Doom

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a strong performance profile in Doom, but the data reveals a clear hierarchy where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p, the combination produces excellent frame rates that challenge high-refresh displays, while 4K Ultra settings push the system to its limits, landing at an average of 49 FPS. The benchmark results indicate that this pairing is best suited for high-refresh 1440p gaming, where it maintains an average above 90 FPS across all settings tested.

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

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge, manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It features a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a 120 W TDP. The processor includes a substantial 128 MB of L3 cache, which is particularly relevant for gaming workloads like Doom that can benefit from large cache pools. Its single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23, is 6739 points, and its multi-core score reaches 47737 points. In the broader benchmark landscape, this CPU sits in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54762.

When examining how the CPU relates to Doom's results, the data shows that the processor is rarely the limiting factor. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 230 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate in the entire dataset. This indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough data to saturate even the highest refresh rates at this resolution. The 3DMark scores reinforce this capability: the 2-thread score is 2512, the 8-thread score is 9002, and the max-thread score reaches 13795, demonstrating strong scaling across thread counts. Doom is known for being well-optimized across multiple cores, and the 12-core, 24-thread configuration ensures that even the most demanding scenes with numerous enemies and physics interactions are handled without CPU-induced frame drops.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the 9900X3D has an average benchmark score that is 0.6% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF, which scores 55093. It is 1.3% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K at 54053, 2% higher than the Intel Xeon 6505P at 53701, and 2.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700F at 53620. These are relatively small margins, suggesting that the CPU's performance is competitive with contemporary mid-range and high-end offerings. For a game like Doom, which is not exceptionally CPU-intensive at high resolutions, the 9900X3D's strong single-thread performance is more than adequate.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are also relevant for background tasks and streaming while gaming. With a PassMark multithread score of 56154 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 22884, the processor can handle simultaneous workloads without stealing resources from the game. The data compression score of 685074 in PassMark is particularly high, indicating robust integer performance that benefits game logic and physics calculations. In summary, the 9900X3D provides more than enough headroom for Doom, ensuring that the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings.

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

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how each settings preset performs at each resolution. The optimal choice depends on the target display refresh rate and resolution, but the data points to a few standout configurations. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers an average of 200 FPS, which is only 30 FPS lower than Low but offers significantly better visual quality. The High preset at 1080p drops to 169 FPS, still well above the 144 Hz threshold for most high-refresh monitors. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 138 FPS, which is still playable but represents a substantial 31% decrease from Medium.

For 1440p, the Medium preset is the clear winner for a balanced experience, providing an average of 130 FPS with a minimum of 110 FPS and a maximum of 149 FPS. This means the frame rate never dips below 110 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay on most 144 Hz monitors. The High preset at 1440p averages 110 FPS, which is also viable but offers less headroom for demanding scenes. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 149 FPS, but the visual downgrade is often not worth the additional 19 FPS over Medium. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 90 FPS, which is a significant drop and may not justify the visual gains on all displays.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. The High preset averages 59 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset averages 70 FPS with a minimum of 60 FPS, making it the only 4K preset that consistently holds 60 FPS or above. The Low preset at 4K averages 81 FPS, but the visual compromise at such a high resolution is often counterproductive, as the lower settings reduce texture quality and shadow detail that are more noticeable at 4K. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 49 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for most users and should be avoided.

The data suggests that the best experience per the measured rows is achieved with the Medium preset at 1440p. This configuration provides an average of 130 FPS, which is high enough for smooth gameplay on most gaming monitors, while maintaining a minimum of 110 FPS that prevents noticeable stuttering. The Medium preset also offers a good balance of visual fidelity and performance, as it retains most of the game's graphical features without the heavy cost of Ultra settings. For users with 1080p displays, the Medium preset at 200 FPS is equally compelling, offering near-maximum refresh rates with solid visual quality.

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

The FPS scaling across resolutions reveals a classic pattern of GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p High, the system averages 169 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the frame rate drops to 110 FPS, a 34.9% decrease. At 4K High, the average falls to 59 FPS, which is 65.1% lower than the 1080p figure. This steep decline as resolution increases is a strong indicator that the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the limiting component at higher resolutions. The CPU, with its high single-thread and multi-thread scores, is capable of delivering much higher frame rates, as evidenced by the 230 FPS at 1080p Low.

The pattern is consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p (230 FPS) to 1440p (149 FPS) is 35.2%, and the drop to 4K (81 FPS) is 64.8%. At Medium settings, the drops are 35% from 1080p (200 FPS) to 1440p (130 FPS), and 65% to 4K (70 FPS). At Ultra settings, the drops are 34.8% from 1080p (138 FPS) to 1440p (90 FPS), and 64.5% to 4K (49 FPS). This remarkable consistency across all settings indicates that the scaling is purely resolution-driven and not affected by the complexity of the scene or the settings preset.

The fact that the percentage drops are nearly identical across all settings suggests that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints. The RX 6700 XT has a memory bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s and a pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s. At 4K, the number of pixels to process is four times that of 1080p, and the GPU's resources are simply overwhelmed. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory is sufficient for Doom's textures even at 4K, but the compute throughput of 13.21 TFLOPS is not enough to maintain high frame rates at that resolution.

This analysis indicates that the Ryzen 9 9900X3D is not the bottleneck in any resolution tested. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see the FPS drop to plateau at higher resolutions, as the GPU would have more time to render each frame but the CPU would still be unable to issue draw calls fast enough. Instead, the FPS continues to drop linearly with resolution, confirming that the GPU is the sole constraint. For users looking to improve performance at 4K, the data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield the most significant gains, while the CPU would remain largely unaffected.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combination in Doom?

