Doom

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER pairing in Doom produces a combination that is clearly defined by its components. The CPU is a 12-core, 24-thread Zen 5 processor based on the Granite Ridge architecture, running on the AMD Socket AM5 platform. It operates with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, and its benchmark scores place it in the 94th percentile among all CPUs. In contrast, the GTX 1660 SUPER is a Turing-architecture card with 1408 shading units, a base clock of 1530 MHz, and a boost clock of 1785 MHz, sitting in the 55th percentile of all GPUs. The measured results in this game show a system where the GPU is the primary constraint, as the CPU's substantial headroom is rarely the limiting factor.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Ryzen 9 9900X is a high-end desktop processor with 12 cores and 24 threads, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. Its 64 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support give it plenty of bandwidth for demanding workloads. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 46438 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6555 in single-core, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 19827 and a single-core score of 3341. Its average benchmark score of 54450 places it just 0.4% behind the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700F, while it trails the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K by 1.5% and the 245KF by 1.8%.

For Doom, a game released in 2016, this processor is massively overqualified. The game's engine is not designed to scale with 24 threads, and even at 1080p with Low settings, where the CPU's influence is typically most pronounced, the system achieves an average of 147.7 FPS. The data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution or settings level. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 31.7, which is a 78.5% reduction from the 1080p Low result, indicating that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting. The 9900X's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its 1286 score in 3DMark single-thread tests, ensures that it can feed frames to the GPU without issue, but its multi-core might is simply unused in this title.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The GTX 1660 SUPER features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. Its memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, or 14 Gbps effective. The card's 1408 shading units and 48 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s, with a FP32 performance of 5.027 TFLOPS. Its average benchmark score of 14286 places it nearly identical to its closest rivals: it is 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics, and 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon Vega 11. It also trails the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT by 0.7%.

The benchmark results in Doom clearly show the GPU's limitations. The 6 GB VRAM is sufficient for this title, but the raw compute power is the limiting factor. At 1080p, the card delivers playable frame rates across all settings, with Low hitting 147.7 FPS, Medium at 130.7 FPS, High at 109.5 FPS, and Ultra at 91.9 FPS. As resolution increases, the card's performance degrades predictably. At 1440p, High settings yield 67.4 FPS, and at 4K, High settings drop to 40.4 FPS. The GPU's percentile rank of 55 indicates it is a mid-range part, and this is reflected in the measured results. The card's Vulkan score of 59933 in Geekbench is notable, as Doom is known for its efficient Vulkan implementation, but the hardware still hits its ceiling at higher resolutions.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At 1440p, the system averages 67.4 FPS on High settings, so 1440p High is the highest resolution and quality preset that keeps the average above 60 FPS. At 4K, even Low settings only reach 54.6 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the CPU compared to its closest rival?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X has an average benchmark score of 54450, which is 0.7% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700F's score of 54097. It is also 0.4% behind the Ryzen 9 9900X3D.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 SUPER better or worse than the RX 5500 XT?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 14286, which is 0.7% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT's score of 14389. The difference is minor, making them statistically equivalent in performance.

Q: What settings at 1080p give the highest frame rate?

A: Low settings at 1080p produce the highest average frame rate of 147.7 FPS. Medium settings follow at 130.7 FPS, with High at 109.5 FPS and Ultra at 91.9 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU's high core count help in this game?

A: No. The game's results are GPU-bound, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling with resolution and settings. The CPU has 12 cores and 24 threads, but the game does not utilize them to a degree that affects performance; the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What is the performance gap between 1080p Ultra and 4K Ultra?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 91.9, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 31.7. This represents a 65.5% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. Starting at 1920x1080, the system is most capable. Low settings achieve an average of 147.7 FPS, Medium settings reach 130.7 FPS, High settings deliver 109.5 FPS, and Ultra settings still manage 91.9 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the game is highly playable at all settings, with even the most demanding preset staying well above 60 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably. Low settings average 96.6 FPS, which is still excellent. Medium settings produce 82.9 FPS, High settings yield 67.4 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 59.4 FPS. At this resolution, Ultra is the only preset that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, and High settings just barely maintain it.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overmatched. Low settings average 54.6 FPS, which is below 60 FPS. Medium settings drop to 43.6 FPS, High settings fall to 40.4 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 31.7 FPS. None of the 4K presets achieve a playable 60 FPS average, and the numbers show a steep decline as settings increase.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 147.7 at 1080p to 96.6 at 1440p, a 34.6% decrease, and then to 54.6 at 4K, a 43.5% decrease from 1440p. This consistent degradation with increasing pixel count indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect frame rates to plateau or drop less severely at higher resolutions, but the data shows the opposite.

Examining the Ultra settings, the same pattern holds: 91.9 FPS at 1080p, 59.4 FPS at 1440p, and 31.7 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is a 35.4% reduction, and from 1440p to 4K it is a 46.6% reduction. This scaling is characteristic of a card with 6 GB of VRAM and a 192-bit memory bus, where the increased resolution demands more from the GPU's compute units. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking and high multi-thread scores (e.g., 54643 in Passmark multithread) confirm it has ample headroom, but the GTX 1660 SUPER, with its 55th percentile GPU ranking, is the component that determines the frame rate in this title.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For a smooth 60+ FPS experience, the data supports 1440p High as the optimal choice. It delivers an average of 67.4 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target, and the visual quality is significantly better than Low or Medium. If the user prefers to stay at 1080p, all presets are viable, but Ultra at 91.9 FPS offers the best visual experience without sacrificing performance. For those with a 1440p monitor who want the highest quality, Ultra at 59.4 FPS is borderline, and dropping to High is the safer choice for maintaining a consistent frame rate.

At 4K, the situation is different. No preset reaches 60 FPS, with the highest being Low at 54.6 FPS. Given this, 4K gaming with this GPU is not recommended for this title, as even the lowest settings struggle to maintain playable frame rates. The 1080p Medium preset, at 130.7 FPS, is an excellent balance for high refresh rate monitors, while 1080p High at 109.5 FPS is also highly playable. Ultimately, the best experience per the measured rows is 1440p High, which provides a solid frame rate and improved resolution over 1080p. For users prioritizing frame rate above all else, 1080p Low at 147.7 FPS is the top choice.