Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Doom across the three tested resolutions paints a clear picture of where this system's bottleneck lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers 192.5 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that to 124.8 FPS, a reduction of approximately 35%, and then to 66.5 FPS at 4K, which is another 47% drop from 1440p. This steep decline as resolution climbs is the classic signature of a GPU-limited scenario.

The pattern holds across all settings. At Ultra, the frame rate falls from 118.1 FPS at 1080p to 77.5 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 42.5 FPS at 4K. The consistent scaling factor—roughly a 35-40% reduction for each step up in resolution—indicates that the RTX 3060 Ti's rendering throughput is the limiting component, not the CPU. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, has ample headroom to feed frames at these rates.

What is particularly telling is the gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution. At 1080p, Low produces 192.5 FPS while Ultra produces 118.1 FPS, a difference of 74.4 FPS. At 4K, the same comparison shows 66.5 FPS versus 42.5 FPS, a 24 FPS gap. The absolute difference shrinks because the GPU is already saturated by the pixel workload at higher resolutions, leaving less room for settings to matter. This suggests that players targeting 4K should focus on GPU-bound optimizations, while those at 1080p have more flexibility to trade visual quality for raw frame rate.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1440p as the sweet spot. At High settings, it achieves 89.1 FPS, which is comfortably above 4K's 52.6 FPS while still offering significant visual detail over 1080p.

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

A: The frame rate drops from 118.1 FPS at 1080p to 42.5 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 75.6 FPS, indicating the GPU is the decisive factor at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the Low preset at 4K outperform the Ultra preset at 1440p?

A: Yes, 4K Low yields 66.5 FPS, while 1440p Ultra produces 77.5 FPS. The 1440p Ultra is faster by 11 FPS, so the resolution jump to 4K costs more performance than the settings upgrade gains.

Q: What is the difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: Medium delivers 106.6 FPS, while High delivers 89.1 FPS. The 17.5 FPS gap suggests Medium is the more performance-oriented choice if frame rate is the priority.

Q: Is the RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for Doom at 4K?

A: The measured data shows playable frame rates at 4K, with 52.6 FPS on High and 42.5 FPS on Ultra, indicating the 8 GB capacity and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are enough to handle this game's texture loads at these settings.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 7800X3D's 96 MB of L3 cache influence Doom performance?

A: The large shared L3 cache likely helps maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions where CPU overhead is more visible, as evidenced by the 192.5 FPS result at 1080p Low.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the primary driver of frame rate variation in this test. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which directly supports the texture streaming demands of Doom's fast-paced environments. The GPU's base clock of 1410 MHz and boost clock of 1665 MHz, combined with 4864 shading units, produce the raw compute throughput measured here.

The architecture, built on Samsung's 8 nm process with 17,400 million transistors, delivers 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. This computational headroom translates into the observable FPS numbers. At 1080p, the GPU is the limiting factor even at Low settings, as the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are capable of feeding instructions faster than the GPU can render them. The evidence is in the scaling: 192.5 FPS at 1080p Low falls to 124.8 FPS at 1440p Low, a 35% decrease that tracks with the increased pixel count.

At 4K, the GPU's workload becomes more demanding. The 133.2 GPixel/s pixel rate and 253.1 GTexel/s texture rate are pushed to their limits, resulting in the 42.5-66.5 FPS range across all settings. The 80 ROPs handle the final output stage, and the data suggests they are the bottleneck at this resolution. The RTX 3060 Ti's percentile ranking of 69 against all GPUs places it in the upper-midrange tier, which aligns with its performance in this game.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 118.1 FPS, which is already high enough for smooth gameplay. However, players with 144 Hz or higher refresh rate monitors might prefer the Medium preset at 166.9 FPS, sacrificing some visual fidelity for a 48.8 FPS gain. The Low preset at 192.5 FPS offers the absolute maximum frame rate but likely reduces graphical quality to a noticeable degree.

For 1440p, the High preset at 89.1 FPS provides a balanced experience. It sits between the Medium preset's 106.6 FPS and the Ultra preset's 77.5 FPS. The 17.5 FPS difference between Medium and High suggests that Medium is the better choice for competitive play, while High offers a more visually rich experience for those who prioritize image quality. The Ultra preset at 77.5 FPS is still playable but may feel less responsive.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The High preset at 52.6 FPS is the highest measured setting that stays above 50 FPS, making it the recommended choice for a playable experience. The Low preset at 66.5 FPS is the fastest option at this resolution, and the 13.9 FPS difference between Low and Medium suggests that Low is the best for maintaining frame rate stability. The Ultra preset at 42.5 FPS is the lowest measured result and should be avoided unless visual fidelity is paramount.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings shows a clear hierarchy. Low produces 192.5 FPS, Medium produces 166.9 FPS, High produces 141.8 FPS, and Ultra produces 118.1 FPS. The difference between each successive preset is roughly 25-26 FPS, indicating a linear scaling of performance with settings.

At 2560x1440, the same progression is visible but compressed. Low delivers 124.8 FPS, Medium delivers 106.6 FPS, High delivers 89.1 FPS, and Ultra delivers 77.5 FPS. The gaps between presets narrow to approximately 12-18 FPS, reflecting the increased GPU load at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the settings matter less for frame rate. Low achieves 66.5 FPS, Medium achieves 58.4 FPS, High achieves 52.6 FPS, and Ultra achieves 42.5 FPS. The maximum spread between Low and Ultra is 24 FPS, compared to 74.4 FPS at 1080p, confirming that the GPU's raw pixel throughput dominates at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D plays a supporting but essential role in this combination. Its 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture codenamed Raphael, provide the instruction throughput needed to keep the RTX 3060 Ti fed. The CPU's boost clock of 5.00 GHz and base clock of 4.20 GHz are high enough to avoid becoming a bottleneck in Doom, which is a game that benefits from strong single-core performance.

The 96 MB of shared L3 cache is a standout feature. In a fast-paced FPS like Doom, where game logic and scene data are constantly accessed, this large cache reduces memory latency and improves frame pacing. The benchmark results support this: the CPU achieves a 3dmark single-thread score of 959 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4115, indicating strong per-core capability.

The CPU's 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth over a dual-channel DDR5 interface ensures that data can flow to the GPU without stalls. The 3dmark max-threads score of 7967, which is nearly identical to the 16-thread score of 7980, suggests that the extra threads beyond 8 do not provide meaningful gains in this workload. This is consistent with Doom's engine, which typically scales well up to 8 threads but sees diminishing returns beyond that.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1167 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, which is surprising given the individual component strengths. The CPU's percentile ranking of 87 against all CPUs is strong, while the GPU's percentile of 69 is more modest.

The ranking suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing, dragging the overall combo down despite the CPU's excellent performance. The nearest CPU rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-12700F with an average score delta of 0.1% and the AMD Ryzen 9 5980HX at 0.3%, are all closely matched, confirming that the 7800X3D is not the weak link. Similarly, the GPU's nearest rivals, including the AMD Radeon RX 6700M with a delta of -0.2%, are all within 0.7% of the RTX 3060 Ti's average benchmark score.

The rank of 1167 out of 1681 implies that most better-performing combos feature more powerful GPUs. Players with this setup should treat the 7800X3D as a future-proofing investment, as the CPU has headroom to support a GPU upgrade without becoming a bottleneck. The data indicates that the current GPU choice limits the system's performance in Doom, and the next logical upgrade would be in the graphics card department rather than the processor.