Doom

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Doom (2016), a title whose id Tech 6 engine scales well with both CPU and GPU resources. The measured data shows this combination ranks 116th out of 1,681 tested combos, placing it in the top ~7% of all configurations. Across all tested resolutions and settings, the average frame rates range from a low of 87 FPS at 4K Ultra to a high of 363.9 FPS at 1080p Low, demonstrating that this pairing is firmly in high-refresh-rate territory for this classic FPS.

FAQ

*Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in Doom?*

A: The combo ranks 116th out of 1,681 tested configurations, placing it in the upper echelon of all systems measured for this game.

Q: Which component is the primary bottleneck at 1080p resolution?

A: At 1080p, the frame rate ceiling appears to be CPU-bound. The difference between Low (363.9 FPS) and Medium (346.3 FPS) settings is only 17.6 FPS, whereas the gap between Ultra (241.1 FPS) and High (294 FPS) is 52.9 FPS, indicating that the processor limits maximum output before GPU load becomes significant.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER's memory configuration support 4K gaming?

A: The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This substantial memory subsystem allows the card to handle 4K textures and high-detail geometry without stuttering, evidenced by the 100.8 FPS average at 4K High.

Q: Can this system achieve 144 FPS at 1440p with maximum settings?

A: Yes. At 2560x1440 with Ultra settings, the measured average FPS is 156.3, which is above the 144 Hz threshold. Even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains an average of 87 FPS, which is competitive for high-refresh 4K monitors.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The difference is substantial: 363.9 FPS at Low versus 241.1 FPS at Ultra. This represents a performance drop of 122.8 FPS, or approximately 33.7% lower frame rate when moving to maximum visual fidelity.

*Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance relate to Doom's engine demands?*

A: The Ryzen 9 5950X's 16 cores and 32 threads provide massive parallel processing capability. The 3DMark max threads score of 11,597 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 38,607 indicate that the processor easily handles the engine's threading model, ensuring that the GPU remains the primary performance limiter at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant factor in this configuration's Doom performance, particularly at higher resolutions. With a boost clock of 2550 MHz and 10,240 shading units, the GPU's raw compute capability is substantial. The FP32 throughput of 52.22 TFLOPS provides the arithmetic bandwidth needed to process the game's dynamic lighting and particle effects. The card's 320 texture mapping units and 112 ROPs deliver a texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s, respectively, which directly translate to the fill rates observed in the measured frame rates.

The memory subsystem is equally critical. The 16 GB GDDR6X frame buffer with 736.3 GB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and geometry data transfer are never constraining factors, even at 4K resolution with Ultra settings. The 256-bit memory bus width allows for efficient data throughput, and the effective 23 Gbps memory clock rate is among the fastest available.

In Doom, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the frame rate is often limited by the CPU's ability to issue draw calls, but at 1440p and 4K, the GPU's shading and rasterization work dominates. The data supports this: at 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 241.1 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 87 FPS. This 154.1 FPS drop is primarily attributed to the GPU's workload scaling with pixel count.

The RTX 4080 SUPER's architecture, Ada Lovelace on a 5 nm process, includes 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, though Doom's original release does not utilize ray tracing. The GPU's raw rasterization performance is the key asset here, and the benchmark scores confirm its position. The PassMark G3D score of 34,245 places it ahead of its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, by 0.2%, and it leads the AMD Radeon RX 7700S by 2.1%.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of scaling as resolution increases, with the GPU becoming progressively more load-bound. At 1080p, the average frames across all settings are extremely high, ranging from 241.1 to 363.9 FPS. Moving to 1440p, these numbers drop by roughly 30-35%: the Ultra setting falls from 241.1 to 156.3 FPS, and Low falls from 363.9 to 259.2 FPS. At 4K, the drop is more severe, with Ultra falling to 87 FPS and Low to 139.2 FPS.

