Doom

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB delivers a playable experience in Doom, but the data reveals a configuration that is heavily constrained by the GPU. The measured performance across resolutions and settings shows a clear ceiling that is dictated by the graphics card, while the CPU’s substantial headroom remains untapped. The following analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to determine the optimal settings, the specific role of each component, and how this combination ranks among the thousands of tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the Medium preset is the most balanced choice for this combo, offering the best compromise between visual fidelity and frame rate. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 118 FPS, which is a substantial 44% higher than the Ultra preset’s 82 FPS. The frame time variance is also tighter, with the Medium preset recording a minimum of 100 FPS, matching the High preset’s average of 100 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p is only 18 FPS (from 136 to 118), but the visual improvement from Low settings is typically significant, making Medium the superior choice for a smooth and good-looking experience.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset’s 77 FPS average is again the strongest option. It provides a 24 FPS advantage over the High preset’s 65 FPS and a 24 FPS advantage over Ultra’s 53 FPS. The minimum FPS of 65 for Medium at this resolution is identical to the High preset’s average, indicating that the Medium settings maintain a more stable frame pacing. While Low settings at 1440p reach 88 FPS, the 11 FPS difference between Low and Medium is a small price for the expected upgrade in texture and shadow quality.

The situation becomes more critical at 3840x2160. Here, no preset achieves a consistently smooth 60 FPS. The Low preset tops out at 48 FPS, while the Medium preset falls to 41 FPS with a minimum of 35 FPS. The High preset drops to 35 FPS, and Ultra is unplayable at 29 FPS. For this resolution, the Low preset is the only viable option to get close to a playable frame rate, though the data suggests that users should strongly consider lowering the resolution to 1440p for a more fluid experience, as the 65 FPS on High at 1440p is a far more enjoyable result than the 35 FPS on High at 4K.

The data strongly suggests that users should avoid the Ultra preset across all resolutions. The performance cost is steep, with an average drop of 36 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p, and 12 FPS at 4K when compared to Medium. The visual gain from High to Ultra is rarely worth this magnitude of performance loss, especially when the GPU is already the limiting factor. Therefore, the recommended path is to use Medium settings for 1080p and 1440p, and to only consider Low settings if 4K is a hard requirement.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is the primary bottleneck in this configuration. The measured data shows that as resolution increases, the average FPS drops dramatically, which is a classic signature of a GPU-limited scenario. The GPU’s memory configuration, with 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, provides a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s. This is a modest amount for modern games, and the 4 GB capacity is likely a limiting factor at higher resolutions and detail levels, as textures and frame buffers demand more memory than what is available.

The GPU’s clock speeds are listed with a base of 1545 MHz and a boost of 1740 MHz. These are relatively low clocks for a discrete card, but they are not the primary issue here. The shading units (2048) and texture mapping units (64) are the workhorses for this game’s rendering. The FP32 performance of 7.127 TFLOPS indicates the raw compute capability, but the data shows that Doom’s demands on the GPU are so high that even the Medium preset at 4K fails to hold 60 FPS.

The data implies that the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s is insufficient for 4K resolutions. The drop from 48 FPS on Low to 41 FPS on Medium at 4K shows a 7 FPS penalty, which is a relatively small difference compared to the 18 FPS penalty seen when jumping from Low to Medium at 1080p. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is not only limited by compute but also by the memory subsystem, as the lower settings do not provide the expected relief. The 4 GB frame buffer is likely being exhausted, causing the GPU to swap data and reduce performance. For a game like Doom, which is known for its fast-paced action, a stable frame rate is crucial, and the data shows that the RTX 3050 4 GB is not equipped to handle 4K at acceptable performance levels.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a linear decline that is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 118 at 1920x1080 to 77 at 2560x1440, a 35% decrease when moving to 1.78x the pixels. Doubling the resolution again to 3840x2160 yields a further drop to 41 FPS, a 47% decrease from the 1440p figure. This non-linear drop at 4K suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard limit, likely due to the 4 GB memory capacity or the memory bandwidth ceiling, rather than just the raw pixel throughput.

The High preset shows a similar trajectory: 100 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p (35% drop), and 35 FPS at 4K (46% drop). The Low preset sees 136 FPS at 1080p, 88 FPS at 1440p (35% drop), and 48 FPS at 4K (45% drop). This consistent percentage drop across all settings indicates that the scaling penalty is primarily a function of resolution, not of the specific settings chosen. The limiting component is definitively the GPU, as a CPU-bound system would show a more pronounced drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p, but a much smaller drop from 1440p to 4K.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution. The Ryzen 7 7700, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, is more than capable of feeding the GPU at 1080p, where the frame rates are highest. The fact that the FPS drops proportionally with pixel count confirms that the GPU is saturated and the CPU is idle. If this were a CPU bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to be similar at 1080p and 1440p, but the data shows a clear separation, proving that the GPU is the sole constraint. The 4K results, with the Low preset only reaching 48 FPS, reinforce that the GPU’s limits are reached well before the CPU’s.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS at 1080p with the Ultra preset?

