Doom

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 delivers a highly capable 1080p experience in Doom, with performance scaling that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. The data shows a predictable and steep decline in frame rates from 1080p to 4K, characteristic of a mid-range graphics card handling a demanding title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern across the three tested resolutions. At 1080p with Medium settings, the system produces an average of 153 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that average to 99 FPS, a reduction of 54 FPS or roughly 35%. Pushing further to 4K at Medium settings yields an average of 54 FPS, which is another 45 FPS drop from the 1440p result.

This steep decline indicates that the RX 6600's rendering throughput is the bottleneck. The 8 GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus, while adequate for 1080p, struggle to feed the pixel count demanded by 4K. The gap between Low and Ultra settings also widens dramatically at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the spread from Low (176 FPS) to Ultra (106 FPS) is 70 FPS. At 4K, the same settings spread narrows to 25 FPS (62 FPS Low vs 37 FPS Ultra), suggesting that at 4K, even lowering settings cannot overcome the raw pixel-pushing limitations of the GPU.

The 1440p results represent the practical ceiling for this combination. The High preset at 1440p achieves 84 FPS, which is playable, but the jump from 1440p to 4K costs roughly 46% of the frame rate at High settings (84 FPS to 45 FPS). This severe scaling confirms that 4K is not a realistic target for smooth gameplay with this hardware, while 1080p offers substantial headroom for high refresh rate monitors.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 23 chip fabricated on a 7 nm process. Its specifications include 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The card operates with a base clock of 1626 MHz, a game clock of 2044 MHz, and a boost clock of 2491 MHz. This clock configuration allows the card to deliver a measured FP32 performance of 8.928 TFLOPS.

The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. This is a significant factor in the game's performance, particularly at higher resolutions. The 4K results show the card hitting a wall at 62 FPS on Low settings, which suggests that memory bandwidth, not compute shader throughput, is the limiting factor at that resolution. The texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s are sufficient for 1080p, but the 4K frame buffer demands exceed what the 128-bit interface can efficiently feed.

In the broader GPU landscape, the RX 6600 sits at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rivals being the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 and the GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile, both within 0.1% of its average benchmark score. The card's DirectX 12 performance, as measured by Passmark, scores 51, while its Vulkan score via Geekbench is 67623, indicating solid API support for modern titles like Doom.

Settings Recommendations

For a balance of visual quality and frame rate, the High preset at 1080p is the clear sweet spot. The data shows 129 FPS average at 1080p High, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and leaves room for higher refresh rate displays. The Medium preset at 1080p pushes to 153 FPS, but the visual fidelity trade-off is unnecessary given the headroom available at High.

At 1440p, the Medium preset (99 FPS) offers the most playable experience, while High (84 FPS) remains viable for those prioritizing image quality. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 68 FPS, which is borderline for fast-paced FPS gameplay, making Medium or High the recommended targets.

For 4K, none of the presets deliver a consistently smooth experience. The best result is 62 FPS on Low, but this falls to 54 FPS on Medium and 45 FPS on High. Given that Doom is a fast-paced shooter, the frame rate instability at 4K makes it an impractical resolution for this GPU. Users with 4K displays should consider running the game at 1440p with the High preset for the best combination of smoothness and visual quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its peak performance. The Low preset achieves an average of 176 FPS, while Medium reaches 153 FPS with a minimum of 130 FPS and maximum of 176 FPS. High settings deliver 129 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 106 FPS. All 1080p configurations maintain frame rates well above playable thresholds, with even the most demanding Ultra preset staying comfortably above 100 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low settings produce 114 FPS average, Medium drops to 99 FPS (with a range of 84 to 114 FPS), High achieves 84 FPS, and Ultra falls to 68 FPS. The 1440p results show that the card can handle high refresh rates at this resolution only on lower presets, with Medium being the highest setting that consistently exceeds 90 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the limitations become apparent. Low settings yield 62 FPS average, Medium drops to 54 FPS (ranging from 46 to 62 FPS), High falls to 45 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 37 FPS. The 4K data indicates that only the Low preset approaches playability, and even then, the frame rate is marginal for a competitive FPS. The minimum FPS of 46 at 4K Medium highlights potential stuttering during intense combat sequences.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Doom at 4K smoothly?

A: No. The best 4K result is 62 FPS on Low settings, but this drops to 54 FPS on Medium and 45 FPS on High. The frame rates are inconsistent, with a minimum of 46 FPS at Medium, making 4K impractical for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best setting for 1440p gaming?

A: The Medium preset at 99 FPS average provides the best balance. High settings achieve 84 FPS, which is also playable, but Medium offers more headroom for frame rate drops during heavy action scenes.

Q: How much performance is lost moving from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 129 at 1080p to 84 at 1440p, a reduction of 45 FPS or roughly 35%. The same pattern holds across all presets, with Low dropping from 176 to 114 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The RX 6600's performance percentile is 63, while the Ryzen 7 5800XT sits at the 81st percentile. The steep FPS drops at higher resolutions are characteristic of GPU limitations, not CPU constraints.

Q: What is the highest FPS achievable with this setup?

A: The maximum recorded average is 176 FPS at 1080p with Low settings. The highest preset at 1080p, Ultra, still achieves 106 FPS, showing the system is well-suited for high refresh rate 1080p monitors.

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

A: The RX 6600's average benchmark score is 19036, essentially tied with the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19030) and the GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (19049). It is also within 0.4% of the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT provides a strong foundation for this gaming configuration. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (Vermeer), it operates at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. The processor's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth ensure that the CPU does not starve the GPU of data.

The CPU's benchmark results show robust multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23794 and a single-core score of 3359. Its Passmark multi-thread score of 28053 places it at the 81st percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals being the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (delta 0%) and the Ryzen 5 9600X (delta 0.6%). This level of performance is more than sufficient for Doom's engine, which is well-optimized for multi-threaded workloads.

In the context of this game, the CPU's strong single-thread performance (Passmark single-thread score of 3535) ensures that the game's primary thread is well-served. The 3DMark single-thread score of 959 and 2-thread score of 1879 indicate that even lightly threaded portions of the game run efficiently. The 16-thread 3DMark score of 7683 demonstrates that the CPU can handle the game's background tasks without impacting frame times.

The data suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution tested. The consistent FPS drops from 1080p to 4K follow the expected GPU-bound pattern, and the CPU's high percentile ranking (81st vs the GPU's 63rd) confirms that the RX 6600 is the component holding back performance in this pairing. For users considering upgrades, improving the GPU would yield significantly larger FPS gains than upgrading the CPU.