Doom

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a remarkably consistent performance profile in Doom, with the data showing that the GPU becomes the primary scaling factor as resolution increases. This combination ranks 18th out of 1,681 tested configurations, placing it in the top 1.1% of all hardware pairings for this title, and the measured frame rates across all twelve resolution and settings combinations confirm that this system is built for extreme refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K, with the most dramatic drops occurring at the highest quality presets. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 270.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 171.8 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 99 FPS, and then further down to 93.9 FPS at 3840x2160. This means that moving from 1080p to 1440p costs 36.6% of the performance, while the jump from 1440p to 4K costs another 45.3%. The pattern is consistent across all settings, with the Low preset showing the highest absolute frame rates but also the largest relative drop, from 443.8 FPS at 1080p to 289.7 FPS at 1440p and finally 157.6 FPS at 4K.

The scaling behavior indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is still contributing meaningfully to the frame rate ceiling, as evidenced by the 443.8 FPS Low preset result. However, the gap between Low and High at 1080p is 118.8 FPS, while at 4K that same gap shrinks to 41.1 FPS. This compression of the settings gap at higher resolutions is the classic signature of GPU-bound performance. The RTX 4090's pixel throughput of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s are being increasingly taxed as the pixel count grows, with the 4K resolution requiring four times the pixel work of 1080p.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Doom's texture requirements at any resolution. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, translating to 21 Gbps effective, and this headroom means that memory bandwidth is unlikely to be a limiting factor in the measured results. The GPU's boost clock of 2520 MHz and base clock of 2235 MHz, combined with 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, deliver the raw compute throughput needed for the high frame rates observed.

The benchmark data positions the RTX 4090 at the 91st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66,473. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla T4, scores 66,733, a delta of only -0.4%, while the NVIDIA Tesla P40 trails by 0.5% with a score of 66,127. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 scores 67,097, putting it 0.9% ahead, and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 leads by 1.3% with 67,320. These margins are remarkably tight, suggesting that the RTX 4090's gaming performance in Doom is well within the expected range for its class, even though it sits slightly below these workstation-oriented cards in aggregate benchmarks.

The GPU's FP32 compute of 82.58 TFLOPS, with FP16 running at the same 82.58 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), provides the computational headroom that allows the High preset at 4K to maintain 116.5 FPS average. The transition from Ultra to High at 4K recovers 22.6 FPS, from 93.9 to 116.5, which represents a 24.1% improvement while the visual quality reduction is modest.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the High preset offers the optimal balance between visual fidelity and performance for this hardware combination. At 4K, High achieves 116.5 FPS average, which comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and approaches the 120 FPS mark that high-refresh-rate displays target. The Low preset at 4K reaches 157.6 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial for a gain of 41.1 FPS over High.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 214.8 FPS average, which is more than sufficient for even the fastest gaming monitors. The Ultra preset at 1440p still achieves 171.8 FPS, making it a viable choice for users who prioritize maximum visual quality and have displays with refresh rates up to 170 Hz. The Medium preset sits between these extremes at 253.8 FPS, but the incremental gain over High is only 39 FPS, which is unlikely to be perceptible on most displays.

For 1080p gaming, all presets exceed 270 FPS, with Low reaching 443.8 FPS and High at 325 FPS. The Ultra preset at 270.8 FPS is still exceptionally high, and the data indicates that even the most demanding settings cannot push this system below the refresh rate of typical 1080p esports monitors. Players targeting maximum competitive performance might prefer the Medium preset at 389.3 FPS, but the difference between any preset at this resolution is largely academic given the extreme frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this system in Doom?

A: The highest measured average is 443.8 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low preset.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops from 270.8 FPS at 1080p to 93.9 FPS at 4K, representing a loss of 176.9 FPS or 65.3% of the 1080p performance.

Q: Which preset provides the largest frame rate advantage over Ultra at 4K?

A: The Low preset provides the largest advantage, delivering 157.6 FPS compared to Ultra's 93.9 FPS, a difference of 63.7 FPS.

Q: Does the system maintain playable frame rates at 4K on all presets?

A: Yes, all four presets at 4K exceed 90 FPS average, with the lowest being Ultra at 93.9 FPS and the highest being Low at 157.6 FPS.

Q: How does this system rank among all tested configurations for Doom?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D with RTX 4090 combination ranks 18th out of 1,681 tested configurations, placing it in the top 1.1% of all hardware pairings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and High presets at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 253.8 FPS while High averages 214.8 FPS, giving Medium a 39 FPS advantage.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D's contribution to these results is most apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU is not fully saturated. The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads, running at a base clock of 4.30 GHz with a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, provide substantial single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. The 128 MB of shared L3 cache, built on the Zen 5 Granite Ridge architecture at a 4 nm process node, helps maintain high minimum frame rates even when the GPU is pushing out hundreds of frames per second.

The CPU benchmark data shows strong synthetic performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 59,712 and single-core score of 8,430. The Geekbench scores of 22,515 multi-core and 3,401 single-core corroborate this strength, while the PassMark multi-thread score of 70,255 and single-thread score of 4,737 indicate balanced performance across workloads. The CPU sits at the 96th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 71,660.

The nearest rival comparisons show the 9950X3D leading the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 by 0.9% (71,056 average score), the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X by 1.8% (70,420), and the Intel Core i7-14700KF by 2.2% (70,104). However, the Intel Xeon 6517P leads the 9950X3D by 1.9% with an average score of 73,050. These tight margins in synthetic benchmarks translate to the measured in-game results, where the CPU's 3DMark scores of 17,184 for max threads and 1,292 for single thread indicate sufficient headroom to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4090 at 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured frame rate data reveals a consistent hierarchy across all resolutions. At 3840x2160, the Low preset leads with 157.6 FPS average, followed by Medium at 135 FPS, High at 116.5 FPS, and Ultra at 93.9 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is 63.7 FPS, with each step representing a meaningful reduction in average frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 289.7 FPS average, Medium reaches 253.8 FPS, High delivers 214.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 171.8 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution widens to 117.9 FPS, showing that the GPU's workload at 1440p is still manageable enough for settings to have a pronounced effect.

The 1920x1080 results show the highest absolute frame rates: Low at 443.8 FPS, Medium at 389.3 FPS, High at 325 FPS, and Ultra at 270.8 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 173 FPS, the largest spread across all resolutions, demonstrating that at this resolution the CPU is better able to feed the GPU, allowing settings changes to have their full impact on rendering workload.

The data pattern across all twelve measurements shows consistent scaling: each resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by roughly 35-40%, and the further step to 4K reduces them by another 45-50%. The Ultra preset consistently shows the steepest resolution scaling penalty, while Low shows the most gradual drop, confirming that the RTX 4090's compute resources are the primary constraint as pixel count increases, and the CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads are more than adequate to keep up with even the most demanding frame rate targets.