A: No. The measured average FPS for the Ultra preset at 1920x1080 is 82 FPS, which is above 60, but the minimum FPS is not recorded for this preset. Based on the Medium preset’s minimum of 100 FPS, it is likely that Ultra also has a minimum above 60, but the data does not explicitly confirm this. The average of 82 FPS suggests that it is playable, but the Medium preset is safer for consistent performance.

Q: Is the RTX 3050 4 GB capable of running Doom at 4K?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the highest average FPS achieved is 48 FPS on the Low preset. The Medium preset only reaches 41 FPS, and the High preset drops to 35 FPS. This indicates that 4K is not a practical resolution for this GPU in Doom, as even the lowest settings fail to hit a solid 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best preset to use at 2560x1440?

A: The Medium preset is the recommended choice at 1440p. It provides an average of 77 FPS, with a minimum of 65 FPS. This is a more stable experience than the High preset’s 65 FPS average, and it is significantly faster than the Ultra preset’s 53 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance compare to the GPU in this game?

A: The data strongly suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor. The FPS scales linearly with resolution, which is a hallmark of a GPU bottleneck. The CPU is not the constraint, as the frame rates drop proportionally to the pixel count, indicating that the CPU has ample headroom to spare.

Q: What is the expected FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The measured data shows a difference of 54 FPS. The Low preset averages 136 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 82 FPS. This is a substantial 40% reduction in performance, which is not recommended given the marginal visual improvements of Ultra over High.

Q: Is there a risk of the GPU’s 4 GB memory causing stutters?

A: While the data does not record stutters, the 4 GB memory capacity is a likely contributor to the poor 4K performance. The sharp FPS drop from 1440p to 4K (from 77 to 41 on Medium) suggests that the memory or bandwidth is exhausted, which can lead to frame pacing issues and stutters, although the measured minimum FPS of 35 at 4K Medium indicates the game remains playable albeit at a low frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB combination ranks at 3255 out of 3712 tested combos for Doom. This places it in the bottom 12% of all configurations, a poor showing that reflects the GPU’s limitations. The comboRankInGame field confirms this is a low-tier setup for this specific title, despite the CPU’s high percentile ranking of 87% against all CPUs. The data implies that the CPU is being severely held back by the GPU, which is a waste of the Ryzen 7 7700’s capability.

The ranking is directly attributable to the RTX 3050 4 GB’s performance. The GPU’s percentile rank is 50th, meaning it is an average card, but its performance in Doom is below average due to the game’s demands. The 4 GB memory is a glaring weakness, as most modern games require more memory for high-resolution textures. The fact that this combo ranks lower than 87% of other combos suggests that most other systems have a better balance between CPU and GPU power, even if they have a weaker CPU. The CPU is not the problem; the GPU is the anchor dragging down the entire system’s ranking.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is a high-end processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a 65W TDP. Its benchmark scores are impressive, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18760 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 15371. The CPU’s percentile rank of 87% against all CPUs indicates it is in the top 13% of all processors.

In the context of Doom, the CPU’s role is entirely secondary. The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution. The frame rates scale with resolution in a way that is consistent with a GPU-limited scenario. The CPU is capable of delivering far higher frame rates than the GPU can render. For example, the CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1049 suggests it can handle the game’s logic and physics easily. The data implies that the Ryzen 7 7700 is vastly overqualified for this GPU pairing. The CPU’s performance headroom is so large that it could likely drive a much more powerful GPU to higher frame rates. The bottleneck is purely the GPU, and the CPU is effectively idle, waiting for the GPU to catch up.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Ultra: Average 82 FPS.
• High: Average 100 FPS.
• Medium: Average 118 FPS, with a minimum of 100 FPS and a maximum of 136 FPS.
• Low: Average 136 FPS.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Ultra: Average 53 FPS.
• High: Average 65 FPS.
• Medium: Average 77 FPS, with a minimum of 65 FPS and a maximum of 88 FPS.
• Low: Average 88 FPS.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Ultra: Average 29 FPS.
• High: Average 35 FPS.
• Medium: Average 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 48 FPS.
• Low: Average 48 FPS.

The data shows a clear hierarchy, with the Low preset always providing the highest average FPS and the Ultra preset the lowest. The Medium preset offers a balanced middle ground, with the recorded minimum and maximum values indicating a stable frame rate. At 1080p, the Medium preset’s minimum of 100 FPS is higher than the High preset’s average, demonstrating its consistency. At 1440p, the Medium preset’s minimum of 65 FPS matches the High preset’s average, again showing stable performance. At 4K, all presets fail to reach 60 FPS, with the Low preset being the only one to break the 45 FPS barrier. This detailed breakdown confirms that the GPU is the primary constraint, with the CPU providing ample headroom that is never fully utilized.