom. This might seem surprising given the respectable individual component scores, but it reflects the fact that the RX 6600 is a mid-range GPU that struggles at 4K, while the 5700 is a capable but not top-tier CPU. The rank is heavily influenced by the 4K results, which drag down the overall score despite strong 1080p performance.

Relative to its nearest GPU rivals, the RX 6600 is virtually tied with the AMD Radeon 890M (0% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (-0.2%), and the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (0.2%). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is only 0.5% ahead. This clustering suggests that the RX 6600's performance class is well-defined, and the Doom results reflect that — the card is neither a standout nor a laggard among its peers. The CPU's nearest rivals show a similar tight grouping, with all deltas under 1.2%.

The implication is that this combo's rank is not due to any one component being weak, but rather the combination being optimized for 1080p gaming rather than 4K. In a benchmark database that averages across all resolutions, this pairing suffers from the 4K penalty.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings at each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset at 154.9 FPS offers an excellent balance — it is 23.6% faster than High and 48.5% faster than Ultra, while still providing better visual quality than Low (178.5 FPS). For players with high refresh rate monitors, Medium is the sweet spot.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 82.8 FPS is the best choice for visual fidelity, but Medium at 98.5 FPS is the better pick for smoother gameplay, especially on 144Hz displays. The 15.7 FPS difference between Medium and High is noticeable, while the jump from Medium to Ultra (69.8 FPS) costs nearly 29% performance for marginal visual gains.

At 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. Low at 61.1 FPS is the only preset that maintains playable frame rates above 60 FPS. Medium at 52.7 FPS and High at 47.4 FPS are technically playable but will feel less smooth, and Ultra at 38.6 FPS is borderline. For 4K owners, Low is the recommended preset, accepting reduced visual quality for a stable framerate.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the sweet spot. At Medium settings, the combo achieves 154.9 FPS, which is more than double the 4K Low result of 61.1 FPS and nearly four times the 4K Ultra result of 38.6 FPS.

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

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it averages 61.1 FPS. Higher presets at 4K drop below 53 FPS, with Ultra falling to 38.6 FPS, which is not ideal for a fast-paced FPS.

Q: How does the RX 6600 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 6600 is statistically tied with the AMD Radeon 890M (0% delta), AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (-0.2%), and AMD Radeon RX 6700M (0.2%). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is only 0.5% faster in average benchmark score.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the system hits 178.5 FPS, which suggests a CPU limitation, as the GPU has relatively little to do. The Ryzen 7 5700's single-thread score of 3296 in Passmark supports this — the CPU cannot push frames much higher than that ceiling.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: The gap is 44.2 FPS, with Low at 114 FPS and Ultra at 69.8 FPS. This represents a 63.3% performance premium for Low over Ultra, which is a significant trade-off for visual quality.

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

A: It ranks 1346 out of 1681 combinations, placing it in the bottom 20%. This is primarily due to weak 4K performance, as the 1080p results are competitive with much higher-ranked systems.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: Low averages 178.5 FPS, Medium averages 154.9 FPS, High averages 128.1 FPS, and Ultra averages 104.3 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 74.2 FPS, with each preset step costing roughly 20-25 FPS.

2560x1440: Low averages 114 FPS, Medium averages 98.5 FPS, High averages 82.8 FPS, and Ultra averages 69.8 FPS. The step from Medium to High (15.7 FPS) is smaller than from High to Ultra (13 FPS), suggesting diminishing returns at the top end.

3840x2160: Low averages 61.1 FPS, Medium averages 52.7 FPS, High averages 47.4 FPS, and Ultra averages 38.6 FPS. Only Low exceeds 60 FPS, and the Ultra preset is below 40 FPS, making it unsuitable for competitive play. The resolution scaling is steepest here, with 4K Ultra delivering just 21.6% of the 1080p Low performance.