Doom

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics delivers a playable but constrained experience in Doom, one that shifts character dramatically depending on the resolution and quality preset you choose. This is a combo where the GPU is the clear bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s substantial multi-threaded muscle ensures that frame pacing stays consistent when the load is lowered. The measured data reveals a system that can hit smooth frame rates at 1080p with low to medium settings, but struggles to maintain even 30 FPS at 4K, making it essential to understand exactly where the performance ceiling sits.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is severe, and the pattern across each settings tier shows a classic GPU-limited scenario. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 95 at 1920x1080 to 61 at 2560x1440, then to 33 at 3840x2160. That is a 65% reduction in average frame rate from 1080p to 4K, a steep decline that points directly at the Radeon 890M’s compute and memory bandwidth limits rather than any CPU constraint. The Medium preset tells a similar story: 82 FPS at 1080p, 53 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K, with the 4K result dipping to a minimum of 25 FPS. High settings follow the same trajectory—70 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K. Ultra is the most punishing, dropping from 57 FPS at 1080p to 37 FPS at 1440p and finally 20 FPS at 4K.

What this scaling reveals is that the Radeon 890M’s integrated architecture, with its 1024 shading units and system-shared memory, simply cannot feed enough pixels to the display at higher resolutions. The jump from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 35-40% of the frame rate across all settings, which is a larger proportional drop than what you would expect from a discrete GPU with dedicated VRAM. The 4K results are uniformly below 35 FPS even at Low settings, confirming that this combo is not meant for native 4K gaming in Doom. The limiting component is unmistakably the GPU, as the Ryzen 9 8945HX’s 16 cores and 5.40 GHz boost clock would have no trouble driving far higher frame rates if the graphics pipeline could keep up. The scaling curve is smooth and predictable, with no sudden collapses that would indicate a CPU or driver bottleneck, so the data supports a straightforward conclusion: resolution is the primary lever, and 1080p is the only realistic target for smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of CPU and GPU sits at rank 2758 out of 2930 tested combos for Doom. That places it in the bottom 6% of all tested configurations, a low position that reflects the integrated GPU’s limitations rather than any deficiency in the processor. The combo rank is heavily weighted by the GPU’s performance, and the Radeon 890M’s overall GPU percentile of 45—meaning it performs better than 45% of all GPUs in the database—shows that this is a mid-tier integrated solution. When paired with a top-tier mobile CPU like the Ryzen 9 8945HX, the result is a lopsided pairing where the processor vastly outpaces the graphics subsystem.

Looking at the GPU’s nearest rivals in the database, the Radeon 890M posts an average benchmark score of 9210, which is within 1% of the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (9221, a delta of -0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (9273, delta -0.7%), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 (9294, delta -0.9%). This clustering indicates that the 890M’s raw compute performance is roughly equivalent to those older discrete cards, which is impressive for an integrated solution but still places it firmly in the lower half of the GPU hierarchy. The GTX 850M, another laptop-oriented part, scores 9302, just 1% higher, reinforcing that the 890M delivers performance in the range of entry-level discrete GPUs from several generations ago.

The CPU, by contrast, ranks in the 95th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 76212. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (76155, delta 0.1%), the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (76492, delta -0.4%), the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (76513, delta -0.4%), and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (75779, delta 0.6%). These deltas are all within a fraction of a percent, meaning the 8945HX is statistically tied with some of the most powerful desktop and workstation processors in the database. The stark contrast between the CPU’s 95th percentile ranking and the combo’s 2758th place out of 2930 shows that the processor is not the limiting factor in Doom; it is the Radeon 890M that drags the overall ranking down.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor built on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Dragon Range, and manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a TDP of 55 watts. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a 64 MB L3 cache, which is substantial for a mobile part. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 42713 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6030 in single-core, numbers that place it among the fastest mobile processors available. Its PassMark multithread score of 51405 and single-thread score of 3907 further confirm its high-end positioning.

For Doom, which is a game that scales well with strong single-thread performance but also benefits from multiple cores for background tasks and physics, the 8945HX is overkill. The game’s engine, originally released in 2016, does not require 16 cores to achieve high frame rates; even a quad-core processor from that era could push well over 100 FPS with a suitable GPU. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 95 FPS, and that number is capped by the GPU, not the CPU. The processor’s 5.40 GHz boost clock ensures that the game’s main thread has ample headroom, while the 64 MB L3 cache helps maintain consistent frame times even when the GPU is struggling at higher resolutions.

