Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Doom with the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo produces an average of 216.5 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same preset drops that to 143.2 FPS, a reduction of roughly 34%. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average falls further to 76.7 FPS, which is about 46% lower than the 1440p result and 65% lower than the 1080p result. This steep decline indicates that the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions, while the Core i3-12100F has enough headroom to feed the GPU at lower pixel counts.

The scaling pattern holds across all settings. With Low settings, the 1080p average is 360.8 FPS, dropping to 234.4 FPS at 1440p and 129 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops between resolutions are consistent with what you would expect from a GPU-bound workload: the gap from 1440p to 4K is larger than from 1080p to 1440p for every preset. For instance, at Medium settings, the 1440p result of 205.6 FPS is about 35% below the 1080p figure of 317.3 FPS, while the 4K result of 110.5 FPS is about 46% below the 1440p figure.

This behavior suggests that Doom's engine scales well with GPU resources, and the RX 7900 XTX's 24 GB of GDDR6 memory is not a bottleneck at any of the tested resolutions. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains a playable average above 75 FPS, which is notable for a 2016 title running on modern hardware. The lack of min FPS data means we cannot assess frame time consistency, but the averages alone indicate a smooth experience.

FAQ

Q: How does the Core i3-12100F perform in Doom compared to its nearest rivals?

A: The i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13516, which places it 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462). It also beats the Intel Core i3-10105 by 0.6% and the Intel Core i7-7700K by 1.8%. This suggests the quad-core processor holds its own against much higher-tier chips in this game.

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

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At High settings, it delivers 171.9 FPS, which is well above the 4K High result of 92 FPS. The 1440p Ultra preset still produces 143.2 FPS, making it a strong choice for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: Does the RX 7900 XTX bottleneck the i3-12100F at any resolution?

A: Benchmark results indicate that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, where the average FPS drops significantly across all settings. At 1080p, however, the CPU may become the constraint, as the FPS differences between Low (360.8) and Medium (317.3) are smaller than at higher resolutions, suggesting the CPU cannot fully utilize the GPU's potential.

Q: How much FPS do you gain by dropping from Ultra to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS increases from 216.5 on Ultra to 360.8 on Low, a gain of approximately 67%. This is the largest absolute jump between any two settings at a single resolution.

Q: Is the RX 7900 XTX's 24 GB VRAM necessary for Doom?

A: The game was released in 2016 and does not require large amounts of video memory. The 24 GB GDDR6 buffer is far more than sufficient, and the measured FPS data shows no signs of VRAM-related stutter or performance degradation at any resolution or settings level.

Q: What percentile does the RX 7900 XTX rank among all GPUs?

A: The GPU is in the 85th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44019. It sits 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (44195) and 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43667).

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target display. For 4K gaming, the High preset is the best choice, delivering 92 FPS on average. This is noticeably better than Ultra's 76.7 FPS, and the visual difference between High and Ultra in Doom is often subtle. The Medium preset at 4K offers 110.5 FPS, which could be preferable for players who prioritize frame rate over maximum fidelity.

At 2560x1440, the High preset provides an excellent experience with 171.9 FPS, well above the 143.2 FPS of Ultra. For competitive play, the Low preset at 1440p yields 234.4 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 205.6 FPS is a strong middle ground.

At 1920x1080, even the Ultra preset achieves 216.5 FPS, making it viable for 144Hz displays. The Medium preset at 317.3 FPS and Low at 360.8 FPS are better suited for 240Hz or higher refresh rates. Given these numbers, the High preset is recommended as the default across all resolutions, as it offers a consistent balance of visual quality and performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces the following average FPS across settings: Low achieves 360.8, Medium reaches 317.3, High delivers 270.3, and Ultra drops to 216.5. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 40% reduction in frame rate, which is expected given the increased shading and texture demands.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 234.4, Medium at 205.6, High at 171.9, and Ultra at 143.2. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 35% across all settings, consistent with the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 129, Medium at 110.5, High at 92, and Ultra at 76.7. The 4K results show the most significant degradation, with Ultra falling below 80 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 4K is about 17%, while the gap between Medium and High is about 17% as well. This indicates diminishing returns from Medium to Ultra at higher resolutions.

The data shows that the i3-12100F's four cores and eight threads are sufficient to maintain high frame rates in Doom, as the CPU's 3DMark scores (4051 for 16 threads, 4026 for 8 threads) suggest strong multithreaded performance for a budget chip. The GPU's 61.39 TFLOPS FP32 output and 959.2 GTexel/s texture rate are clearly the driving forces behind the high averages.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the observed performance. With a boost clock of 2498 MHz and a game clock of 2365 MHz, the GPU operates at high frequencies that contribute to its strong rasterization throughput. The 6144 shading units and 384 texture mapping units allow for rapid pixel and texture processing, which is reflected in the 479.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 959.2 GTexel/s texture rate.

The 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than adequate for Doom's textures and geometry. The memory clock of 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) ensures that the GPU is never starved for data, even at 4K Ultra settings. The 192 ROPs handle the final pixel output efficiently, contributing to the high average FPS across all tested configurations.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate its in-game performance. Its Passmark G3D score is 31238, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6841. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 189573 and Vulkan score of 192597 indicate strong compute capabilities, which are relevant for Doom's dynamic lighting and particle effects. The GPU ranks in the 85th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44019.

In comparison to its nearest rivals, the RX 7900 XTX is 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 580 and 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile. It also trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti by 2%, which is a narrow margin given the differences in architecture and target market. The GPU's end-of-life production status does not diminish its measured performance in Doom, as the data shows it handles the game with ease.