Doom

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 delivers a robust experience in Doom, with performance that scales predictably across resolutions and settings. The data shows a configuration capable of high refresh rate play at 1080p and smooth 60+ FPS at 4K, though the choice of preset significantly impacts the margin. This analysis breaks down the measured results to determine the optimal settings, the respective roles of the CPU and GPU, and how this combination stacks up against the broader field.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy for settings presets in Doom. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 241 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate for this configuration. However, the Medium preset still delivers an excellent 210 FPS average, while the High preset drops to 178 FPS, and Ultra falls to 145 FPS. For players with high refresh rate monitors, the Medium preset offers a compelling balance, providing a 29 FPS advantage over High while remaining well above the 144 Hz threshold.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. The Low preset reaches 156 FPS, but the Medium preset maintains a strong 136 FPS average. The High preset produces 115 FPS, and Ultra drops to 94 FPS. The data indicates that Medium at 1440p is the sweet spot for a 120Hz or 144Hz display, as it remains above 120 FPS while offering better visual fidelity than Low. The jump from Medium to High costs 21 FPS, which may not be worth the visual upgrade for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically due to the GPU load. The Low preset yields 85 FPS, the Medium preset averages 74 FPS, and the High preset drops to 62 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 51 FPS. For 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, as it maintains a playable 74 FPS average with a minimum of 63 FPS, ensuring consistent performance. While Low offers a higher average, the Medium preset provides a better visual experience without sacrificing the 60 FPS baseline. High at 4K is still playable at 62 FPS, but it leaves less headroom for demanding scenes.

Across all resolutions, the data suggests that the Medium preset provides the best overall experience. It consistently delivers frame rates that are 30-40% higher than High, while the visual difference between Medium and High in Doom is often less impactful than the performance gap. The Ultra preset is the least efficient, showing the largest FPS drop relative to the High preset, indicating diminishing returns for the highest quality settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is the dominant component in this pairing, particularly at higher resolutions. Its specifications include a boost clock of 2459 MHz and a game clock of 2041 MHz, with a base clock of 1900 MHz. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. This memory configuration is substantial for a game like Doom, which was released in 2016 and does not have the demanding VRAM requirements of modern titles. The 16 GB capacity ensures that memory capacity is never a limiting factor, even at 4K Ultra settings.

The GPU's performance in Doom scales clearly with resolution, which points to its central role. At 1080p, the FPS differences between settings are primarily driven by the GPU's ability to render frames quickly. The jump from 241 FPS at Low to 145 FPS at Ultra (a 96 FPS drop) shows how much headroom the GPU has at lower resolutions. At 1440p, the same settings spread exists but with lower absolute numbers, indicating the GPU is working harder. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, as evidenced by the 51 FPS average at Ultra, which is a significant drop from the 85 FPS at Low.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 15852 places it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, according to the data. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R9 370X (with a deltaPct of -0.1), the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (-1), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (-1.7). These deltas are minimal, suggesting the RX 7700 performs on par with the RTX 3060 Ti in general benchmarks. In Doom specifically, this means the RX 7700 is well-suited for high-refresh 1080p and 1440p gaming, while still managing 4K at playable frame rates on lower presets. The GPU's 25.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 393.4 GTexel/s texture rate are more than sufficient for this title's Vulkan and OpenGL rendering paths.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor from the Alder Lake generation, 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 dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory. The CPU's average benchmark score is 13494, placing it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals show a tight grouping: the Intel Core 3 N355 (deltaPct 0), the Intel Core i5-9500 (0.3), and the Intel Core 5 120UL (-0.7). This indicates the i3-12100F performs competitively with older i5 parts, which is relevant for Doom's CPU demands.

In Doom, the CPU's role is less pronounced than the GPU, but it still matters for achieving high frame rates. The data shows that at 1080p, the FPS scales from 241 at Low to 145 at Ultra. The fact that the CPU can sustain frame rates above 200 FPS in the Low preset indicates that its single-thread performance (3dmark_single_thread score of 893) is strong enough to avoid becoming a bottleneck at lower settings. The 4-core/8-thread configuration is sufficient for Doom's engine, which is known to scale well with fewer cores but benefits from high clock speeds.

The CPU's boost clock of 4.30 GHz is critical for maintaining high FPS in CPU-bound scenarios. At 1080p Low, the average of 241 FPS suggests the CPU is feeding the GPU adequately. However, the drop to 145 FPS at Ultra at the same resolution implies that the GPU is now the limiting factor, as the CPU's workload does not change significantly with graphics settings. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes further, with the GPU becoming the clear bottleneck. The data shows that the i3-12100F does not hold back the RX 7700 in Doom, as the FPS reductions from 1080p to 4K are consistent with GPU-bound scaling.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 achieves a rank of 1314 out of 2930 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the 55th percentile of all combinations, indicating that it performs slightly above average for this game. The rank is a holistic measure of the system's capability across all tested settings and resolutions.

