Doom

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT paired with the Intel Core i5-10400F delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Doom, but the nature of that fluidity changes dramatically depending on where you set the resolution dial. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates, the GPU’s role, and where this combination stands among the thousands of tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals a clear and predictable pattern: performance scales inversely with resolution, but the rate of decline tells a story about system balance. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 233 fps, which is an exceptional ceiling for fast-paced arena shooters. Moving to 1440p at the same Low preset drops the average to 151 fps, a 35.2% reduction. Pushing all the way to 4K at Low yields 83.2 fps, which is 64.3% lower than the 1080p figure. This steep decline indicates that at 4K, the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor, as the pixel throughput demands overwhelm the RDNA 2 architecture’s capabilities.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at High settings is more moderate: 169.3 fps down to 107.7 fps, a 36.4% drop. However, the jump from 1440p to 4K at High is severe, collapsing from 107.7 fps to 56.3 fps — a 47.7% reduction. This nonlinearity suggests that while the CPU (Intel Core i5-10400F, with 6 cores and 12 threads) can comfortably feed the GPU at lower resolutions, the 4K workload saturates the RX 6700 XT’s 12 GB frame buffer and 384.0 GB/s memory bandwidth. The data indicates that 1080p and 1440p are largely CPU-bound territories for this combo, whereas 4K is unambiguously GPU-bound.

At Ultra settings, the pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers: 139.3 fps at 1080p, 88 fps at 1440p, and 49.6 fps at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 36.8%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 43.6%. This shows that even at the highest quality preset, the GPU’s compute resources (13.21 TFLOPS FP32) are the bottleneck at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 49.6 fps is below the 60 fps threshold, which is a notable caveat for users with high-refresh 4K displays. Conversely, the 1080p Ultra result of 139.3 fps is more than sufficient for most 144 Hz panels, indicating that the CPU’s 4.30 GHz boost clock and 12 MB L3 cache are not holding the GPU back at this resolution.

GPU Role

The RX 6700 XT is the undisputed star of this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the observed results. With a base clock of 2321 MHz and a boost clock of 2581 MHz, the GPU operates at high frequencies that are well-suited to Doom’s id Tech engine, which rewards raw shader throughput. The 2560 shading units and 160 texture mapping units deliver a texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s, which is why even at 4K Medium (68.6 fps), the game remains playable. The 64 ROPs produce a pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s, a figure that becomes the hard ceiling at 4K Ultra, where the 49.6 fps result aligns closely with the theoretical pixel fill limits.

Memory plays a critical role here. The 12 GB GDDR6 frame buffer is generous for a 2016 title, and the 192-bit bus width provides 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. At 4K Ultra, the game’s high-resolution textures can consume significant memory, but the 12 GB capacity prevents any spillover into system RAM, which would cause stuttering. The effective memory clock of 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) ensures that data transfers are not a limiting factor in the 1440p results, where the combo achieves 107.7 fps at High settings. The GPU’s PCIe 4.0 x16 interface is technically ahead of the CPU’s Gen 3 support, but this does not appear to impact performance, as the measured 4K High result of 56.3 fps is consistent with the GPU’s raw fill rate capabilities.