A: The data shows that 1440p Medium provides the best balance, with an average of 130 FPS and a minimum of 110 FPS. This is the only configuration that combines high frame rates with consistent minimums, making it ideal for most gaming monitors.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X3D a bottleneck for the RX 6700 XT in Doom?

A: No. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent drop of approximately 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 65% from 1080p to 4K across all settings. This pattern indicates the GPU is the limiting component, as the CPU is capable of delivering 230 FPS at 1080p Low.

Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 4K in Doom?

A: Yes, but only with the Medium preset, which averages 70 FPS with a minimum of 60 FPS. The High preset averages 59 FPS, just below the 60 FPS target, while the Ultra preset averages 49 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 6700 XT compare to its nearest rivals in overall GPU benchmarks?

A: The RX 6700 XT has an average benchmark score of 27425. It is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile (27435, 0% delta), 0.5% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (27565), 1.1% higher than the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell (27135), and 1.5% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 (27839).

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset averages 230 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 138 FPS. This represents a 66.7% increase in frame rate when dropping from Ultra to Low, which is a significant trade-off for visual quality.

Q: Does the RX 6700 XT's 12 GB of VRAM cause any issues in Doom?

A: No. The measured data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the system achieves 49 FPS, indicating that the 12 GB of VRAM is sufficient for the game's textures and memory requirements. The bottleneck at 4K is the GPU's compute performance, not its memory capacity.

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

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 22 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process. It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 2321 MHz, a game clock of 2424 MHz, and a boost clock of 2581 MHz. It contains 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 13.21 TFLOPS, which is a key metric for raw rendering throughput.

In Doom, the RX 6700 XT's performance is directly tied to its compute capabilities. At 1080p, the GPU is able to deliver high frame rates across all settings, with the Ultra preset at 138 FPS and the Low preset at 230 FPS. The fact that the 1080p Low setting achieves 230 FPS shows that the GPU has significant headroom at lower resolutions, and the CPU is not holding it back. However, as the resolution increases, the GPU's fill rate and compute units become saturated. The 4K Ultra average of 49 FPS is only 35.5% of the 1080p Low figure, demonstrating that the GPU's 13.21 TFLOPS are insufficient for 4K gaming at maximum quality.

The GPU's memory configuration plays a role in its performance. The 384.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as evidenced by the high frame rates at those resolutions. At 4K, the bandwidth becomes more critical, but the data shows that the GPU's compute units are the primary bottleneck, not the memory. If the memory were the limiting factor, we would expect to see more significant frame rate drops at 4K when textures are loaded, but the consistent scaling across settings suggests otherwise.

The RX 6700 XT's benchmark scores provide context for its performance in Doom. It has a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2435, which is a modern benchmark that stresses the GPU's capabilities. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 93500 and OpenCL score of 44152 indicate strong compute performance for a mid-range GPU. The PassMark G3D score of 19786 places it in the 72nd percentile among all GPUs. When compared to its nearest rivals, the RX 6700 XT is effectively tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile (0% delta), and it is 0.5% lower than the RTX 3090. This suggests that in terms of raw benchmark scores, the RX 6700 XT performs at a level comparable to much more expensive GPUs, though real-world gaming performance can vary.

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

The measured FPS data for the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT combination in Doom provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average 230 FPS
• Medium: Average 200 FPS, Minimum 170 FPS, Maximum 230 FPS
• High: Average 169 FPS
• Ultra: Average 138 FPS

At 1080p, the system delivers exceptional performance. The Low preset achieves 230 FPS, which is the highest frame rate in the entire dataset and suitable for 240 Hz displays. The Medium preset drops to 200 FPS but maintains a minimum of 170 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes. The High preset at 169 FPS is still excellent for 144 Hz monitors, while the Ultra preset at 138 FPS remains playable but represents a 30.4% decrease from the Medium setting.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average 149 FPS
• Medium: Average 130 FPS, Minimum 110 FPS, Maximum 149 FPS
• High: Average 110 FPS
• Ultra: Average 90 FPS

At 1440p, the performance remains strong but shows the GPU beginning to feel the load. The Low preset averages 149 FPS, which is still high enough for most high-refresh displays. The Medium preset averages 130 FPS with a minimum of 110 FPS, providing a consistent experience that rarely drops below 110 FPS. The High preset averages 110 FPS, which is exactly at the 110 FPS minimum of the Medium preset, indicating that the High preset is more demanding but still playable. The Ultra preset drops to 90 FPS, which is a 30.8% decrease from the Medium setting and may be noticeable on 144 Hz monitors.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average 81 FPS
• Medium: Average 70 FPS, Minimum 60 FPS, Maximum 81 FPS
• High: Average 59 FPS
• Ultra: Average 49 FPS

At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The Low preset averages 81 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that exceeds 80 FPS. The Medium preset averages 70 FPS with a minimum of 60 FPS, making it the only 4K preset that consistently holds 60 FPS or above, which is crucial for smooth gameplay. The High preset averages 59 FPS, just below the 60 FPS threshold, and the Ultra preset averages 49 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for most users. The drop from Medium to High at 4K is 15.7%, while the drop from High to Ultra is 16.9%, showing that each settings tier has a similar performance cost at this resolution.

The minimum and maximum FPS data for the Medium preset at each resolution provides insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p, the maximum of 230 FPS matches the Low preset's average, indicating that the Medium preset can reach the same peak performance as Low. At 1440p, the maximum of 149 FPS matches the Low preset's average, showing similar behavior. At 4K, the maximum of 81 FPS matches the Low preset's average. This pattern suggests that the Medium preset's performance ceiling is determined by the same GPU limits as the Low preset, and the differences in average FPS are due to the increased rendering workload.