Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for the Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 in Doom reveal a classic resolution scaling curve, where the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as pixel count rises. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo delivers 130.1 FPS, which drops to 85.6 FPS at 2560x1440—a 34% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160 High brings the average down to 47.2 FPS, a further 45% decline from the 1440p figure. This steepening drop-off as resolution increases is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario: the RX 6600 is doing the heavy lifting, and the i5-12400’s six cores are not the constraint.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution confirms this interpretation. At 1080p, the spread is substantial: 176.8 FPS on Low versus 109 FPS on Ultra, a 62% difference. At 1440p, Low hits 116.8 FPS while Ultra manages only 66.7 FPS, a 75% delta. At 4K, the spread narrows to 61.1 FPS on Low versus 38 FPS on Ultra, a 61% gap. The fact that the Low-to-Ultra delta does not collapse at 4K—where one might expect the GPU to be saturated regardless of settings—suggests that Doom’s Ultra preset is particularly demanding on the RDNA 2 architecture, likely due to heavy shading and texture work that scales with resolution.

Notably, the 4K Low result of 61.1 FPS is just above the 60 FPS threshold, while 4K Medium sits at 55.8 FPS. This indicates that even at the highest resolution, the combo can maintain playable frame rates if the user is willing to compromise on visual fidelity. However, the 4K Ultra figure of 38 FPS falls well below the smoothness most FPS players demand. The data points to a system where 1440p is the sweet spot: at High settings, 85.6 FPS is comfortably above the 60 FPS baseline, and even Ultra at 66.7 FPS remains playable.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific pairing of the i5-12400 and RX 6600 achieves a combo rank of 1325 out of 1681 tested combinations for Doom. That places it in the lower 21% of all combos, which is a meaningful context for interpreting the raw FPS numbers. The relatively low rank is not a condemnation of the hardware—Doom is an older title (released 2016-05-12) that can run well on modest systems—but it does indicate that many other CPU-GPU pairings deliver higher average frame rates in this game.

The CPU’s standalone performance helps explain why the combo ranks where it does. The i5-12400 sits in the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19850. Its nearest rivals in the database are the Intel Core i7-9700 (19831, deltaPct 0.1), the Intel Core i7-8700 (19894, deltaPct -0.2), the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (19928, deltaPct -0.4), and the Intel Core i5-11600K (19771, deltaPct 0.4). All of these are within a fraction of a percent of the i5-12400’s average score, meaning the CPU is a solid, mid-pack performer that is not holding back the GPU in most scenarios.

On the GPU side, the RX 6600 ranks in the 69th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25235. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 890M (25246, deltaPct 0), the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (25287, deltaPct -0.2), the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (25180, deltaPct 0.2), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (25120, deltaPct 0.5). The near-zero deltaPct values indicate that these GPUs are effectively interchangeable in raw compute terms. The RX 6600 is a competent mid-range card, but it is not a high-end part, which is consistent with the combo’s rank of 1325.

The fact that the CPU percentile (77) is higher than the GPU percentile (69) suggests that the pairing is slightly CPU-heavy for this workload. In Doom, where the engine is well-optimized and can push high frame rates, the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. Yet the combo rank of 1325 of 1681 shows that the absolute performance is still competitive—many combos in the database are likely using weaker GPUs or older CPUs, and this pairing outperforms them.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture using TSMC’s 7 nm process, with a die size of 237 mm² and 11,060 million transistors. The GPU’s role in Doom is defined by its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. For a game from 2016, 8 GB is more than sufficient—Doom does not push VRAM limits at any of the tested resolutions, so the memory capacity is not a bottleneck. The 128-bit bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for the texture loads in this title, though they are modest by modern standards.

The clock behavior of the RX 6600 is noteworthy. The base clock is 1626 MHz, but the game clock is rated at 2044 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2491 MHz. In practice, the GPU will spend most of its time between the game and boost clocks, and the measured FPS suggests that the boost behavior is consistent across resolutions. The memory runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective, and this is not a limiting factor in Doom.