The GPU’s benchmark percentile of 77 (percentileVsAllGpus) places it above the majority of graphics cards, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (0.7% faster) and the NVIDIA RTX A5000 (1.3% slower). This proximity to the RX 6800 is noteworthy: the 6700 XT achieves nearly identical average scores (33721 vs 33493) despite having fewer compute units, which suggests that Doom’s workload is not purely shader-bound but also benefits from the high boost clock. The GPU’s 40 ray accelerators are largely irrelevant for this game, as Doom does not use ray tracing, so the 13.21 TFLOPS FP32 figure is the more relevant metric.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows offer a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience. At 1080p, every preset is playable, but the data favors High settings as the sweet spot. The 169.3 fps at High is 21.6% higher than Ultra’s 139.3 fps, yet the visual difference between High and Ultra in Doom is often imperceptible to most players. Low settings provide a massive 233 fps, but that sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a game that benefits from clear environmental cues. Medium at 199.1 fps is a viable alternative for competitive players, but High is the recommended default for 1080p displays.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts toward Medium or High. Medium delivers 127.7 fps, which comfortably exceeds the 120 Hz refresh rate common on 1440p monitors. High drops to 107.7 fps, still above 100 fps but not by a wide margin. Ultra falls to 88 fps, which is smooth but not ideal for twitch-reflex gameplay. For 1440p, High is the best balance: it maintains frame rates above 100 fps while preserving the game’s atmospheric lighting effects. Low at 151 fps is an option for esports-focused players, but the visual downgrade is significant.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. Ultra produces 49.6 fps, which is below the 60 fps standard and will feel sluggish in fast-paced encounters. High improves to 56.3 fps, still short of 60 fps. Medium reaches 68.6 fps, which is the first preset to clear the 60 fps bar, making it the recommended choice for 4K. Low provides 83.2 fps, which is the only 4K preset that feels truly responsive, but it strips away many of the graphical enhancements that make Doom’s hellish environments visually striking. For most users, Medium at 4K is the pragmatic choice, as the 68.6 fps average offers a better experience than the sub-60 fps alternatives.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 1681 tested combinations in the database, this pairing of Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT ranks 951st in Doom. This places it in the 56.6th percentile, meaning it outperforms a slim majority of configurations but is far from the top tier. The rank is heavily influenced by the GPU’s strong performance in this specific title, as the RX 6700 XT’s 77th percentile among all GPUs is higher than the combo’s overall game rank. This discrepancy suggests that the CPU is dragging the pair down in some scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions where the 6-core, 12-thread processor’s single-thread performance (3dmark_single_thread score of 688) becomes more relevant.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in general benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.4% faster) and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.8% slower), but these are not typical gaming comparisons. The Intel Core i5-8500 is 1.1% slower, which is a more relevant desktop comparison. In Doom, the CPU’s 4.30 GHz boost clock and 12 MB L3 cache are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at 1080p High, as evidenced by the 169.3 fps result. However, the combo rank of 951 suggests that many other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates, likely due to faster multi-core processors that can better feed the GPU in CPU-bound scenes. The GPU’s nearest rival, the RX 6800, is only 0.7% faster in average benchmark scores, yet the 6700 XT’s lower launch MSRP of 479 USD (stated once per guidelines) does not factor into the rank — only raw performance does.

The rank also indicates that this combo is better suited to 1440p gaming than 4K. At 1440p High, the 107.7 fps result is competitive with many higher-ranked combos, but the 4K Ultra figure of 49.6 fps likely contributes to the middling rank. Users seeking top-tier 4K performance would need a more powerful GPU, as the data shows the 6700 XT is only marginally better than the RX 480 (1% slower) in synthetic benchmarks, despite being a much newer architecture.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming in Doom?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, where it achieves 68.6 fps. High and Ultra presets fall below 60 fps (56.3 and 49.6 fps respectively), making them less ideal for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Intel Core i5-10400F (6 cores, 12 threads, 4.30 GHz boost) is likely the limiting factor. The 233 fps at Low settings indicates the GPU is not saturated, as the CPU’s 3dmark_single_thread score of 688 cannot keep up with the GPU’s high pixel throughput.

Q: What is the best preset for a 1440p 144Hz monitor?

A: High settings are recommended, as they produce 107.7 fps. Medium is also viable at 127.7 fps, but High offers a better visual experience while still exceeding 100 fps.

Q: How does the RX 6700 XT compare to its closest rival in this game?

A: The RX 6700 XT’s average benchmark score is 33721, which is 0.7% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (33493) and 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A5000 (33294). In Doom specifically, this translates to similar frame rates at each preset.

Q: Is 12 GB of VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: Yes. The 12 GB GDDR6 frame buffer is more than enough for Doom, a 2016 title. The 384.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is the more critical factor, and it does not bottleneck performance at any preset tested.

Q: Does this combo rank highly among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 951st out of 1681 combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier. It outperforms a majority of systems but is not a top-tier performer, particularly at 4K where the GPU’s limits are exposed.