Doom

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT delivers a playable experience in Doom, but the data reveals a system that is firmly GPU-limited at higher resolutions. The benchmark results show a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, with the graphics card being the primary bottleneck, while the CPU’s strong multi-threaded headroom goes largely unused at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern: performance degrades significantly as resolution climbs from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 141.7 FPS at 1080p to 87.9 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 53.8 FPS. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings, the average falls further to 51.7 FPS, another 36.2 FPS loss. This scaling behavior indicates that the RX 5700 XT is the limiting component; the GPU’s rendering workload increases with pixel count, while the CPU has ample capacity to feed frames.

The trend is consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 186.4 at 1080p, to 120.9 at 1440p, down to 64.4 at 4K. The gap between Low and High settings also narrows at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and High is 44.7 FPS (186.4 vs 141.7), but at 4K, the difference shrinks to 12.7 FPS (64.4 vs 51.7). This compression suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so saturated that reducing settings has diminishing returns, whereas at 1080p, the GPU has more headroom to benefit from lower graphical loads.

The data strongly suggests that 1080p is the sweet spot for this combo, where the CPU can keep the GPU well-fed, resulting in high frame rates. At 1440p, the experience remains smooth, but the GPU’s limits become apparent. At 4K, the system struggles to maintain high refresh rates, even at Low settings, confirming that the RX 5700 XT’s 8 GB of VRAM and compute capabilities are the primary constraint.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 delivers the highest average frame rates across all settings, with values ranging from 114.3 FPS at Ultra to 186.4 FPS at Low. This resolution avoids the steep performance drops seen at higher pixel counts.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 141.7 at 1080p to 51.7 at 4K, a reduction of 90 FPS. This represents a significant loss, indicating the GPU is the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Q: Does lowering settings help at 4K?

A: Yes, but with diminishing returns. The average FPS improves from 37.9 at Ultra to 64.4 at Low, a gain of 26.5 FPS. However, even at Low, the system fails to reach the 60 FPS mark comfortably, as the average is 64.4 FPS.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 7700X holding back performance?

A: No. The CPU’s strong benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30325, suggest it is not the limiting factor. The consistent FPS drops with resolution increases point to the RX 5700 XT as the primary constraint.

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

A: The combo ranks 1276 out of 1681 tested combinations in Doom. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, reflecting the GPU’s age and mid-range positioning.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between Ultra and Low settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the average FPS goes from 74.7 at Ultra to 120.9 at Low, a difference of 46.2 FPS. This shows that settings have a substantial impact at this resolution, unlike at 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is the decisive factor in this system’s Doom performance. Its specifications reveal a mid-range card from the RDNA 1.0 architecture, with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The base clock is 1605 MHz, with a boost clock of 1905 MHz and a game clock of 1755 MHz. These clocks, combined with 2560 shading units, deliver a peak FP32 performance of 9.754 TFLOPS.

The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Doom at the tested settings, as the game’s release date in 2016 predates the heavy VRAM demands of modern titles. The benchmark results show that the card is the performance limiter, particularly at 4K. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 37.9 at Ultra to 64.4 at Low, indicating that the GPU’s compute units are fully saturated. The pixel rate of 121.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 304.8 GTexel/s are the hardware limits that dictate these numbers.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 24731 places it in the 68th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rivals including the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (deltaPct -0.1%) and the Intel Arc A350M (deltaPct 0.3%). This close clustering suggests the RX 5700 XT is competitive with those parts in general compute, but in Doom, its performance is clearly bound by its rasterization capabilities rather than its raw compute score.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience on this hardware, the data points to 1920x1080 with High settings as the optimal balance. The average FPS at this configuration is 141.7, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides smooth gameplay. Pushing to Ultra at 1080p yields 114.3 FPS, still excellent, but the drop of 27.4 FPS from High to Ultra suggests diminishing visual returns for the performance cost.

At 1440p, High settings produce an average of 87.9 FPS, which remains playable, but the drop to 74.7 FPS at Ultra makes High the recommended choice for maintaining a higher frame rate. Low settings at 1440p reach 120.9 FPS, but the visual quality loss may not be worth the extra 33 FPS over High.

At 4K, no setting provides a consistently smooth experience. Ultra yields 37.9 FPS, which is not suitable for fast-paced FPS action. Low settings at 4K achieve 64.4 FPS, which is borderline, but the average is only slightly above 60. The data suggests that users should avoid 4K on this combo unless they are willing to accept sub-60 FPS averages or significant visual compromises.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the Ryzen 7 7700X and RX 5700 XT ranks 1276 out of 1681 for Doom. This places it in the lower 24% of all tested combos, indicating that while the hardware is functional, it is not a high-performing matchup for this title. The rank reflects the GPU’s age and mid-range status, as the CPU is a modern, high-end part.

The CPU itself ranks in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34313. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-13500 (deltaPct 0.4%), the Intel Core i7-12800HX (deltaPct 0.5%), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (deltaPct -0.8%). This shows the 7700X is a strong processor that is not the weak link in this system. The low combo rank is therefore attributable to the GPU, which has an average benchmark score of 24731 and sits in the 68th percentile of all GPUs.

The disparity between the CPU’s high percentile and the combo’s low rank highlights the GPU-bound nature of Doom at higher resolutions. The CPU’s potential is underutilized when the GPU is the limiting factor, leading to a lower overall ranking than the processor’s standalone performance would suggest.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across all resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the average FPS is as follows:

• Low: 186.4 FPS
• Medium: 167.5 FPS
• High: 141.7 FPS
• Ultra: 114.3 FPS

At 2560x1440, the average FPS is:

• Low: 120.9 FPS
• Medium: 106.1 FPS
• High: 87.9 FPS
• Ultra: 74.7 FPS

At 3840x2160, the average FPS is:

• Low: 64.4 FPS
• Medium: 59.9 FPS
• High: 51.7 FPS
• Ultra: 37.9 FPS

These numbers show a consistent scaling pattern. The largest FPS jump occurs between 1080p and 1440p, with an average loss of 58.9 FPS across all settings. The jump from 1440p to 4K results in a further average loss of 50.8 FPS. The data also reveals that Low settings provide the highest FPS at every resolution, while Ultra provides the lowest, as expected.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is a high-end desktop processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture (Raphael). It has a base clock of 4.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a TDP of 105 W. Its cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus, offering a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s.

Benchmark scores show the CPU’s strength in multi-threaded workloads. It scores 30325 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 12736 in Cinebench R20 multi-core. Its single-thread performance is also strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4281 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2985. These results place the CPU in the 89th percentile of all CPUs.

In Doom, the CPU’s role is to feed frames to the GPU. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of delivering high frame rates, as evidenced by the 186.4 FPS average at Low settings. However, as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, and the CPU’s performance headroom is not utilized. The measured FPS drops are consistent with GPU limitations, not CPU limitations, as the 7700X has ample multi-threading capability (3dmark max threads score of 8852) to handle the game’s physics and logic. The CPU’s high memory bandwidth and low latency are sufficient for this title, leaving the RX 5700 XT as the sole constraint on performance.