Doom

The Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT combination delivers a highly playable experience in Doom, but the data reveals that the graphics card is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the system is capable of exceeding 180 FPS on Low settings, indicating strong CPU headroom, but performance drops sharply as resolution increases, with the GPU limiting frame rates to below 60 FPS at 4K Ultra. This pairing is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it consistently delivers smooth, high-refresh-rate gameplay across most settings presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable decline in performance as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. This scaling pattern is a classic indicator that the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT becomes the limiting component at higher resolutions, while the Intel Core i3-12100F provides sufficient processing power to keep pace at lower resolutions.

At 1080p, the system demonstrates significant performance headroom. The average frame rate at Low settings reaches 188 FPS, and even at Ultra settings, the system maintains 113 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 75 FPS, which is the largest absolute difference among all tested resolutions. This suggests that at 1080p, the GPU is not fully saturated, and the CPU's single-thread performance is doing the heavy lifting to push frame rates higher.

Moving to 1440p, the performance drops are more pronounced. The Low settings average falls to 121 FPS, a 36% decrease from 1080p Low. The Ultra settings average drops to 73 FPS, a 35% reduction from 1080p Ultra. This consistent percentage decline across settings indicates that the GPU is beginning to become the bottleneck, as the pixel count increase from 1080p to 1440p (about 78% more pixels) directly impacts the rendering workload.

At 4K, the scaling becomes severe, confirming the GPU bottleneck. The Low settings average drops to 66 FPS, which is only 35% of the 1080p Low result. The High settings average falls to 48 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to just 40 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is only 26 FPS, compared to 75 FPS at 1080p. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is so heavily loaded that even reducing settings provides diminishing returns, as the raw pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor.

The data strongly suggests that this system is designed for 1080p and 1440p gaming. At 4K, the RX 5700 XT simply cannot maintain playable frame rates at higher settings, with only the Low preset achieving an average above 60 FPS. For competitive play, 1080p with Medium or High settings offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, while 1440p with Medium settings provides a solid 106 FPS average.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo in Doom?

A: The data shows 1440p as the sweet spot, with High settings averaging 89 FPS and Medium settings averaging 106 FPS. At 1080p, the system exceeds 130 FPS on High, but 4K performance drops below 60 FPS on every preset except Low.

Q: How does the Core i3-12100F compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13494, placing it at the 68th percentile of all CPUs. It is virtually tied with the Intel Core 3 N355 (13492, 0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-9500 (13452, 0.3% delta), while slightly trailing the Intel Core 5 120UL (13594, -0.7% delta) and leading the Intel Core i7-1250U (13351, 1.1% delta).

Q: Is the RX 5700 XT capable of handling Ultra settings in Doom?

A: Yes, but only at lower resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra averages 113 FPS, and at 1440p, it averages 73 FPS. At 4K, Ultra drops to 40 FPS, which is not a smooth experience. The GPU's 59th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it is a mid-range performer.

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

A: The difference is 75 FPS, with Low averaging 188 FPS and Ultra averaging 113 FPS. This is the largest settings gap observed in the data, showing that at 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to benefit significantly from lower graphical demands.

Q: Does the system maintain consistent frame rates, or are there drops?

A: The only rows with min/max data are the Medium settings tests. At 1080p Medium, the average is 164 FPS with a minimum of 139 FPS and maximum of 188 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 106 FPS with a range of 90 to 122 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 57 FPS with a range of 49 to 66 FPS, showing tighter variance at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the GPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 5700 XT has an average benchmark score of 16361, placing it at the 59th percentile of all GPUs. It is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16351, 0.1% delta) and slightly behind the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (16408, -0.3% delta) and the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 (16415, -0.3% delta).

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. It features 12 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. The CPU's benchmark results show strong single-thread performance, with a Geekbench single-core score of 1932 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674, which are critical for maintaining high frame rates in Doom's fast-paced gameplay.

In the context of Doom, the CPU's role is evident from the 1080p performance data. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 188 FPS, which is a strong indicator that the CPU can feed frames to the GPU without becoming a limiting factor. The 3DMark 4-thread score of 2859 and 8-thread score of 4026 suggest that the processor handles multi-threaded workloads adequately, though the game's engine appears to benefit most from the high single-thread performance.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 68th among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13494, places it in the upper-mid range of desktop processors. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-9500, is essentially tied with a delta of 0.3%, meaning the i3-12100F offers comparable overall processing power despite having fewer cores. This parity is due to the i3's higher clock speeds and newer architecture, which compensate for its core count disadvantage.

