Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Doom with this AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D + AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT combination reveal a classic resolution-scaling pattern, where the GPU becomes the dominant constraint as pixel count rises. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo delivers 138 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 drops that to 89 FPS, a reduction of 49 FPS or roughly 35%. The jump to 3840x2160 High yields just 48 FPS, which is 90 FPS below the 1080p result and 41 FPS below the 1440p result. This steep decline from 1440p to 4K — a 46% drop — points squarely at the graphics card as the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The Low preset tells the same story with even sharper gradients. At 1920x1080 Low, the system reaches 188 FPS. At 2560x1440 Low, it falls to 121 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low, it bottoms out at 66 FPS. The spread from 1080p to 4K on Low is 122 FPS, which is a massive 65% reduction. This indicates that even at the lowest quality settings, the RX 5700 XT cannot keep pace with the CPU's capability at 4K. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D, with its 16 cores and 32 threads, is more than capable of feeding frames at every resolution; the data shows the GPU's pixel throughput limits the combo in 4K scenarios.

Medium settings provide the only complete measured data with both minimum and maximum FPS. At 1080p Medium, the average is 164 FPS, with a minimum of 139 and a maximum of 188. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 106 FPS (minimum 90, maximum 122). At 4K Medium, the average falls to 57 FPS (minimum 49, maximum 66). The spread between the minimum and maximum at 4K Medium is 17 FPS, which is tighter than at 1080p Medium's 49 FPS spread, suggesting that at 4K the frame pacing is more consistent because the GPU is fully saturated. In contrast, at 1080p the CPU has headroom, and the GPU's workload varies more, producing a wider FPS band.

Ultra settings show the most brutal scaling. 1080p Ultra averages 113 FPS, 1440p Ultra averages 73 FPS, and 4K Ultra averages 40 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K Ultra is 73 FPS, a 65% reduction, matching the Low preset's percentage loss. This consistency across presets reinforces that the limiting component at 4K is not the settings complexity but the raw pixel throughput of the RX 5700 XT. The data suggests that for a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K, the user must stay at Low or Medium settings, as Ultra and High fall below 60 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT's role in Doom is decisive. This GPU, built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture with the Navi 10 chip, carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1605 MHz, with a boost clock reaching 1905 MHz, and a game clock of 1755 MHz. The memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). In the context of this 2016-era FPS, these specifications produce the measured FPS numbers. The GPU's percentileVsAllGpus is 59, meaning it sits just above the midpoint of all tested GPUs, which aligns with its performance in this game — capable but not elite.

The 8 GB VRAM is a notable factor. In Doom's Ultra preset at 4K, the combo averages 40 FPS, which is 8 FPS below the High preset's 48 FPS. This gap could indicate that the Ultra preset's higher texture quality pushes against the VRAM capacity, but the fact that the average FPS falls by only 8 suggests that the card isn't severely VRAM-limited; the performance drop is more likely due to raw shading load. The GPU has 2560 shading units and 160 TMUs, producing a pixel rate of 121.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 304.8 GTexel/s. These figures explain why 4K High hits 48 FPS: the pixel rate is insufficient to sustain higher frame rates at that resolution.

Comparing to the nearest rival GPUs, the RX 5700 XT's average benchmark score is 16361, with the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M at 16351 (0.1% slower). The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell scores 16408 (0.3% faster), and the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 scores 16415 (0.3% faster). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 scores 16408, a 0.9% lead. These deltaPct values are tiny, meaning in broader GPU terms the RX 5700 XT is essentially in a dead heat with these rivals. In Doom specifically, the measured FPS shows that the GPU's performance is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but falls short of 4K60. The GPU's TDP is 225 W, and it is an end-of-life product, but that doesn't affect the measured data here.

The GPU's clocks do not scale with the CPU's headroom. At 1080p Low, the CPU could likely push more frames, but the 188 FPS ceiling is set by the GPU. The boost clock of 1905 MHz is the highest at which the card runs, and it sustains that in Doom's lower presets, but at 4K the workload forces it to run at lower effective speeds, as evidenced by the 48 FPS High and 40 FPS Ultra numbers. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 9.754 TFLOPS is the theoretical peak; in practice, the measured FPS confirms that the card's real-world performance in Doom is in line with its percentile rank of 59.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal preset depends on the target refresh rate. For 1080p, the High preset at 138 FPS is fully playable on any monitor, and the Ultra preset at 113 FPS also holds above 100 FPS. However, the data shows that Low at 1080p yields 188 FPS, which is 50 FPS higher than High. If the goal is maximum frame rate for esports-style play, Low is the best choice, but High offers a visual quality improvement that many users would prefer, and it still clears the 120 FPS threshold. Medium at 1080p sits at 164 FPS, with a minimum of 139 FPS, so it's a solid middle ground if the user wants to avoid the visual downgrade of Low.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 89 FPS, which is just below the 90 FPS mark that some players consider "smooth high refresh." Medium is better, at 106 FPS with a minimum of 90, which holds above the 90 FPS line. Low reaches 121 FPS, making it the only 1440p preset that clearly exceeds 120 FPS. Ultra at 1440p drops to 73 FPS, which is still playable but may not feel as fluid on a 120Hz panel. The recommendation for 1440p is Medium, because it offers a 17 FPS advantage over High while staying above the 100 FPS mark, and the minimum is 90, which is the same as the High preset's average.

