Doom

# Doom with AMD Ryzen 9 7900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers a remarkably smooth Doom experience across all tested resolutions, with average framerates that range from 71 FPS at 4K Ultra to 335 FPS at 1080p Low. The measured data shows this pairing ranks 754th out of 3712 tested combos in this game, placing it comfortably in the top 20% of all systems tested. The 12-core, 24-thread Zen 4 processor provides ample headroom, while the RTX 5070's Blackwell architecture handles the id Tech engine efficiently, resulting in a system that never dips below playable territory even at the most demanding settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data makes it clear that this combo excels at every preset, but the ideal choice depends heavily on your display's refresh rate and resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 335 FPS average, which is far beyond what even the fastest gaming monitors can display. The Medium preset still produces 292 FPS average with a minimum of 248 FPS, making it the sweet spot for high-refresh 1080p panels—you get nearly the same speed as Low but with noticeably better visual fidelity. High at 1080p drops to 247 FPS average, which is still excellent for 240Hz monitors, while Ultra maintains 202 FPS average, making even the maximum quality preset viable for competitive play.

Moving to 1440p, the scaling remains impressive. Low pushes 217 FPS average, Medium hits 189 FPS with a 161 FPS minimum, and High delivers 160 FPS average. For most 144Hz or 165Hz 1440p displays, the High preset offers the best balance—it stays above the refresh rate ceiling for the majority of the experience while providing substantially better shadows, textures, and lighting than Medium. Ultra at 1440p still manages 131 FPS average, which is perfectly playable on 120Hz panels and only slightly below the refresh rate on 144Hz screens.

At 4K, the situation changes. Ultra drops to 71 FPS average, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced Doom combat. High at 4K produces 87 FPS average, and Medium reaches 102 FPS with an 87 FPS minimum. The data suggests that Medium is the recommended 4K preset for this combo—it maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS even in the worst-case moments shown by the minimum framerate, while the visual difference between Medium and High at 4K is often difficult to perceive due to the pixel density. For those with VRR displays, High at 4K is also viable, but the extra 15 FPS headroom from Medium provides a more consistent experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 754 out of 3712 tested combinations places it in the 79.7th percentile of all systems tested in Doom. This is a strong result, though not an elite one—the game's age means many higher-end GPUs and newer CPUs can push even higher framerates. Looking at the individual components, the Ryzen 9 7900X sits at the 91st percentile among all CPUs based on its average benchmark score of 53288, while the RTX 5070 achieves the 82nd percentile among GPUs with an average score of 40377.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 7313P at 53206 (0.2% faster), the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 at 53469 (0.3% faster), the Intel Xeon 634 at 52974 (0.6% slower), and the Intel Core i7-14700F at 53620 (0.6% faster). These are all extremely close margins, indicating that the 7900X is well within the expected performance band for a high-end desktop processor. For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro 580 at 40318 (0.1% faster), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 at 40063 (0.8% slower), the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 at 40870 (1.2% faster), and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile at 39568 (2.0% slower). The RTX 5070's position among these workstation-class cards suggests it punches above its gaming-focused positioning in compute-heavy tasks.

In the context of Doom specifically, the rank indicates that while this system is far from the top of the leaderboard, it outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations. The gap between this combo and the top-ranked systems likely stems from the game's engine scaling well with higher-end GPUs that have more memory bandwidth or raw compute throughput, rather than any deficiency in this particular pairing.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Doom at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes, but barely. The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 averages 71 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, the Medium preset at 4K offers 102 FPS average with an 87 FPS minimum, providing significantly more headroom for demanding combat scenarios.

Q: What is the best preset for competitive play at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 292 FPS average with a 248 FPS minimum, which is nearly as fast as Low (335 FPS) but with better visual quality. This makes Medium the optimal choice for high-refresh-rate monitors, as the minimum framerate still exceeds the refresh rate of most 240Hz displays.

Q: How does the CPU's core count affect performance in Doom?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X has 12 cores and 24 threads, which is far more than Doom requires. The game's engine benefits from strong single-thread performance, and the 7900X's 2617 Geekbench single-core score and 2016.5 Cinebench R23 single-core score indicate excellent per-core capability, ensuring the CPU is never a bottleneck in this title.

Q: Is the RTX 5070's 12 GB of VRAM sufficient for Doom at high resolutions?

A: Yes, the measured data shows no VRAM-related performance issues. At 4K Ultra, the system maintains 71 FPS average, and the memory bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s from the 192-bit GDDR7 interface provides ample throughput for this game's textures and effects.

Q: How does this combo compare to the RTX 5070's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5070's average benchmark score of 40377 is within 2% of its nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40318), Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40063), Radeon Pro 5300 (40870), and NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568). This indicates the GPU performs consistently with its expected class.

