Doom

# Doom — AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D + AMD Radeon RX 9070

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 produces a high-refresh-rate 1080p experience in Doom, with average frame rates ranging from 180.7 FPS at Ultra settings to 297.4 FPS at Low settings. At 1440p, the combo maintains excellent playability, delivering 116.7 FPS at Ultra and 190.3 FPS at Low. The 4K results show a predictable performance drop, with the Ultra preset yielding 62.1 FPS and the High preset reaching 73.7 FPS, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution increases. This configuration ranks 554th out of 1681 tested combos in this game, placing it in the upper third of all system pairings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a clear scaling pattern across the three tested resolutions. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 219.5 to 138.3, a reduction of approximately 37%. The same resolution transition at Ultra settings sees a decline from 180.7 FPS to 116.7 FPS, roughly a 35% decrease. This consistent percentage drop suggests that the RX 9070 remains the limiting factor even at 1440p, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom.

Scaling from 1440p to 4K produces a more substantial performance penalty. At High settings, the frame rate falls from 138.3 FPS to 73.7 FPS, a 47% reduction. The Ultra preset experiences a similar proportional decline, moving from 116.7 FPS to 62.1 FPS, a 47% drop. These steeper reductions at higher resolutions confirm that the GPU is heavily loaded at 4K, while the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's strong single-thread performance keeps the CPU from becoming a bottleneck at lower resolutions.

The Low settings data provides the clearest view of CPU headroom. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 297.4 FPS, while at 4K Low it still manages 104.9 FPS. The delta between 1080p and 4K at Low settings is 192.5 FPS, compared to a 146.8 FPS delta at Ultra settings. This indicates that at low graphical loads, the system is approaching the CPU's practical frame delivery ceiling, whereas at Ultra settings, the GPU's rendering workload dominates the performance equation.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D brings 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.20 GHz. In Doom, a game optimized for high frame rates and responsive gameplay, this processor's capabilities are well-suited to feeding the RX 9070 with sufficient draw calls and physics data. The large 96 MB shared L3 cache helps maintain low latency access to frequently used game data, which is critical in fast-paced FPS titles.

Benchmark results show the CPU's balanced performance across synthetic workloads. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 34004 and single-core score of 4800 indicate strong all-around capability, while the 3DMark 16-thread score of 10081 and single-thread score of 1212 demonstrate consistent scaling across thread counts. The Geekbench multicore result of 18413 and single-core result of 3341 further corroborate this pattern. In Doom, where frame times matter as much as average throughput, this processor's high boost clock and efficient architecture contribute to the system's ability to maintain high average FPS even at 1080p where CPU load is relatively higher.

The processor's percentile ranking of 90 among all CPUs places it in the top decile, though its nearest rivals show minimal separation. The Intel Core i5-13600KF averages 38028 in the benchmark suite, just 0.7% higher than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's 37780 average. Similarly, the Intel Core i9-13900HK scores 38020, a 0.6% difference. These narrow margins suggest that in CPU-light games like Doom, the 9800X3D's advantages may not be fully exercised, but its consistent frame delivery prevents any CPU-induced stutters or dips.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RX 9070 achieves a rank of 554 out of 1681 tested configurations in Doom, placing it at approximately the 67th percentile of all combos. This positioning indicates that while the system performs well in absolute terms, there are numerous other pairings that deliver higher average frame rates in this particular title. The ranking reflects both the strengths and limitations of this hardware pairing for Doom's specific rendering demands.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows it sits at the 79th percentile among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 34780. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA A2, scores 34866 (0.2% higher), while the AMD Radeon HD 7970 trails at 34541 (0.7% lower). The RX 9070's 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth provide ample resources for Doom's texture-heavy environments, though the card's performance in synthetic tests suggests it is not positioned at the very top of the GPU hierarchy.

The combo's rank of 554 suggests that Doom favors configurations with even higher GPU throughput or different CPU-GPU balance. Given that the CPU ranks at the 90th percentile and the GPU at the 79th percentile, the system's overall ranking is likely constrained by the GPU's mid-to-upper tier positioning rather than the CPU. This interpretation aligns with the resolution scaling data, which shows diminishing returns at higher resolutions where the GPU becomes the bottleneck.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo in Doom?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 297.4 FPS, which is the highest average frame rate recorded across all tested settings and resolutions.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 62.1, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay but indicates the GPU is heavily loaded.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU remains the primary constraint at 1080p, as the frame rate still scales noticeably with graphical settings, from 297.4 FPS at Low to 180.7 FPS at Ultra.

Q: What is the CPU's benchmark percentile and how does it compare to rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9800X3D ranks at the 90th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-13600KF, has an average score of 38028, just 0.7% higher than the 9800X3D's 37780.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and bandwidth?

A: The RX 9070 features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, with a boost clock of 2520 MHz.

Q: How does the combo rank relative to all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 554th out of 1681 total combos, placing it in the upper third of all tested system pairings for Doom.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070, built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, delivers a strong performance profile for Doom. The GPU's 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 raster output processors provide substantial raw compute capability, reflected in its FP32 throughput of 36.13 TFLOPS. The card's boost clock of 2520 MHz and game clock of 2070 MHz allow it to maintain high utilization during intense combat sequences, while the 16 GB GDDR6 memory ensures textures and geometry data remain readily accessible.

The memory subsystem plays a critical role in Doom's performance, with the 256-bit bus and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth preventing bottlenecks when loading large environments. The RX 9070's 56 ray tracing cores, while not extensively utilized in this 2016 title, contribute to the card's overall feature set. The GPU's pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s indicate the card can handle the fill-rate demands of Doom's fast-paced rendering at high resolutions.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 9070 achieves a Passmark G3D score of 25381 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6290. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 133741 and Vulkan score of 165532 demonstrate strong compute and graphics API performance. These results align with the measured FPS data, showing that the GPU delivers consistent frame rates across settings. The card's 79th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34780, places it in a competitive position, though its nearest rivals — the NVIDIA A2 at 34866 and Quadro GV100 at 34677 — show that the RX 9070 sits in a tightly contested performance band. The power delivery requirements, including a 220 W TDP and dual 8-pin connectors, support sustained high-clock operation during extended gaming sessions.