Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Doom with the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 shows a predictable but steep decline as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo produces 127 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at Ultra drops that to 82 FPS, a 35% reduction. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average falls to 45 FPS, which is 65% lower than the 1080p result. This scaling curve is typical of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions.

The 1080p to 1440p transition tells a clear story. At High settings, the drop from 155 FPS to 101 FPS represents a 35% performance loss. At Low settings, the drop from 211 FPS to 137 FPS is 35% as well. The consistency of these scaling ratios across settings strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor once resolution increases. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the percentage drops would be less uniform and would flatten out at higher resolutions.

The 1440p to 4K transition is even more punishing. At High settings, 101 FPS at 1440p falls to 54 FPS at 4K, a 47% reduction. At Low settings, 137 FPS drops to 74 FPS, a 46% loss. At Medium settings, 119 FPS drops to 65 FPS, a 45% reduction. This near-identical percentage loss across all three settings at the 1440p-to-4K step reinforces that pixel throughput—not geometry, not draw calls, not CPU logic—is what dictates performance at 4K.

What the data does not show is any sign of a CPU ceiling at 1080p. The 211 FPS Low result at 1080p is high enough that a weaker processor would likely show frame rate stagnation. The i5-11400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears to keep pace with the RX 9060 even at the lowest resolution and settings. The 1080p Low result of 211 FPS versus the 4K Low result of 74 FPS demonstrates that the GPU is doing proportionally more work as resolution climbs.

The measured minimum FPS data, available only for Medium settings, further supports the GPU-bound interpretation. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 55 FPS against an average of 65 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 101 FPS against an average of 119 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 156 FPS against an average of 184 FPS. The minimum-to-average gap stays roughly consistent in percentage terms, which suggests smooth scaling rather than sudden CPU stalls or VRAM spills.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 44 chip fabricated on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation pipelines. Its boost clock reaches 2990 MHz, with a game clock of 2400 MHz and a base clock of 1700 MHz.

In Doom, the RX 9060's performance profile places it in the 59th percentile of all GPUs in the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score is 16014. The nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with an average score of 16129 (0.7% higher), the AMD Radeon R9 370X at 15862 (1% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 at 15852 (1% lower), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 at 15679 (2.1% lower). This grouping means the RX 9060 sits in a competitive mid-range tier, trading blows with the RTX 3060 Ti.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is worth examining against Doom's demands. The game is from 2016, and its texture requirements are modest by modern standards. The measured FPS data shows no evidence of VRAM-related stuttering or frame drops at 4K Ultra—the average of 45 FPS, while low, is a steady result rather than a collapse. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 55, which is 85% of the average of 65, indicating the memory subsystem is not hitting a wall.

The memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s is a key specification for Doom's id Tech 6 engine, which streams textures aggressively. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly bandwidth-limited, as evidenced by the steep drop from 65 FPS at Medium to 45 FPS at Ultra—a 31% penalty for the higher settings. The 128-bit bus is the constraining factor here, not the raw compute throughput.

Clock speeds tell a complementary story. The boost clock of 2990 MHz is high, and the game clock of 2400 MHz is what sustained workloads will see. The FP32 throughput of 21.43 TFLOPS is substantial for this class of GPU. In Doom, which favors raw fill rate and texture bandwidth over complex shading, the RX 9060's 191.4 GPixel/s pixel rate and 334.9 GTexel/s texture rate are the relevant figures. The 64 ROPs deliver enough pixel throughput for 1440p at high frame rates, but 4K Ultra at 45 FPS shows the ROP count is insufficient for 8.3 million pixels per frame at high settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a Rocket Lake processor on Intel Socket 1200, built on a 14 nm process. It has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The L3 cache is 12 MB shared, with 512 KB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core. It supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration, giving a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The TDP is 65 W.

The CPU's benchmark results place it in the 71st percentile of all processors. Its average benchmark score is 17177. The nearest rivals are the AMD EPYC 7H12 at 17120 (0.3% higher), the Intel Core i5-12450H at 17239 (0.4% lower), the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G at 17278 (0.6% lower), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U at 17074 (0.6% higher). This places the i5-11400F in a tightly packed group where no rival exceeds a 0.6% delta.

In Doom, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but the 1080p results indicate the processor can feed the RX 9060 effectively. The 211 FPS Low result at 1080p is a strong indicator that the 6-core/12-thread configuration handles the game's draw call submission and physics without bottlenecking. The single-thread score of 2981 in Passmark and the 3DMark single-thread score of 868 both point to adequate per-core performance for a 2016-era game engine.

The boost clock of 4.40 GHz is the relevant figure for gaming workloads, as Doom is not heavily multithreaded. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5619 and the max-thread score of 5652 show that scaling beyond 6 cores is minimal—the 8-thread score is 4691 and the 4-thread score is 3171. This means the i5-11400F's 6 physical cores are doing the heavy lifting, and the 12 threads provide headroom for background tasks.

The memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s is worth noting. Doom's engine streams level data, and the dual-channel DDR4 configuration provides adequate throughput. The measured FPS data shows no stutter patterns that would indicate memory starvation. The minimum FPS at 1080p Medium is 156, which is 85% of the average of 184—a healthy ratio that suggests the CPU and memory subsystem are keeping the GPU fed.

The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14340 and single-core score of 2024 give context to the CPU's overall capability. In a game like Doom, the single-core performance matters more than the multicore result, and the 2024 score is respectable for a 14 nm part. The Geekbench single-core score of 1777 and multicore score of 7737 align with this assessment.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-11400F bottlenecking the AMD Radeon RX 9060 in Doom?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 211 FPS, which is high enough to suggest the CPU is keeping up. The 1080p Ultra result of 127 FPS versus the 1440p Ultra result of 82 FPS shows a 35% drop that tracks the pixel count increase, indicating the GPU becomes the limiter as resolution rises.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129 (0.7% higher), the AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15862 (1% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 scores 15852 (1% lower), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 scores 15679 (2.1% lower).

Q: Can this combo run Doom at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 65 with a minimum of 55. At 4K High, the average is 54 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 45 FPS. For a 2016 FPS, the Medium and High settings provide playable results, while Ultra falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware?

A: At 1440p High, the combo produces 101 FPS, which is a strong result. The 1440p Ultra setting yields 82 FPS. At 1080p, all settings exceed 127 FPS, with Low reaching 211 FPS. The data suggests 1440p High or Ultra offers the best balance of visual quality and smoothness.

Q: How does the i5-11400F rank among all CPUs in the database?

A: The i5-11400F sits in the 71st percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 17177. Its nearest rivals are the AMD EPYC 7H12 at 17120 (0.3% higher) and the Intel Core i5-12450H at 17239 (0.4% lower).

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM on the RX 9060 sufficient for Doom at 4K?

A: The measured FPS data shows no VRAM-related frame collapses. At 4K Medium, the minimum FPS is 55 against an average of 65, and at 4K Ultra the average is 45. The game's 2016 release date means its texture sizes are well within the 8 GB capacity.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination ranks 1686 out of 2930 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the 42nd percentile of all combinations in the database. The ranking reflects the mid-range positioning of both components—the CPU at the 71st percentile and the GPU at the 59th percentile individually, but the game-specific combination lands lower due to the GPU's limitations at 4K.

The rank of 1686 out of 2930 means this combo sits below the median. This is primarily driven by the 4K results, where the RX 9060's 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB VRAM become limiting factors. At 1080p and 1440p, the combo performs much closer to the top of the database, but the 4K Ultra result of 45 FPS drags the overall ranking down.

The gap between the CPU's 71st percentile and the combo's 42nd percentile ranking indicates that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing for Doom. A stronger GPU would likely push this combo significantly higher in the rankings. Conversely, the GPU's 59th percentile suggests that pairing it with a stronger CPU would yield only marginal gains in Doom, since the game is not heavily CPU-bound at higher resolutions.

The combo's rank is also influenced by the fact that Doom is an older title that scales well with GPU raw throughput. The RX 9060's 21.43 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is competitive, but the 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is the constraining factor at 4K. Combos with GPUs that have wider memory buses or more VRAM will naturally outperform this pairing in Doom's 4K mode.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 211 FPS average
• Medium: 184 FPS average, 156 FPS minimum, 212 FPS maximum
• High: 155 FPS average
• Ultra: 127 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 137 FPS average
• Medium: 119 FPS average, 101 FPS minimum, 137 FPS maximum
• High: 101 FPS average
• Ultra: 82 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 74 FPS average
• Medium: 65 FPS average, 55 FPS minimum, 74 FPS maximum
• High: 54 FPS average
• Ultra: 45 FPS average

The 1080p results show a clear progression: Low at 211 FPS, Medium at 184 FPS, High at 155 FPS, and Ultra at 127 FPS. The step from Medium to High is a 16% drop, and from High to Ultra is an 18% drop. These are moderate penalties for increased visual fidelity, indicating the GPU has headroom at this resolution.

The 1440p results follow a similar pattern with steeper drops. Low at 137 FPS, Medium at 119 FPS, High at 101 FPS, and Ultra at 82 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 15%, and from High to Ultra is 19%. The minimum FPS at Medium is 101, which is 85% of the average—a stable experience.

The 4K results show the most dramatic scaling. Low at 74 FPS, Medium at 65 FPS, High at 54 FPS, and Ultra at 45 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 12%, from Medium to High is 17%, and from High to Ultra is 17%. The minimum FPS at Medium is 55, which is 85% of the average. While the averages are below 60 FPS for High and Ultra, the frame pacing appears consistent based on the minimum-to-average ratios.

The maximum FPS values, available only for Medium settings, show the ceiling at each resolution: 212 at 1080p, 137 at 1440p, and 74 at 4K. These maximums align closely with the Low settings averages, suggesting that the GPU's peak throughput is tapped out at Medium settings, and higher settings only reduce the average without raising the ceiling.