Q: What refresh rate monitor should I pair with this system for 1440p?

A: At 1440p High, the system averages 160 FPS, making a 165Hz monitor a good match. The 1440p Medium preset at 189 FPS would also support a 180Hz display, while 1440p Ultra at 131 FPS pairs well with a 144Hz panel if you prioritize visual quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four quality presets, providing a comprehensive picture of performance. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 335 FPS average, Medium reaches 292 FPS with a minimum of 248 FPS and a maximum of 336 FPS, High delivers 247 FPS average, and Ultra maintains 202 FPS average. The 1080p results show a clear progression where each step up in quality costs roughly 40-50 FPS, with the gap between Low and Medium being the largest at 43 FPS.

At 2560x1440, Low produces 217 FPS average, Medium hits 189 FPS with a 161 FPS minimum and 217 FPS maximum, High delivers 160 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 131 FPS average. The 1440p scaling follows a similar pattern to 1080p, with each quality tier reducing framerates by approximately 25-30 FPS. The minimum FPS at Medium (161) remains well above 144 FPS, making this preset particularly attractive for high-refresh 1440p gaming.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low achieves 118 FPS average, Medium reaches 102 FPS with an 87 FPS minimum and 118 FPS maximum, High delivers 87 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 71 FPS average. The 4K results show diminishing returns from the higher presets—the gap between Low and Ultra is 47 FPS, and each quality step costs roughly 15-16 FPS. The minimum FPS at Medium (87) is still comfortably above 60 FPS, but the Ultra preset's 71 FPS average leaves less margin for intense combat scenarios.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom, with the minimum FPS values—248 at 1080p, 161 at 1440p, and 87 at 4K—all remaining well above the 60 FPS playability threshold.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about where this system's bottleneck lies. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Medium settings, the framerate drops from 292 FPS to 189 FPS, a reduction of 35.3%. From 1440p to 4K at Medium, the drop is from 189 FPS to 102 FPS, a further 46.0% reduction. This pattern—where the percentage drop increases as resolution rises—indicates that the GPU becomes progressively more limiting at higher pixel counts.

At 1080p Low, the system achieves 335 FPS, but at 4K Low it drops to 118 FPS, a 64.8% reduction. This substantial scaling penalty suggests that even at Low settings, the RTX 5070's rendering load grows significantly with resolution. The 672.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 throughput are being taxed heavily at 4K, while the CPU's role diminishes as pixel count rises.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the Ryzen 9 7900X is more likely to be the limiting factor, as the GPU can push extremely high framerates that approach the CPU's per-thread capabilities. The 7900X's single-thread performance, measured at 2617 in Geekbench and 2016.5 in Cinebench R23, is strong but not unlimited, and Doom's engine requires substantial CPU work per frame. At 4K, however, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with the resolution scaling showing that pixel throughput dominates performance.

This resolution scaling behavior is typical for a balanced mid-to-high-end system. At 1080p, the system is capable of framerates that exceed what most displays can show, making the CPU the practical limit. At 4K, the GPU's workload increases by approximately 3.7x compared to 1080p (3840x2160 vs 1920x1080 pixel counts), and the framerate scaling reflects this increased demand.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X brings substantial processing power to this pairing, with 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture. The base clock of 4.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz provide excellent per-thread performance, which is crucial for Doom's engine that relies heavily on single-threaded game logic. The processor's 64 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency for frequently accessed data, and the dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can feed the GPU without stalling.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 7900X demonstrates strong multi-threaded capability with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29300 and a Geekbench multicore score of 19267. The single-thread scores—2016.5 in Cinebench R23 and 2617 in Geekbench—show that the processor excels at the type of workloads Doom presents. The 3DMark scores further illustrate the CPU's gaming potential: 10973 in the 16-thread test, 7798 in the 8-thread test, and 4151 in the 4-thread test. These results indicate that even with fewer threads active, the 7900X maintains strong performance.

The CPU's 91st percentile ranking among all processors, combined with its average benchmark score of 53288, places it slightly ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313P (0.2% faster) and Intel Xeon 634 (0.6% faster), while being marginally behind the Intel Core i7-14700F (0.6% faster) and Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (0.3% faster). These rivals represent a mix of server and desktop processors, and the close margins suggest the 7900X is well-positioned for gaming workloads.

In Doom specifically, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions where framerates exceed 300 FPS. At 1080p Low, the 335 FPS average approaches the limits of what even high-end CPUs can sustain in this engine, and the 7900X's combination of high boost clocks and efficient Zen 4 architecture keeps the system from becoming CPU-bound prematurely. As resolution increases to 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes, and the RTX 5070's rendering throughput becomes the dominant factor. The measured data shows no signs of CPU-related stuttering or framerate inconsistency, indicating that the 12-core processor provides ample headroom for Doom's demands across all tested configurations.