Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Doom with the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and AMD Radeon RX 9070 shows a clear and expected scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combo delivers 178 FPS average. Moving to 1440p drops that to 115 FPS, a reduction of 63 FPS or roughly 35%. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 62 FPS, which is about 46% lower than the 1440p result and 65% below the 1080p figure.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p to 4K is not linear, which tells you something about where the bottleneck sits. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is steeper in percentage terms than the drop from 1440p to 4K for the Ultra preset. That pattern suggests the GPU is becoming increasingly dominant as the limiting factor at higher resolutions, but the CPU is still contributing meaningfully at 1080p.

Look at the Low preset for a clearer picture. At 1080p Low, the system hits 296 FPS average. At 1440p Low, it drops to 192 FPS. At 4K Low, it falls to 104 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p Low is 104 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K Low is 88 FPS. These are large absolute differences that indicate the GPU is being pushed hard at every resolution, even on Low settings.

Compare the Low and Ultra presets at each resolution. At 1080p, Low is 296 FPS and Ultra is 178 FPS — a 118 FPS spread. At 1440p, Low is 192 FPS and Ultra is 115 FPS — a 77 FPS spread. At 4K, Low is 104 FPS and Ultra is 62 FPS — a 42 FPS spread. The shrinking spread as resolution climbs is a classic signature of GPU-bound rendering. When the GPU is saturated at 4K, changing settings has less absolute impact because the pixel throughput cost dominates everything else.

The data indicates that this pairing is well balanced for high-refresh 1080p and 1440p gaming in Doom. At 1080p, even Ultra settings clear 178 FPS, which is comfortably above the 144 Hz tier of monitors. At 1440p, Ultra still delivers 115 FPS, which suits 120 Hz displays. At 4K, only the Low preset reaches 104 FPS, while Medium manages 90 FPS and High achieves 76 FPS. Ultra at 4K drops to 62 FPS, which is on the edge of smooth playability for a fast-paced FPS.

The 4K results reveal that the GPU is the primary constraint at that resolution. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D has 12 cores and 24 threads with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, so compute headroom is abundant. The RX 9070, with its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth, is doing the heavy lifting. When the resolution drops to 1080p, the frame rates climb high enough that CPU overhead becomes more relevant, but the CPU's performance percentile of 91 among all CPUs suggests it is not a weak link.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p gaming, the Ultra preset is the obvious choice. The measured 178 FPS average is well above the refresh rate of most monitors, and the visual quality gains from Ultra over High are worth the 40 FPS difference (218 FPS on High versus 178 FPS on Ultra). Even the most demanding preset at this resolution leaves headroom for background tasks or streaming overhead.

At 1440p, the decision is between High and Ultra. High delivers 141 FPS, which is excellent for 144 Hz panels. Ultra drops to 115 FPS, which still clears 110 FPS but may not saturate a 144 Hz display. If you have a 120 Hz monitor, Ultra is the better pick because 115 FPS is right at the ceiling. If you are on a 144 Hz or 165 Hz panel, High at 141 FPS gives you a smoother experience with only a modest visual reduction.

The 4K situation requires more care. Ultra at 62 FPS is playable but leaves little margin for frametime spikes in combat-heavy scenes. High at 76 FPS is a meaningful improvement and is the sweet spot for 4K on this hardware. Medium at 90 FPS is even smoother and still looks strong in Doom's fast-paced environments. Low at 104 FPS is the choice for competitive play where frame rate trumps visual fidelity, but the jump from Low to Medium is only 14 FPS while delivering substantially better image quality.

The Medium preset deserves special attention because it is the only setting tier with measured minimum FPS data. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 219 FPS with a maximum of 296 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 142 FPS with a maximum of 192 FPS. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 77 FPS with a maximum of 104 FPS. These ranges show that Medium maintains a tight frametime envelope, which matters for a game like Doom where rapid camera movement amplifies any stutter.

For the best overall experience on this hardware, the recommendation is Ultra at 1080p, High at 1440p, and High at 4K. The 1080p Ultra result of 178 FPS is high enough that the visual upgrade costs nothing in perceived smoothness. The 1440p High result of 141 FPS matches the refresh ceiling of common monitors. The 4K High result of 76 FPS is the highest preset that stays comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold with room to spare.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture using the Navi 48 chip on a 4 nm process. It packs 3,584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units. The boost clock is rated at 2520 MHz with a game clock of 2070 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Doom, the GPU's role is clearly dominant at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 62 FPS versus the 1080p Ultra result of 178 FPS shows a 65% performance drop when pixel count increases roughly 4.4 times. The fact that the drop is less than linear scaling suggests some CPU involvement at 1080p, but the GPU is still the primary driver of frame rate differences.

The VRAM allocation is generous for this game. Doom's system requirements from 2016 are modest by modern standards, and the 16 GB frame buffer on the RX 9070 is far beyond what the game needs at any resolution. The measured data shows no sign of VRAM capacity limiting performance, as the frame rates scale smoothly with resolution changes rather than hitting a wall.

The GPU's benchmark scores put it in perspective. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6,290, and the PassMark G3D score is 25,381. The GPU's percentile versus all GPUs is 69, which places it above the majority of competing cards. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z at 23,736 (0.6% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 6800S at 24,063 (-0.8% delta), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER at 24,170 (-1.2% delta). The RX 9070's average benchmark score of 23,877 sits within a tight 1.2% band of these competitors, indicating that synthetic benchmarks do not fully capture its Doom performance.

The memory clock of 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective) and the pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s are the specifications that matter for Doom's rendering workload. The texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s keeps up with the game's fast-paced texture streaming. The FP32 compute of 36.13 TFLOPS provides ample headroom for the game's effects, though Doom's Vulkan-based engine is not compute-heavy compared to modern titles.