The GPU’s compute resources—1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs—are well-suited to Doom’s Vulkan-based engine, which can leverage these units efficiently. The pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s are respectable for a mid-range card. The FP32 throughput of 8.928 TFLOPS is the raw compute ceiling, and Doom’s shaders do not appear to saturate it, as evidenced by the fact that 1080p Low achieves 176.8 FPS without hitting a hard compute wall.

The GPU’s PCIe 4.0 x8 interface is worth noting, as the i5-12400 supports PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes (CPU only). The x8 link on the RX 6600 is not a bottleneck in Doom, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU is the limiting factor. The 132 W TDP and single 8-pin power connector are consistent with the card’s mid-range positioning, and the 300 W suggested PSU is not a consideration for performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data offers clear guidance on settings for this combo in Doom. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 130.1 FPS, which is well above any refresh rate except the highest-end 240 Hz panels. The Ultra preset at 109 FPS is still excellent, and the 21.1 FPS cost of moving from High to Ultra is acceptable if the user prioritizes visual quality. The Medium preset at 153.2 FPS and Low at 176.8 FPS are overkill for most displays, though they would be useful for competitive play on a 144 Hz monitor where every frame matters.

At 2560x1440, the High preset hits 85.6 FPS, which is smooth on a 60 Hz or 75 Hz display but falls short of 144 Hz. The Medium preset at 101 FPS is the better choice for users with a 144 Hz 1440p monitor, as it provides a 15.4 FPS improvement over High while still looking good. The Ultra preset at 66.7 FPS is playable but not ideal for fast-paced FPS action, and the Low preset at 116.8 FPS is the competitive option if visual fidelity is less important.

At 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset at 61.1 FPS is the only setting that clears the 60 FPS bar, and it does so narrowly. The Medium preset at 55.8 FPS is borderline, and the High preset at 47.2 FPS is below 50 FPS, which will be noticeable in a fast shooter. The Ultra preset at 38 FPS is not recommended for serious play. The data suggests that 4K is only viable on Low settings for this combo, and even then, the margin above 60 FPS is thin.

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the High preset at 1440p is the recommended starting point. It provides 85.6 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold and looks substantially better than Medium or Low. Users with a 144 Hz 1440p display should consider the Medium preset at 101 FPS, which offers a 15.4 FPS advantage over High with a modest visual compromise. At 1080p, High is the sensible default, with Ultra available as a visual upgrade that still maintains 109 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full set of measured frame rates provides a detailed picture of how this combo scales across resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the averages are as follows: Low delivers 176.8 FPS, Medium delivers 153.2 FPS, High delivers 130.1 FPS, and Ultra delivers 109 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra is a steady decline, with each step costing approximately 23.6 FPS on average. The largest single jump is from High to Ultra at 21.1 FPS, while the smallest is from Low to Medium at 23.6 FPS. Notably, the 1080p results are all well above the 60 FPS threshold, meaning the combo never struggles at this resolution regardless of settings.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 116.8 FPS on Low, 101 FPS on Medium, 85.6 FPS on High, and 66.7 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 15.8 FPS, from Medium to High is 15.4 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 18.9 FPS. The Ultra preset is the only one that approaches the 60 FPS boundary, and it clears it by 6.7 FPS. The 1440p results show that the GPU is starting to feel the load, but it remains capable at all settings.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 61.1 FPS on Low, 55.8 FPS on Medium, 47.2 FPS on High, and 38 FPS on Ultra. The decline from Low to Medium is 5.3 FPS, from Medium to High is 8.6 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 9.2 FPS. The 4K results are the most telling: only Low clears 60 FPS, and Ultra falls to 38 FPS, which is a 58% reduction from the 1080p Ultra figure of 109 FPS. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is being pushed to its limits at 4K, where the ROP and texture throughput become the binding constraints.

The min and max FPS values are not available in the data, so the analysis relies on averages. However, the consistency of the scaling across resolutions suggests that frame pacing is likely stable, with no sudden drops that would indicate CPU stuttering or driver issues. The i5-12400’s 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, are more than sufficient for Doom’s single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads, as evidenced by the CPU’s Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935 and single-core score of 2249.