Doom

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the AMD Radeon 8060S produces a distinctive performance profile in Doom, one that shifts from GPU-bound at 4K to increasingly CPU-bound at 1080p. The data shows a combo that ranks 1671st out of 2930 tested configurations in this game, placing it in the 57th percentile of all combos, while the individual components sit higher in their own respective percentile rankings. This discrepancy between component-level and combo-level performance suggests the pairing behaves differently than either part would alone.

FAQ

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 8945HX compare to its nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 9 8945HX scores an average benchmark of 76212, which places it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs. Its closest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, scores 76155, a delta of only 0.1% — essentially a statistical tie. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 75779, putting the 8945HX 0.6% ahead, while the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX score 76492 and 76513 respectively, placing them 0.4% ahead of the mobile chip.

Q: What is the Radeon 8060S's position among all GPUs?

A: The Radeon 8060S holds an 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 55757. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, scores 55698, a delta of just 0.1%. Interestingly, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 scores 56083, meaning the 8060S trails it by only 0.6%, while the RTX 4080 scores 54247, putting the 8060S 2.8% ahead.

*Q: What is the best measured FPS result for this combo in Doom?*

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 211, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best results are 184 FPS at 1080p Medium, 155 FPS at 1080p High, and 137 FPS at 2560x1440 Low. At 4K, the best result drops to 74 FPS with Low settings.

Q: How much of a performance gap exists between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 74 on Low to 45 on Ultra. This represents a 64% difference in frame rate between the lowest and highest quality presets. The Medium preset delivers 65 FPS, while High produces 55 FPS, showing a clear stepwise degradation as visual fidelity increases.

*Q: Does the combo rank higher in Doom than its component percentiles suggest?*

A: No, the combo ranks 1671st out of 2930 combos in Doom, which is roughly the 57th percentile of tested combinations. This is notably lower than the CPU's 95th percentile and the GPU's 87th percentile. The data implies that Doom does not fully utilize the strengths of either component when paired together.

Q: What are the minimum FPS figures for Medium settings across resolutions?

A: The measured minimum FPS values are only recorded for Medium settings. At 3840x2160, the minimum is 55 FPS with a maximum of 74 FPS. At 2560x1440, the minimum is 101 FPS with a maximum of 137 FPS. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 156 FPS with a maximum of 212 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset balances visual quality with playable frame rates. At 1920x1080, all four presets deliver above 120 FPS on average, with Ultra producing 127 FPS and High producing 155 FPS. This means even the most demanding settings are comfortably playable at 1080p, making Ultra the recommended choice for users with 1080p displays who want maximum fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

Moving to 2560x1440, the situation becomes more nuanced. Ultra averages 82 FPS, which is acceptable for most players, but High delivers 101 FPS — a 23% improvement. Medium produces 119 FPS, and Low reaches 137 FPS. For competitive play or high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, Medium or High would be preferable, as they stay well above the 100 FPS threshold. The data suggests High at 1440p offers the best compromise between visual quality and frame rate headroom.

At 3840x2160, the choices narrow considerably. Ultra averages only 45 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. High produces 55 FPS, still short of 60. Medium averages 65 FPS, barely crossing the threshold, while Low reaches 74 FPS. For 4K gaming, the data indicates that Medium is the highest preset that reliably maintains playable performance, with Low providing additional headroom for frame rate stability. Users prioritizing smoothness over visuals should select Low at 4K, while those wanting the best quality that still exceeds 60 FPS should choose Medium.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals how this combo scales with resolution. At Low settings, the average FPS decreases from 211 at 1080p to 137 at 1440p, then to 74 at 4K. This represents a 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 46% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 65%.

At High settings, the progression is 155 FPS at 1080p, 101 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K. This translates to a 35% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a 46% decrease from 1440p to 4K, identical percentages to Low settings. The consistency of these percentages across presets suggests that resolution scaling is largely independent of the quality preset chosen.

