Doom

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 delivers a highly playable Doom experience across most settings, but the data suggests a clear sweet spot. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset produces an average of 153 FPS with a recorded minimum of 130 FPS, offering a substantial performance buffer over the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining visual fidelity above the Low preset. The High preset at this resolution averages 129 FPS, which is still excellent, but the Medium preset’s combination of a higher average and a narrower gap to the maximum frame rate (176 FPS) indicates more consistent frame pacing. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again stands out with an average of 99 FPS and a minimum of 84 FPS, keeping the experience smooth on high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset, while visually demanding, drops to 106 FPS at 1080p and 68 FPS at 1440p; these are playable but leave less headroom for demanding scenes. For the best balance of frame rate and visual quality, the Medium preset is the recommended choice across all tested resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is the primary driver of frame rates in this configuration, and its memory subsystem and clock speeds are central to understanding the measured results. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for Doom’s textures at the tested settings, as evidenced by the playable averages even at 3840x2160. The GPU’s clock behavior—with a base clock of 1626 MHz, a game clock of 2044 MHz, and a boost clock of 2491 MHz—shows how the card scales its frequency under load. The measured FPS data reveals that the RX 6600 is capable of pushing frame rates well beyond 100 FPS at 1080p on Medium and High settings, but the performance drops become more pronounced as resolution increases. At 4K, the average FPS falls from 62 on Low to 37 on Ultra, a clear indication that the GPU’s compute resources—1792 shading units and 64 ROPs—are the limiting factor at higher pixel counts. The 8 GB VRAM does not appear to be a bottleneck in this game, as even the 4K Ultra preset, which would be the most memory-intensive, shows a measurable average of 37 FPS rather than a catastrophic failure. The GPU’s 132 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest it is a mid-range part, and the benchmark data confirms this positioning: it sits at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19036, placing it in the same performance tier as the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 60 FPS experience at 4K?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves an average of 62 FPS, while Medium drops to 54 FPS. For a stable 60 FPS target, the Low preset is the only option that meets this criterion, as the Medium preset’s average falls short.

Q: How much performance is gained by lowering resolution from 1440p to 1080p?

A: At the Medium preset, the average FPS increases from 99 at 2560x1440 to 153 at 1920x1080, representing a 54 FPS gain. This translates to roughly a 54% improvement in frame rate, highlighting the GPU’s sensitivity to pixel count.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a playable experience at 1440p?

A: The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 yields an average of 68 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS threshold, so it is playable on a standard 60 Hz display, though it leaves less headroom for demanding scenes compared to the Medium preset’s 99 FPS average.

Q: Which component is limiting performance at 4K?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor at 3840x2160. The average FPS drops from 62 on Low to 37 on Ultra, while the CPU’s performance remains constant. This pattern indicates that the rendering load at 4K exceeds what the RX 6600 can handle, regardless of CPU capability.

Q: What is the frame rate range for the Medium preset at 1080p?

A: The measured data shows a minimum of 130 FPS, an average of 153 FPS, and a maximum of 176 FPS at 1920x1080 on Medium. This narrow range indicates consistent performance with no significant frame drops.

Q: How does the RX 6600 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 19036 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19030) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (19049). The deltaPct values are 0% and -0.1% respectively, indicating that these cards perform within a statistical tie.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 ranks 2883 out of 3712 tested combos for Doom, placing it in the 22nd percentile of all configurations. This rank reflects the mid-range nature of both components. The CPU sits at the 68th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 13494, while the GPU is at the 63rd percentile with a score of 19036. The combo’s rank is lower than either component’s individual percentile, suggesting that the pairing does not boost performance to the level of more balanced, higher-end systems. However, the measured FPS data shows that this rank does not translate to a poor experience; at 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 153 FPS, which is competitive for its tier. The rank of 2883 is heavily influenced by the sheer number of combos tested, many of which include more powerful CPUs or GPUs. In practical terms, this combo delivers smooth gameplay at 1080p and 1440p, with the CPU not acting as a bottleneck in most scenarios. The deltaPct values for the CPU’s nearest rivals—such as the Intel Core i5-9500 (0.3% faster) and the Intel Core 5 120UL (-0.7% slower)—indicate that the i3-12100F is well-matched to its peers, and the GPU’s rivals show similar parity, reinforcing that this is a balanced mid-range pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At the Medium preset, the average FPS is 153 at 1920x1080, drops to 99 at 2560x1440, and falls further to 54 at 3840x2160. This represents a 35% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 45% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, indicating that the RX 6600’s pixel throughput becomes increasingly strained at higher resolutions. The Low preset shows a similar trend: 176 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K. The fact that the Low preset at 4K still achieves 62 FPS, while the Ultra preset at 4K only manages 37 FPS, suggests that the GPU’s raw compute power—8.928 TFLOPS FP32—is the limiting factor, not memory bandwidth or capacity. The CPU’s role in this scaling is minimal; the i3-12100F’s 4 cores and 8 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at all tested settings, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates across different presets at the same resolution. The data implies that for users targeting 4K, this combo is only viable at Low settings, while 1440p offers a more balanced experience with High or Medium settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the benchmark results show a wide range of performance across settings. The Low preset delivers the highest average at 176 FPS, followed by Medium at 153 FPS with a minimum of 130 FPS and a maximum of 176 FPS. High settings produce an average of 129 FPS, while Ultra drops to 106 FPS. These numbers indicate that the GPU has significant headroom at 1080p, allowing for high frame rates even at the most demanding preset. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages decrease as expected: Low averages 114 FPS, Medium averages 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 114 FPS, High averages 84 FPS, and Ultra averages 68 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p maintains a minimum above 60 FPS, making it a solid choice for smooth gameplay. At 3840x2160, the performance drops considerably. Low settings average 62 FPS, Medium averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS, High averages 45 FPS, and Ultra averages 37 FPS. The 4K results show that only the Low preset crosses the 60 FPS threshold, and even then, the margin is slim. The data across all resolutions shows that the Medium preset provides the most balanced experience, with frame rates that are consistently high enough for competitive play at 1080p and 1440p, while remaining playable at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F, with its 4 cores and 8 threads, plays a supporting role in this configuration, and the benchmark data confirms that it does not bottleneck the RX 6600 in Doom. The CPU’s base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz provide sufficient single-thread performance for this game, as evidenced by the high frame rates achieved at 1080p. The CPU’s synthetic benchmarks show strong single-core capability, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3444. These scores are competitive with its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i5-9500, which is only 0.3% faster in average benchmark score. The multi-threaded performance, while less critical for Doom, is adequate: the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11860 and the Geekbench multi-core score of 7252 show that the CPU can handle background tasks without impacting gameplay. The CPU’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache are sufficient for the game’s data needs. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 176 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s maximum frame delivery capacity, but the drop to 153 FPS at Medium suggests the GPU is still the primary limiter. At 4K, the CPU’s role is even less significant, as the GPU’s rendering load dominates. The i3-12100F’s 58 W TDP and Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process, make it an efficient partner for the RX 6600, and the data indicates that this pairing extracts the full potential of the GPU without CPU-induced frame stutters. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 68% versus the GPU’s 63% suggests a slight CPU advantage, but in practice, the combo performs as a balanced mid-range system, with the GPU dictating the frame rate at higher resolutions and settings.