Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across the three resolutions paint a clear picture of how the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination scales under load in Doom. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers an average of 298.6 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 196.7 FPS, a reduction of roughly 34%. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 108 FPS, which is about 45% lower than the 1440p result. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck as pixel count rises, while the CPU has ample headroom at the lower resolutions.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At High settings, the averages are 223.3 FPS at 1080p, 143.4 FPS at 1440p, and 79.6 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 36%, and from 1440p to 4K it is about 44%. This near-uniform scaling ratio suggests that the rendering workload increases in a predictable manner with resolution, and the RTX 3080’s compute resources are the limiting factor rather than any CPU-side constraint.

At Ultra settings, the same trend holds: 180.3 FPS at 1080p, 117.2 FPS at 1440p, and 61.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is particularly telling — it is the lowest measured average in the entire dataset, showing that the combination of maximum graphical fidelity and high pixel density pushes the RTX 3080 to its limits. The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU sufficiently, but at 4K, especially with higher presets, the GPU’s throughput dictates the final frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU pairing achieves a combo rank of 514 out of 1681 tested combinations. This places it in the upper third of all recorded configurations, which is a strong showing for a desktop setup featuring a current-generation processor and an end-of-life graphics card. The percentile data for the individual components supports this positioning: the Ryzen 7 9700X sits in the 89th percentile against all CPUs, while the RTX 3080 is in the 80th percentile against all GPUs.

The combo rank of 514 suggests that while neither component is at the absolute top of its respective class, their pairing works well for a game like Doom that can leverage high frame rates. The CPU’s percentile is notably higher than the GPU’s, which implies that the processor has more relative headroom compared to other CPUs than the graphics card does compared to other GPUs. This imbalance is reflected in the resolution scaling data, where the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher settings. The rank of 514 out of 1681 means there are 513 tested combos that outperform this one in Doom, but it also means the majority of configurations — roughly 70% — score lower.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It features 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units. The card’s base clock is 1440 MHz with a boost clock of 1710 MHz, and it carries 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. These specifications place it as a high-end part from the GeForce 30-series, and the benchmark results confirm its capability in Doom.

The GPU’s memory configuration is sufficient for the resolutions tested. At 4K Ultra, the game demands significant video memory, and the 10 GB capacity appears adequate based on the measured averages of 61.4 FPS. The memory clock runs at 1188 MHz with an effective data rate of 19 Gbps, which contributes to the high bandwidth figure. In terms of raw compute, the RTX 3080 delivers 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s. These numbers translate directly to the frame rates seen in the dataset — at 1080p Low, the card achieves 298.6 FPS, which is near the practical ceiling for many displays, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 61.4 FPS, showing the limits of its throughput.

The GPU’s overall benchmark average score is 35787, with a percentile rank of 80 against all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE with a delta of -0.9% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile with a delta of 1%. This indicates that the RTX 3080 is closely matched with these cards in general compute tests, though its specific performance in Doom is what matters for this analysis.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages span a wide range depending on settings. Low settings produce 298.6 FPS, Medium produces 263 FPS, High produces 223.3 FPS, and Ultra produces 180.3 FPS. The step from Medium to High costs roughly 40 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs about 43 FPS. This shows a relatively linear trade-off between visual quality and frame rate at this resolution, with the CPU never becoming a limiting factor — even at Ultra, the average remains well above 144 Hz.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 196.7 FPS at Low, 168.9 FPS at Medium, 143.4 FPS at High, and 117.2 FPS at Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra is about 79.5 FPS, which is a larger absolute difference than at 1080p. This indicates that the GPU is starting to feel the pressure of higher pixel counts, but the frame rates remain highly playable for competitive or fast-paced action. The 1440p High result of 143.4 FPS is particularly noteworthy as it sits just above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on many monitors.

At 3840x2160, the averages drop significantly: 108 FPS at Low, 94.4 FPS at Medium, 79.6 FPS at High, and 61.4 FPS at Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra is about 46.6 FPS, which is smaller in absolute terms than at lower resolutions but represents a larger percentage drop. The 4K Ultra result of 61.4 FPS is the only measured average below 60 FPS in the entire dataset, making it the most demanding scenario for this combo. Conversely, the 4K Low result of 108 FPS shows that the RTX 3080 can still deliver high refresh rates at 4K when settings are reduced.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU is manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC, with 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die. Its memory bandwidth is rated at 89.6 GB/s when paired with DDR5 modules on a dual-channel bus.

In terms of synthetic benchmarks, the 9700X achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 31588 and a single-core score of 4459. Its Geekbench multicore score is 17002 with a single-core score of 3353. These scores place it in the 89th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36029. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14500HX with a delta of 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 with a delta of 0.6%, showing that it sits in a tightly contested performance band.

The CPU’s role in Doom is evident from the resolution scaling data. At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU must be able to issue draw calls and manage game logic quickly — the 298.6 FPS Low result indicates strong single-thread performance. At 4K, however, the CPU’s influence diminishes, as the GPU’s rendering time dominates. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1280 and the 2-thread score of 2525 suggest that the processor can handle lightly-threaded workloads with ease, which is typical for a game like Doom that relies on a few primary threads. The 16 threads provide ample parallelism for background tasks and modern game engines that scale beyond 8 threads.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1080p, every preset delivers an average above 180 FPS, so users with a 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitor can comfortably select Ultra for maximum visual quality without sacrificing smoothness. The 180.3 FPS Ultra result is still well above the refresh rate of most displays, making this the recommended choice for 1080p gaming.

At 1440p, the High preset produces 143.4 FPS, which is just shy of a 144 Hz refresh rate. For users with a standard 144 Hz monitor, Medium at 168.9 FPS provides a small buffer and is the safer recommendation, while Ultra at 117.2 FPS is acceptable for those who prioritize image quality over frame rates. The data suggests that High offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance at this resolution, as the step from High to Ultra costs 26.2 FPS, which is a noticeable reduction.

At 4K, the recommendations shift toward lower presets. The Low setting at 108 FPS is ideal for high-refresh-rate 4K displays, while Medium at 94.4 FPS is a solid choice for a 90 Hz or 100 Hz panel. High at 79.6 FPS is playable but requires a display with a 60 Hz or 75 Hz refresh rate to avoid tearing. Ultra at 61.4 FPS is only recommended for users with a 60 Hz monitor who want the best possible image quality, as the frame rate is just above the minimum threshold for smooth gameplay. For the majority of 4K users, the Medium preset offers the best combination of visual quality and frame rate stability, as it stays above 90 FPS while still providing a significant upgrade over Low.