This scaling behavior indicates a shift in bottleneck from CPU-limited at 1080p to GPU-limited at 4K. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 363.9 FPS is likely near the engine's simulation or draw-call limit, as the CPU's single-thread performance (3DMark single thread score of 944) becomes the constraint. The Ryzen 9 5950X's boost clock of 4.90 GHz helps here, but even this high frequency cannot push beyond the measured ceiling.

At 1440p, the GPU begins to take over as the limiting factor. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra settings is 84.8 FPS, which is a 35.2% reduction. This aligns with the pixel count increase of 78% (from 2,073,600 to 3,686,400 pixels), but the actual frame rate drop is less than proportional, suggesting that the GPU still has headroom and the CPU is partially involved.

At 4K, the GPU is fully saturated. The 87 FPS at Ultra represents a 44.3% drop from the 1440p Ultra score. The pixel count quadruples from 1440p to 4K (from 3,686,400 to 8,294,400 pixels), but the frame rate does not drop by 75%, indicating that the engine's rendering efficiency and the GPU's bandwidth help mitigate the load. The 736.3 GB/s memory bandwidth is particularly beneficial here, as it prevents memory-bound stalls.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

At 1080p, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings yield an average of 363.9 FPS, Medium 346.3 FPS, High 294 FPS, and Ultra 241.1 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 122.8 FPS, representing a 33.7% performance penalty for maximum visual quality. The settings scaling is non-linear: the jump from Low to Medium costs 17.6 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 52.9 FPS, suggesting that specific Ultra effects (like high-quality shadows or post-processing) are disproportionately expensive.

2560x1440:

At 1440p, the frame rates remain high enough for competitive play. Low settings produce 259.2 FPS, Medium 222.3 FPS, High 187.6 FPS, and Ultra 156.3 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: Low drops by 104.7 FPS, Medium by 124 FPS, High by 106.4 FPS, and Ultra by 84.8 FPS. Notably, the Ultra setting is the only one that does not drop by more than 100 FPS, indicating that at this resolution, the GPU is becoming the primary limit for lower settings, while Ultra still benefits from CPU headroom.

3840x2160:

At 4K, the system maintains playable frame rates even at maximum settings. Low yields 139.2 FPS, Medium 124.8 FPS, High 100.8 FPS, and Ultra 87 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 52.2 FPS, which is a 37.5% reduction. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a consistent drop: Low falls by 120 FPS, Medium by 97.5 FPS, High by 86.8 FPS, and Ultra by 69.3 FPS. The fact that the absolute drop decreases as settings increase indicates that the GPU is more fully utilized at Ultra, making the resolution increase less proportionally impactful.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER configuration ranks 116th out of 1,681 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the top 6.9% of all systems. This is a strong result for a CPU released in late 2020 and a GPU released in early 2024, reflecting the scalability of the game engine and the raw power of both components.

Relative to other CPUs in the database, the Ryzen 9 5950X holds its own. Its average benchmark score of 49,062 places it just 0.2% behind the Intel Core i5-14600K (49,166) and 0.6% behind the Intel Core i5-14600KF (49,367). It outperforms the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H by 0.7% and the AMD EPYC 4345P by 1.1%. This suggests that in Doom, the 16-core processor is not a bottleneck, as its multi-threaded capabilities exceed the game's requirements.

For the GPU, the RTX 4080 SUPER's average benchmark score of 53,610 places it 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (53,489) and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (53,414). It leads the AMD Radeon RX 7700S by 2.1% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 2.9%. This indicates that the GPU is performing near the top of its class, though the ranking suggests that some combinations with more recent CPUs or higher-tier GPUs achieve better frame rates.

Given the data, the combo's rank of 116 is likely limited by the CPU's single-thread performance at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 363.9 FPS result is high, but it falls short of the absolute fastest systems. At 4K Ultra, the 87 FPS is respectable but not class-leading. Overall, this pairing offers a balanced high-end experience, with the GPU providing the majority of performance headroom at higher resolutions and the CPU ensuring no major bottlenecks at lower settings.