The GPU's power configuration uses a 220 W TDP with dual-slot cooling and two 8-pin power connectors. The suggested PSU is 550 W, which is modest for a card in this performance class. The PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensures no bandwidth bottleneck, even at 4K with high texture loads.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Doom at 4K Ultra smoothly?

A: The measured average FPS at 4K Ultra is 62 FPS. This is playable but leaves limited headroom. The 4K High preset at 76 FPS provides a more comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming?

A: High settings at 1440p deliver 141 FPS average, which is ideal for 144 Hz monitors. Ultra at 115 FPS is still excellent and is the better choice if you have a 120 Hz display.

Q: How does the RX 9070 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 9070 has an average benchmark score of 23,877. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z at 23,736 (0.6% slower), the AMD Radeon RX 6800S at 24,063 (0.8% faster), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER at 24,170 (1.2% faster). These are all within a narrow 1.8% band.

Q: Is the 16 GB VRAM sufficient for Doom?

A: Yes. The measured results show no indication of VRAM capacity limiting performance. Frame rates scale smoothly with resolution from 1080p to 4K, and the 16 GB GDDR6 frame buffer is far more than Doom requires.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1080p with maximum settings?

A: Ultra settings at 1080p produce 178 FPS average. The Low preset reaches 296 FPS, Medium hits 258 FPS, and High achieves 218 FPS. All presets at 1080p exceed 170 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that CPU involvement is noticeable, but the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's 12-core, 24-thread configuration with a 5.50 GHz boost clock keeps up. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as shown by the smaller FPS spread between Low and Ultra presets.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is a 12-core, 24-thread processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It uses the AMD Socket AM5 platform and is manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. The base clock is 4.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The L3 cache is 128 MB, which is substantial and beneficial for gaming workloads that exhibit data locality.

In Doom, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 296 FPS, which is an extremely high frame rate that requires strong single-thread performance. The CPU's single-thread benchmark scores support this: 3DMark single-thread scores 1,269, Cinebench R23 single-core scores 6,739, and Geekbench single-core scores 3,041. The PassMark single-thread score is 4,646.

Multi-thread performance is equally impressive and matters for Doom's background systems. The CPU scores 47,737 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 20,049 in Cinebench R20 multi-core, and 22,884 in Geekbench multi-core. The PassMark multithread score is 56,154. These scores place the CPU in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,762.

The nearest CPU rivals in average benchmark score are the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF at 55,093 (-0.6% delta), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K at 54,053 (1.3% delta), the Intel Xeon 6505P at 53,701 (2% delta), and the Intel Core i7-14700F at 53,620 (2.1% delta). The 9900X3D sits within a 2.1% band of these competitors, showing that synthetic CPU benchmarks do not differentiate massively at this performance tier.

For Doom specifically, the CPU's 128 MB L3 cache is a notable advantage. The game's engine benefits from cached level geometry and AI state, and the large cache reduces memory latency spikes. The DDR5 memory support with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can feed data to the GPU without stalling.

The CPU's TDP is 120 W, which is modest for a 12-core part, and it has ECC memory support and an unlocked multiplier for overclocking. The integrated Radeon Graphics provides a fallback display output, though the RX 9070 handles all rendering in this configuration. The PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes from the CPU gives the GPU full bandwidth headroom.

In practical terms, the CPU is not the limiting factor in Doom at any resolution tested. At 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, as evidenced by the 42 FPS difference between Low and Ultra presets at 4K versus the 118 FPS difference at 1080p. At 1080p, the CPU's strong single-thread performance keeps the frame rate high across all presets, with even the Ultra preset achieving 178 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 296 FPS average
• Medium: 258 FPS average, with a minimum of 219 FPS and maximum of 296 FPS
• High: 218 FPS average
• Ultra: 178 FPS average

The 1080p results show a clear hierarchy with a 118 FPS spread from Low to Ultra. The Medium preset's measured range of 219 to 296 FPS indicates consistent frame pacing. The Low preset at 296 FPS is effectively at the ceiling for many monitors, while Ultra at 178 FPS still exceeds the refresh rate of most high-refresh displays.

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 192 FPS average
• Medium: 167 FPS average, with a minimum of 142 FPS and maximum of 192 FPS
• High: 141 FPS average
• Ultra: 115 FPS average

At 1440p, the spread narrows to 77 FPS from Low to Ultra. The Medium preset's minimum of 142 FPS is notable because it stays above 140 FPS even in demanding scenes. The High preset at 141 FPS matches this minimum exactly, suggesting that High and Medium are close in worst-case performance. Ultra at 115 FPS represents a 26 FPS drop from High, which is the largest single-step reduction in the 1440p lineup.

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 104 FPS average
• Medium: 90 FPS average, with a minimum of 77 FPS and maximum of 104 FPS
• High: 76 FPS average
• Ultra: 62 FPS average

The 4K results show a 42 FPS spread from Low to Ultra, the smallest of any resolution. This compression of the settings range confirms the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at 4K. The Medium preset's minimum of 77 FPS keeps the experience smooth, while High at 76 FPS average is nearly identical to Medium's minimum. Ultra at 62 FPS is the only preset that dips near the 60 FPS threshold, making it the riskiest choice for competitive play.

The measured data covers all four preset tiers at three resolutions, totaling 12 data points. The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data at every resolution, providing the most detailed view of frame pacing. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset's minimum FPS stays within 79% to 89% of its average, indicating consistent performance without severe drops. This consistency is valuable in Doom's fast-paced combat, where frametime spikes are more noticeable than in slower games.