The CPU’s memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel configuration provides a theoretical bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s, which is the same memory channel that the Radeon 890M uses for its frame buffer since the GPU relies on system-shared memory. This shared bandwidth is a critical factor: at 4K, where the GPU needs to access large textures and geometry data, the available memory bandwidth becomes a bottleneck. The CPU’s performance is so far ahead of the GPU’s requirements that it never becomes the limiting factor in any measured configuration, which confirms the 8945HX’s capabilities but also highlights the imbalance of this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a usable range of performance across all settings. Low settings deliver an average of 95 FPS, which is smooth for a fast-paced FPS like Doom, though it falls short of the 120+ FPS that competitive players might prefer. Medium settings reduce the average to 82 FPS, with a minimum of 70 FPS and a maximum of 95 FPS, indicating that the frame rate stays within a narrow band during intense scenes. High settings drop to 70 FPS average, which remains playable, while Ultra produces 57 FPS average. The step from Low to Medium costs 13 FPS (a 14% drop), from Medium to High costs 12 FPS (a 15% drop), and from High to Ultra costs another 13 FPS (a 19% drop). These are consistent, incremental penalties that suggest the GPU is scaling predictably with the increased shading and texture work.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance becomes more marginal. Low settings yield an average of 61 FPS, which is just above the threshold for acceptable smoothness, but Medium drops to 53 FPS with a minimum of 45 FPS, meaning you will feel stutter in hectic firefights. High settings average 45 FPS, and Ultra falls to 37 FPS. The gaps between settings are similar to 1080p in percentage terms, but the absolute numbers are lower, making each step more impactful. The Medium preset’s minimum of 45 FPS is particularly telling—it shows that even at a moderate quality level, the GPU cannot maintain a locked 60 FPS at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the results are consistently below playable thresholds. Low settings average 33 FPS, Medium averages 29 FPS with a minimum of 25 FPS, High averages 24 FPS, and Ultra averages 20 FPS. None of these configurations reach the 30 FPS minimum that many players consider the floor for a playable experience, and the Low preset’s 33 FPS is the only one that even approaches it. The frame rates at 4K are so low that they suggest the Radeon 890M is overwhelmed by the pixel count, and the system-shared memory bandwidth becomes a severe constraint. The data shows a clear pattern: 1080p is the only resolution where this combo can deliver a consistently smooth experience, and even then, it requires dropping to Medium or High settings to maintain a solid frame rate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 890M is an integrated GPU based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, with the chip codenamed Strix Point and a 4 nm manufacturing process at TSMC. It has 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units, along with 16 ray tracing cores. Its clock speeds range from a base of 400 MHz to a boost of 2900 MHz, which is a high boost for an integrated part. The GPU’s FP32 compute performance is rated at 5.939 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The pixel rate is 92.80 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 185.6 GTexel/s.

Crucially, the 890M has no dedicated VRAM; it uses system-shared memory, with the type, bus width, and bandwidth all listed as system-dependent. This means its performance is tied directly to the CPU’s memory subsystem, which in this case is DDR5 with a theoretical bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. For a game like Doom, which features fast movement and detailed textures, the lack of dedicated memory bandwidth is the primary limiting factor. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 8076 places it in the 45th percentile of all GPUs, which aligns with the measured FPS results: it is a mid-tier performer that can handle older or lighter titles at lower resolutions but struggles with demanding loads at high pixel counts.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the database, as mentioned earlier, include the Radeon Vega 8, GTX 960, GTX 465, and GTX 850M, all of which score within 1% of the 890M. This comparison highlights that the 890M’s raw compute is comparable to those older discrete cards, but those cards had dedicated VRAM, which gives them an advantage in memory-heavy scenarios. The GTX 960, for instance, has 2 GB or 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, whereas the 890M must share system memory with the CPU. In Doom, this shared-memory penalty is evident in the steep FPS drops at 4K, where the GPU’s memory access becomes a bottleneck. The GPU’s boost clock of 2900 MHz is high, but it cannot compensate for the memory bandwidth limitation.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the best experience for this combo in Doom is at 1920x1080 with Medium settings. This configuration produces an average of 82 FPS, with a minimum of 70 FPS and a maximum of 95 FPS. The minimum of 70 FPS is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the visual quality improvement over Low settings is noticeable without a major performance penalty. Low settings at 1080p do offer a higher average of 95 FPS, which could be preferable for competitive play where frame rate is paramount, but the Medium preset’s 82 FPS average is still high enough for responsive aiming, and the added graphical detail makes the game look significantly better.

High settings at 1080p are also viable, with an average of 70 FPS, but the minimum FPS is not listed, so there is some uncertainty about the lowest frame rates you might encounter during explosions or heavy combat. Ultra at 1080p drops to 57 FPS average, which is borderline for a fast-paced FPS; it is playable but not ideal, and the step down from High to Ultra costs 13 FPS, which is a substantial hit for the visual improvements. At 1440p, the only setting that achieves an average above 60 FPS is Low, with 61 FPS, but its minimum is not listed, and the Medium preset’s minimum of 45 FPS suggests that frame time variance will be noticeable. For a game like Doom, where you need to track fast-moving demons and react quickly, maintaining a stable frame rate is more important than pushing resolution.

The measured data does not support any configuration at 4K as a recommended choice, as all presets fall below 35 FPS, which is too low for a smooth experience. Therefore, the practical advice is to play at 1080p, start with Medium settings, and if you prefer higher visual fidelity, test High to see if your tolerance for occasional frame drops is acceptable. If you have a 1440p display, you can set the game to Low for a playable 61 FPS average, but be prepared for potential dips below 60 FPS. This combo is clearly optimized for 1080p gaming, and the Radeon 890M’s integrated nature means you should treat resolution scaling as the primary performance lever. The processor’s immense power will not save you at higher resolutions, so adjust your expectations accordingly.