Doom

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination delivers a playable experience across the board in Doom, but the data reveals a clear performance ceiling that shifts from the CPU to the GPU as resolution increases. At 1080p, the combo achieves excellent frame rates, peaking at 200 FPS on Low settings, which indicates the CPU is doing heavy lifting. However, the 4K Ultra result of 42 FPS shows a hard GPU limit, making this pairing best suited for high-refresh 1080p or solid 1440p gaming.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable and steep decline as resolution climbs from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, but the rate of that decline varies significantly by settings preset, revealing where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 200 FPS at 1080p to 129 FPS at 1440p (a 35.5% reduction), and then to 70 FPS at 4K (a 45.7% reduction from 1440p). This pattern indicates that at Low settings, the GPU is still managing the load well at 1440p, but the jump to 4K nearly halves performance.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is even more punishing. The average FPS goes from 120 at 1080p to 78 at 1440p (a 35% drop), and then to 42 at 4K (a 46.2% drop from 1440p). The 42 FPS average at 4K Ultra is the lowest result in the entire dataset, confirming that the RX 6650 XT's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus are simply overwhelmed by the combination of high resolution and maximum graphical fidelity.

The data strongly suggests that the CPU is the primary limiting factor at 1080p, particularly at Low settings where the 200 FPS average is likely near the engine's or CPU's threading ceiling. The Ryzen 7 5800XT's 8 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.80 GHz, provide ample single-thread performance to push high frame rates, but it cannot push beyond the 200 FPS mark. As resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with the gap between Low and Ultra settings widening from 80 FPS at 1080p to 51 FPS at 1440p and 28 FPS at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo in Doom?

A: The data indicates that 2560x1440 is the sweet spot. At High settings, the combo delivers 95 FPS average, which is smooth for a fast-paced FPS. At 1080p, the 147 FPS High average is excellent for high-refresh monitors, but the 1440p result offers a better balance of visual fidelity and performance.

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Low, the average FPS is 70, which is playable. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS. However, 4K Ultra is not recommended, as the 42 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold typically desired for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU's core count affect Doom's performance?

A: The Ryzen 7 5800XT has 8 cores and 16 threads, which is more than sufficient for Doom. The 3DMark single-thread score of 959 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3359 suggest strong per-core performance. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 200 FPS, indicating the CPU is efficiently feeding the GPU at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the RX 6650 XT a good match for the 5800XT in this game?

A: The benchmark results show a balanced pairing, but it is not perfectly matched. At 1080p, the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher settings (120 FPS Ultra vs 200 FPS Low), while at 4K, the GPU is the sole bottleneck. The CPU's strong multithreaded performance (Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23794) ensures it won't hold back the GPU in most scenarios.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p, the difference is 80 FPS (200 vs 120). At 1440p, the difference narrows to 51 FPS (129 vs 78). At 4K, the difference is 28 FPS (70 vs 42). This shows that the performance cost of Ultra settings scales with resolution, becoming less impactful in absolute FPS terms but more damaging to the overall experience.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 2418 out of 3712 tested combinations in Doom. This places it in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems, which aligns with the GPU's 65th percentile ranking versus all GPUs and the CPU's 81st percentile ranking versus all CPUs.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT ranks 2418 out of 3712 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the 35th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking is notably lower than what the individual component percentiles might suggest, indicating that the pairing is not optimized for this particular title. The CPU alone sits in the 81st percentile versus all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 65th percentile versus all GPUs, but their combined performance in Doom is dragged down by the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions.

The data shows that this combo's ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's performance ceiling. The RX 6650 XT's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the NVIDIA Tesla K40m (0.6% faster), AMD FirePro D300 (0.7% slower), AMD FirePro W7000 (0.7% faster), and NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (0.8% slower). These are all professional or older workstation cards, which underscores that the RX 6650 XT is positioned as a mid-range consumer GPU. In Doom, this translates to a system that can handle 1080p and 1440p well but falls short of top-tier performance rankings.

Comparatively, the CPU's nearest rivals show a much tighter grouping. The AMD Ryzen 7 7840H scores 0% different, the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS are 0.3% faster, and the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is 0.6% slower. This indicates that the 5800XT is well-matched against modern mobile and desktop chips in terms of raw compute, but the GPU pairing prevents this combo from climbing higher in the Doom rankings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 200 FPS, which is the maximum recorded in the dataset. Medium settings yield 174 FPS with a minimum of 148 FPS and maximum of 200 FPS. High settings drop to 147 FPS, while Ultra settings reduce performance to 120 FPS. The data shows a consistent 26-27 FPS drop between each consecutive settings tier, indicating a linear scaling of GPU load as visual quality increases.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings average 129 FPS, which is 35.5% lower than the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 113 FPS with a range of 96 to 129 FPS. High settings produce 95 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 78 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 51 FPS, which is smaller in absolute terms than at 1080p but represents a similar 39.5% reduction from Low to Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. Low settings average 70 FPS, which is a 45.7% drop from the 1440p Low result. Medium settings average 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and maximum of 70 FPS. High settings produce 51 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 42 FPS. The 4K results show that even at Low settings, the system struggles to maintain 60 FPS consistently, with the Medium preset's minimum FPS of 52 indicating potential stutters.

Settings Recommendations

For the best overall experience, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the recommended configuration. This setting yields an average of 113 FPS with a minimum of 96 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay without significant frame drops. The 96 FPS minimum is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and the 129 FPS maximum suggests headroom for occasional scene complexity. This preset provides a 15.9% performance increase over High settings at the same resolution while likely offering similar visual quality in a fast-paced FPS like Doom.

For players prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers 200 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh 144Hz or 240Hz monitors. However, the visual compromise may be noticeable. The High preset at 1080p provides 147 FPS, which is still excellent for competitive play and offers better graphical fidelity. At 1440p, the High preset's 95 FPS is a strong choice for those with 144Hz monitors who want a balance of quality and speed.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution. At 1080p it produces 120 FPS, which is playable, but the 4K Ultra result of 42 FPS is below the playability threshold. The data suggests that the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 280.3 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for Ultra settings at higher resolutions. The Medium preset offers a 45.2% performance increase over Ultra at 1440p (113 vs 78 FPS) and a 45.2% increase at 4K (61 vs 42 FPS), making it the clear choice for ensuring consistent performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT is a Zen 3 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, built on a 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores show strong multithreading capabilities, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23794 and a Passmark multithread score of 28053. Its single-thread performance is also solid, evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 959 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3535.

In Doom, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 200 FPS, which is likely near the game engine's or CPU's capability limit. The 8 cores and 16 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks and ensure that the game doesn't become CPU-bound at lower resolutions. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 7683 is nearly identical to the max-thread score of 7680, indicating that the CPU scales well with all available threads.

The CPU's 105W TDP and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for this GPU pairing. The PCIe Gen 4 interface with 20 lanes ensures sufficient data transfer between the CPU and GPU. At 4K resolutions, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the GPU's performance drops to 42 FPS at Ultra settings, which is a pure GPU limitation. The data confirms that in Doom, the Ryzen 7 5800XT is a capable partner that enables high frame rates at 1080p but is not able to overcome the GPU's constraints at higher resolutions.