These uniform scaling percentages point to a primarily GPU-limited scenario. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU workload would stay constant while the GPU takes on more pixel-pushing duties. Instead, the consistent drops indicate that the Radeon 8060S is the limiting component across all resolutions. However, the fact that 1080p Low reaches 211 FPS — a very high frame rate — suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at lower resolutions, while the GPU's raw throughput becomes the constraint as pixel count rises.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1671st out of 2930 tested combinations in Doom, placing it in the lower half of the upper-middle tier. This rank is significantly lower than what the component percentiles would predict. The CPU sits in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU sits in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, yet the combination only achieves roughly the 57th percentile in this specific game.

This discrepancy could indicate that Doom does not scale well with the particular strengths of this hardware. The Ryzen 9 8945HX's 16 cores and 32 threads are largely underutilized in a game that may not be heavily multithreaded, while the Radeon 8060S's performance profile — despite its high percentile ranking — may not translate directly to Doom's rendering workload. The rank suggests that many other combos with lower-tier individual components achieve better results in this title, possibly due to better optimization or architectural advantages that favor Doom's specific engine requirements.

GPU Role

The Radeon 8060S is built on the RDNA 3.5 architecture and uses the Strix Halo chip, manufactured on a 4 nm process. It features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 40 ray tracing cores. The GPU's base clock runs at 1295 MHz, boosting to 2900 MHz, which contributes to a pixel rate of 185.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 464.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is rated at 14.85 TFLOPS.

Critically, this GPU uses System Shared memory, meaning there is no dedicated VRAM pool. The memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent," which means the GPU relies on the CPU's DDR5 memory. This configuration can impact performance in memory-bandwidth-intensive scenarios, though Doom's measured results suggest the impact is manageable at lower resolutions.

The GPU's 87th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 55757 place it near the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, with a delta of just 0.1%. The fact that this integrated GPU matches a discrete card from the previous generation is notable. In Doom, the GPU appears to be the limiting factor at 4K, as evidenced by the substantial FPS drops when increasing resolution. The 45 FPS average at 4K Ultra versus the 211 FPS at 1080p Low illustrates the GPU's scaling behavior across the resolution spectrum.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings average 211 FPS, Medium averages 184 FPS with a minimum of 156 and maximum of 212, High averages 155 FPS, and Ultra averages 127 FPS. All presets exceed 120 FPS, providing smooth gameplay regardless of quality level.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's limitations. Low averages 137 FPS, Medium averages 119 FPS with a minimum of 101 and maximum of 137, High averages 101 FPS, and Ultra drops to 82 FPS. The gap between Ultra and Low is 55 FPS, indicating a 40% performance penalty for maximum visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates fall significantly. Low averages 74 FPS, Medium averages 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 and maximum of 74, High averages 55 FPS, and Ultra averages 45 FPS. Only Low and Medium exceed 60 FPS on average, with Ultra falling well below the smoothness threshold. The spread from Low to Ultra is 29 FPS, representing a 39% reduction in performance.

The Medium settings across all resolutions provide the only complete min/max data. The consistency of the minimum FPS values — 55 at 4K, 101 at 1440p, and 156 at 1080p — shows that the frame time variance scales proportionally with resolution, reinforcing the GPU-bound nature of the configuration.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, using the Dragon Range codename. It operates with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a TDP of 55 W. The CPU has 64 MB of L3 cache, with 1 MB of L2 cache per core and 64 KB of L1 cache per core. It supports DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus, providing 83.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU demonstrates exceptional multithreaded capability. The Cinebench R23 multicore score is 42713, while the single-core score is 6030. The Cinebench R20 scores are 17939 multicore and 2532 single-core, and Cinebench R15 scores are 4305 multicore and 607 single-core. PassMark results show a multithread score of 51405 and a single-thread score of 3907, with a physics score of 2168.

Despite these strong numbers, the CPU's role in Doom appears secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS at 1080p Low — 211 FPS — is high but not extraordinarily so, suggesting the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output at that resolution. However, the fact that the CPU ranks in the 95th percentile while the combo only ranks 1671st out of 2930 in Doom implies that the game does not leverage the CPU's full potential. The 16-core configuration is likely overkill for a title from 2016, which may not scale beyond a handful of threads. The CPU's high benchmark scores in heavily multithreaded workloads like Cinebench and PassMark do not translate to proportional gains in Doom, where the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases.