Doom

Doom is a fast-paced FPS where high frame rates matter more than most visual flourishes, and the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT shows this combination is exceptionally well-suited to that demand. Across all tested resolutions, the system delivers playable, often exceptional, performance, but the optimal settings depend heavily on your display's refresh rate and resolution. The benchmark results provide a clear picture: this pairing is powerful enough to prioritize smoothness, and the data suggests exactly where to make those trade-offs.

Settings Recommendations

For players on 1080p displays, the data indicates that the "Ultra" preset is the sweet spot for a premium experience, but it is not the absolute maximum. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 189 FPS, which is already far beyond the 144Hz standard and even saturates many 240Hz monitors. However, the High preset pushes that to 231 FPS, and the Low preset reaches a staggering 314 FPS. Given the game's fast-paced nature, the jump from 189 FPS to 231 FPS is more impactful than the marginal visual improvements from Ultra to High. The Medium preset, at 273 FPS, is a strong middle ground, but High offers the best balance of visual fidelity and raw speed for competitive play. For pure maximum frame rates, dropping to Low yields 314 FPS, a 66% increase over Ultra, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate esports-style play.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts. The High preset produces an average of 149 FPS, which is perfect for 144Hz monitors, providing a smooth and visually detailed experience. The Ultra preset drops to 122 FPS, which is still playable but begins to dip below the refresh rate ceiling of many high-end displays. The Medium preset offers 177 FPS, which is excellent for 165Hz panels, but the visual cutbacks may not be worth the extra FPS for most players. The Low preset reaches 203 FPS, which is great for 240Hz 1440p panels, but the graphical compromise is significant. For the vast majority of 1440p users, High is the clear winner: it provides a 22% performance boost over Ultra while maintaining a high level of visual quality.

For 4K gaming, the situation is more nuanced. The Ultra preset, at 66 FPS, is technically playable but not ideal for a fast-paced shooter. The High preset, at 81 FPS, is a much better target, providing a smoother experience that is suitable for 60-75Hz displays. The Medium preset increases the average to 96 FPS, which is a significant improvement and makes the game feel considerably more responsive. For 4K players, the recommendation is to start with High and consider dropping to Medium if you prefer a higher refresh rate. The Low preset, at 110 FPS, offers the highest performance but severely compromises visuals on a large 4K screen. Ultimately, the data suggests that High is the best starting point for 4K, with Medium as a performance-oriented fallback.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Doom at 4K with high frame rates?

A: Yes, but not on the highest settings. At 4K with High settings, the system averages 81 FPS, which is smooth for most displays. Dropping to Medium raises the average to 96 FPS, while Ultra falls to 66 FPS.

Q: What is the best preset for a 144Hz monitor at 1440p?

A: The High preset is the optimal choice. It delivers an average of 149 FPS, which is just above the 144Hz threshold. The Ultra preset averages 122 FPS, which would result in some screen tearing or require V-Sync to cap the frame rate.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever worth using?

A: Yes, but only at 1080p where the performance cost is less severe. At 1080p Ultra, the system still averages 189 FPS, which is high enough for most monitors. At 1440p and 4K, the visual gains from Ultra are not worth the significant FPS drops compared to High.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between Low and Ultra settings?

A: The gap is substantial. At 1080p, Low averages 314 FPS while Ultra averages 189 FPS, a difference of 125 FPS. At 4K, Low averages 110 FPS while Ultra averages 66 FPS, a difference of 44 FPS.

Q: Does the frame rate scale evenly across all resolution changes?

A: No, the scaling is not perfectly linear. The data shows that the FPS drops are more pronounced when moving from 1440p to 4K than when moving from 1080p to 1440p, indicating a growing reliance on the GPU at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the lowest frame rate this system can produce in Doom?

A: The lowest average FPS recorded in the data is 66 FPS, which occurs at 4K with the Ultra preset. This is still a playable frame rate, but it is the only configuration that dips below the 70 FPS mark.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the primary driver of performance in this pairing, and its memory configuration is a key factor. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. This large frame buffer ensures that even at 4K with high-resolution textures, the card does not run into memory capacity limits, allowing the benchmark results to reflect pure rendering performance rather than memory bottlenecks. The 16 GB capacity is particularly relevant for future-proofing, as it comfortably handles the demands of a modern title like Doom at all tested settings.

The GPU's clock speeds are high, with a base clock of 1660 MHz and a boost clock of 2970 MHz. The "game" clock is listed at 2400 MHz, which is the expected sustained frequency during typical gaming loads. These high clocks are reflected in the performance data. The difference between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution highlights the GPU's raw compute power. For instance, at 1080p, the card pushes from 189 FPS at Ultra to 314 FPS at Low, demonstrating that it is not the primary constraint at this resolution. The GPU's architecture, RDNA 4.0, is built on a 4 nm process from TSMC, which contributes to its efficiency and ability to maintain these high clock speeds.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context for its performance tier. It scores 26795 in Passmark G3D, which places it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database are notably older or lower-tier cards, such as the AMD Radeon HD 7770M and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570, though the deltaPct values are extremely small (0.1% to 1%), suggesting the benchmark aggregation may be skewed by other workloads. In direct contrast, the game-specific FPS data shows this GPU is far more capable than those comparisons suggest. The practical takeaway is that the RX 9070 XT is a high-end card whose 16 GB of VRAM and high boost clocks are more than sufficient to keep Doom running fluidly, with the GPU becoming the limiting factor only at 4K with the Ultra preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system is massively over-provisioned. The Low preset yields an average of 314 FPS, with the Medium preset at 273 FPS (min 232, max 314). High settings produce 231 FPS, and even the demanding Ultra preset maintains an average of 189 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the CPU and GPU combination has immense headroom, making the game feel exceptionally responsive regardless of the visual preset chosen.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains very high but begins to show more differentiation. Low settings average 203 FPS, which is a 35% drop from the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 177 FPS (min 150, max 203), High averages 149 FPS, and Ultra averages 122 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 81 FPS, showing that the GPU is starting to work harder as the pixel count increases. For a 1440p monitor, the High preset's 149 FPS is a strong target, while Ultra's 122 FPS is still viable for 120Hz displays.

At 3840x2160, the data shows the expected performance cliff. Low settings average 110 FPS, Medium drops to 96 FPS (min 81, max 110), High averages 81 FPS, and Ultra falls to 66 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is only 15 FPS, which is smaller than at 1440p (27 FPS) or 1080p (42 FPS). This suggests that at 4K, the visual complexity of the Ultra preset is causing a more significant bottleneck, and the GPU is struggling to maintain the high frame rates seen at lower resolutions. The Medium preset's 96 FPS is the best balance for 4K users seeking high refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is significant and reveals the underlying bottleneck. At 1080p High, the system averages 231 FPS. At 1440p High, that drops to 149 FPS, a 35% reduction. At 4K High, it falls to 81 FPS, a 45% reduction from 1440p and a 65% reduction from 1080p. This pattern is consistent across all settings. For example, on Ultra, the FPS drops from 189 at 1080p to 122 at 1440p (a 35% drop) and then to 66 at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). This non-linear scaling is a classic indicator that the GPU is the limiting component.

The data shows that moving from 1080p to 1440p increases the pixel count by 78%, but the FPS only drops by about 35%. This is because the CPU is still able to feed the GPU enough data to keep it relatively busy, but the GPU's rendering load is increasing. However, moving from 1440p to 4K increases the pixel count by another 125%, and the FPS drops by a similar 45%. This disproportionate drop indicates that the GPU is now fully saturated and its capabilities are the primary constraint. The CPU, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, is not the limiting factor here.

The scaling from High to Low settings at 4K further confirms this. At 4K Low, the system hits 110 FPS, which is significantly higher than the 81 FPS at High. This 36% improvement from lowering settings shows that the GPU has more headroom when the shading load is reduced. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a smaller FPS difference between settings at the same resolution. The fact that the FPS scales strongly with both resolution and settings points directly to the GPU as the performance limiter in this configuration.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, running on the AM5 socket. With a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, it provides ample single-thread performance for game logic and physics. In Doom, which is known for being well-optimized and not heavily multi-threaded, the CPU's high boost clock is more critical than its core count. The benchmark data supports this: the system achieves 314 FPS at 1080p Low, a frame rate that is often limited by CPU draw-call processing. The fact that it can reach this number suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck even at low settings.

The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 57498. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD EPYC 9015 and the Intel Core i9-14900, with deltaPct values of -0.1% and -1.1% respectively. This indicates that the 9900X is competitive with top-tier desktop and server parts in synthetic workloads. In single-threaded tests, it scores 2253 in Cinebench R23 and 3010 in Geekbench, which are strong results that translate directly to gaming performance. The CPU's 64 MB of L3 cache is also beneficial for gaming, reducing memory latency and improving data access for the game's engine.

In this specific pairing, the CPU's role is to feed the RX 9070 XT. At 1080p, the CPU is clearly capable of driving the GPU to its limits, as evidenced by the 314 FPS Low result. At 4K, the CPU's workload does not increase proportionally with the resolution; instead, the GPU takes over as the limiting factor. The CPU's performance is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU even at 4K Ultra, where the 66 FPS result is clearly GPU-bound. The data shows no scenario where the CPU appears to be holding back performance, confirming that the Ryzen 9 9900X is an excellent match for this GPU, providing the high single-thread performance necessary for high FPS gaming while its multi-core capabilities handle any background tasks or future games with heavier thread usage.