The 58W TDP and 10nm process node indicate an efficient design, but the data suggests that for this specific game, the CPU is not the primary constraint. At 4K, the performance drop is almost entirely attributable to the GPU, as the CPU's single-thread capabilities are more than sufficient to handle the game's logic and physics at lower resolutions. The PassMark single-thread score of 3444 further reinforces that this CPU excels in scenarios where per-core performance is paramount.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rate data provides a comprehensive view of how this system performs across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. The Low preset averages 188 FPS, which is the highest recorded value in the dataset. Medium settings average 164 FPS with a minimum of 139 FPS and a maximum of 188 FPS, showing that even with dips, the experience remains smooth. High settings average 138 FPS, and Ultra settings average 113 FPS, both well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected decline. Low settings average 121 FPS, Medium settings average 106 FPS with a range of 90 to 122 FPS, High settings average 89 FPS, and Ultra settings average 73 FPS. This resolution is the optimal balance for this hardware, as even the Ultra preset maintains a frame rate above 70 FPS, which is suitable for most gaming monitors.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings average 66 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings average 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS, indicating noticeable stutters during intense scenes. High settings average 48 FPS, and Ultra settings average 40 FPS, both of which are below the smooth-playability threshold. The data shows that 4K gaming with this GPU requires significant settings reductions to achieve playable frame rates.

The overall combo rank in the game is 2758 out of 3712 combinations, placing it in the lower third of tested systems. This ranking reflects the GPU's mid-range performance, as the CPU is clearly capable of supporting higher frame rates at lower resolutions. The data indicates that for 4K gaming, this system requires the Low preset to stay above 60 FPS, while 1440p and 1080p offer much more flexibility.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is based on the RDNA 1.0 architecture and features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 1605 MHz, a game clock of 1755 MHz, and a boost clock of 1905 MHz. With 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, the card delivers a peak FP32 performance of 9.754 TFLOPS. The pixel rate is 121.9 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 304.8 GTexel/s.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a mix of DirectX performance, with a PassMark DirectX 12 score of 64 and a PassMark DirectX 11 score of 116. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 2134, and the Geekbench Vulkan score is 68310. These results place the GPU at the 59th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16361. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, is essentially identical with a delta of 0.1%, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell is 0.3% ahead.

In Doom, the GPU's role is clearly defined by the resolution scaling data. At 1080p, the GPU is not fully saturated, as evidenced by the large performance gap between Low (188 FPS) and Ultra (113 FPS) settings. This indicates that the GPU has headroom to spare, and the CPU is able to push frame rates higher. However, at 4K, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck, with even the Low preset dropping to 66 FPS. This is because the pixel count at 4K is four times that of 1080p, and the RX 5700 XT's 8 GB of VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at that resolution.

The 225W TDP and the need for a 550W suggested PSU indicate that this is a power-hungry card, but its performance in Doom at 1440p is commendable. The data shows that the GPU can handle 1440p Ultra at 73 FPS, which is a solid result for a card in the 59th percentile. The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is adequate for this game, as Doom's textures are not excessively demanding, but the GPU's raw compute power is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the user's resolution and performance priorities. For 1080p gaming, the High preset averaging 138 FPS is the best choice, as it offers a significant visual improvement over Medium (164 FPS) while still maintaining a frame rate well above 144 Hz monitors' refresh rates. The Ultra preset at 113 FPS is also viable, but the 25 FPS drop from High may not justify the visual gains for competitive players.

For 1440p gaming, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, averaging 106 FPS with a minimum of 90 FPS. This provides a smooth experience on 144 Hz monitors, though the High preset at 89 FPS is also acceptable. The Ultra preset at 73 FPS is playable but may feel less responsive in fast-paced combat scenarios. For users with 60 Hz displays, the High preset offers a comfortable margin above the refresh rate.

For 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only option that achieves an average above 60 FPS, at 66 FPS. The Medium preset averages 57 FPS, which is close to the 60 FPS threshold but has a minimum of 49 FPS, indicating that frame drops will be noticeable. The High and Ultra presets at 48 FPS and 40 FPS, respectively, are not recommended for a smooth experience. Users prioritizing visual fidelity at 4K would need to accept lower frame rates or consider a more powerful GPU.

The data indicates that the best overall experience with this hardware is at 1440p with Medium settings, providing 106 FPS average with minimal variance. This configuration balances visual quality and performance, leveraging the CPU's strong single-thread capabilities and the GPU's mid-range power. For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, the High preset at 138 FPS is the most balanced choice, while competitive players may prefer the Low preset at 188 FPS for maximum frame rates.