Given the GPU's 58th percentile ranking and the CPU's 68th percentile ranking, the combo rank of 1314/2930 (approximately 55th percentile) suggests that the pairing is well-balanced but not exceptional. The CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU in terms of percentile, but the game's demands lean more heavily on the GPU, especially at higher resolutions. The combo's performance is likely limited by the GPU at 4K, while at 1080p, the CPU's 4-core architecture might start to show its limits in other more CPU-intensive titles, though not in Doom based on the measured data.

Compared to other combos in the database, this system sits in the middle of the pack. The rank implies that a significant portion of tested configurations outperform it, likely those with higher-end GPUs or CPUs with more cores. However, the combo still delivers playable performance across all measured scenarios, with the 4K Ultra average of 51 FPS being the only sub-60 result. This rank reflects a system that is capable but not top-tier, prioritizing a strong GPU for resolution scaling while relying on a budget-friendly CPU that holds its own.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers a 136 FPS average with a minimum of 116 FPS, making it the best choice for a high refresh rate experience. The High preset drops to 115 FPS, while Low offers 156 FPS but with reduced visual quality.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Doom?

A: Yes, the measured data shows that at 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 85 FPS, Medium averages 74 FPS, and High reaches 62 FPS. The Ultra preset is the only one that falls below 60 FPS, with a 51 FPS average.

Q: How does the RX 7700 compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 3060 Ti?

A: According to the benchmark data, the RX 7700 has an average score of 15852, while the RTX 3060 Ti is listed as a nearest rival with a deltaPct of -1.7, meaning the RX 7700 is approximately 1.7% slower than the RTX 3060 Ti in general compute benchmarks.

Q: Is the i3-12100F a bottleneck for the RX 7700 in this game?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 241 FPS, which shows the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output. The FPS drops at higher resolutions are consistent with GPU-bound scaling, suggesting the CPU has sufficient headroom.

Q: What is the FPS difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 241 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 145 FPS. This represents a 96 FPS difference, or approximately a 40% reduction in frame rate when moving from Low to Ultra.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM on the RX 7700 matter for Doom?

A: For Doom, the 16 GB of VRAM is excessive, as the game has modest memory requirements. The 624.1 GB/s bandwidth ensures fast texture streaming, but the capacity is not a limiting factor in any of the measured settings, including 4K Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the combo's performance across three resolutions and four settings presets.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 241 FPS average. This is the highest recorded frame rate for the combo.
• Medium: 210 FPS average, with a minimum of 179 FPS and a maximum of 242 FPS.
• High: 178 FPS average.
• Ultra: 145 FPS average.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 156 FPS average.
• Medium: 136 FPS average, with a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 156 FPS.
• High: 115 FPS average.
• Ultra: 94 FPS average.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 85 FPS average.
• Medium: 74 FPS average, with a minimum of 63 FPS and a maximum of 85 FPS.
• High: 62 FPS average.
• Ultra: 51 FPS average.

The data shows that the Medium preset consistently provides the most stable performance, as it is the only preset with recorded minimum and maximum values, indicating a tighter frame time distribution. The Low preset offers the highest averages but lacks the same level of consistency, while Ultra shows the largest performance penalty. The FPS deltas between settings are consistent across resolutions, with Low being roughly 30-40% faster than Ultra in all cases.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the system's components are stressed. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 178 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops this to 115 FPS, a 35% reduction. At 4K High, the average is 62 FPS, which is a further 46% reduction from 1440p. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component, as the CPU's workload remains relatively constant across resolutions while the GPU's rendering load increases exponentially with pixel count.

The Low preset shows a similar trend: 241 FPS at 1080p, 156 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop), and 85 FPS at 4K (a 45% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests a uniform GPU bottleneck. The CPU, with its 4 cores and 8 threads, is not the limiting factor, as the FPS reductions are proportional to the GPU's pixel output demands.

The most telling data point is the 4K Ultra result of 51 FPS. This is the only scenario where the system dips below the 60 FPS threshold, highlighting the GPU's limits at the highest settings. The scaling from 1080p Ultra (145 FPS) to 4K Ultra (51 FPS) represents a 65% performance loss, which is steeper than the loss at lower settings. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces additional GPU load that disproportionately impacts higher resolutions, likely due to increased shading and texture detail requirements. Overall, the resolution scaling data confirms that the RX 7700 is the driving force in this combo, with the i3-12100F providing sufficient support to avoid becoming a bottleneck.