At 4K, the story is tighter. The only presets that average above 60 FPS are Low at 66 FPS. Medium averages 57 FPS with a minimum of 49, which means dips below 50 FPS are possible, and High at 48 FPS is not ideal. Ultra at 40 FPS is the worst, and even a 40 FPS average is borderline. For a 4K display, the data suggests using Low, as it is the only preset that provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold, and the visual difference between Low and Medium at 4K may be less perceptible given the pixel density. If the user prioritizes image quality over frame rate, Medium is the only other viable option, but they should be prepared for occasional dips into the 40s.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution for a competitive experience, as it consistently underperforms the others: 113 FPS at 1080p, 73 FPS at 1440p, and 40 FPS at 4K. The measured data shows that Medium provides the best balance of FPS and quality across all three resolutions, with the exception of 4K, where Low is the only preset that clears 60 FPS. Thus, the data suggests that Medium is the default choice for 1080p and 1440p, and Low is the only safe 4K preset.

How This Combo Ranks

In Doom, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT ranks 2758 out of 3712 tested combos. That places it in the lower 75th percentile of all combos, meaning 75% of the tested configurations achieve a higher rank in this game. The rank is not a reflection of the CPU, which is in the 95th percentile of all CPUs (averaging 75779 in benchmarks), but rather of the GPU, which sits in the 59th percentile of all GPUs. The combo’s ranking is dragged down by the GPU's relative weakness in Doom's rendering demands.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmarking are the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (delta 0.1%), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D (delta 0.1%), the AMD EPYC 8224P (delta 0.3%), and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (delta 0.4%). These are all very close in average score, with the 9950X3D leading by less than 1% over each. The GPU's nearest rivals are similarly close: the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (delta 0.1%), the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (delta -0.3%), the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 (delta -0.3%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (delta -0.9%). These tiny deltas mean that swapping the GPU for a rival would produce almost no change in FPS, but swapping the CPU for a much faster GPU would likely improve the rank significantly.

The rank of 2750 is not surprising given the GPU's age and tier. The RX 5700 XT is an end-of-life product, and in Doom's measured FPS, it delivers 48 FPS at 4K High, which is below the 60 FPS target. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 32 threads, has a multi-core benchmark score of 42018 in Cinebench R23, and a single-core score of 2259, but none of that matters because the GPU is the constraint. In the context of the 3722 combos, this pairing is in the lower-middle tier, which is consistent with the GPU's 59th percentile.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The combination delivers 138 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings.

Q: Can this combo run Doom at 4K with a smooth 60 FPS?

A: Only the Low preset at 3840x2160 averages 66 FPS, which is above 60. The Medium preset averages 57 FPS, with a minimum of 49, so it may dip below 60. High and Ultra average 48 and 40 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p?

A: Medium is the best, with an average of 106 FPS and a minimum of 90 FPS. High is 89 FPS, Low is 121 FPS, and Ultra is 73 FPS.

Q: How much faster is 1080p Low compared to 1080p Ultra?

A: 1080p Low averages 188 FPS, which is 75 FPS higher than 1080p Ultra's 113 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit the performance in this game?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions. The 1080p to 4K scaling shows FPS drops of 65% on Low, 50% on High, and 65% on Ultra, while the CPU is in the 95th percentile of all CPUs.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combos?

A: It ranks 2750 out of 3722 combos, which is in the lower 75th percentile, due to the GPU's 59th percentile performance.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at 1440p Medium?

A: The minimum is 90 FPS, with a maximum of 122 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Below is the full set of measured FPS data for Doom with this CPU+GPU combination, organized by resolution and settings.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 66 FPS average
• Medium: 57 FPS average, minimum 49, maximum 66
• High: 48 FPS average
• Ultra: 40 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 121 FPS average
• Medium: 106 FPS average, minimum 90, maximum 122
• High: 89 FPS average
• Ultra: 73 FPS average

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 188 FPS average
• Medium: 164 FPS average, minimum 139, maximum 188
• High: 138 FPS average
• Ultra: 113 FPS average

The data reveals a clear hierarchy: Low always yields the highest FPS, followed by Medium, then High, and then Ultra. The gaps between presets shrink as resolution increases (e.g., at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 75 FPS, at 1440p it's 48 FPS, and at 4K it's 26 FPS). This is because at lower resolutions, the CPU has more headroom to push beyond GPU's output, while at 4K the GPU's workload dominates. The Medium preset provides the only complete FPS range across all resolutions, with the minimum FPS being 49 at 4K, 90 at 1440p, and 139 at 1080p. These numbers indicate that for a stable experience, Medium is the safest preset, unless the user prioritizes maximum frame rate at 1080p, where Low's 188 FPS is the clear winner.