Doom

The Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT pairing delivers a smooth, high-refresh-rate experience in Doom at 1080p and 1440p, but the data clearly shows that 4K Ultra is a step too far for this combination. The measured frame rates across the three resolutions paint a predictable picture: the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU has ample headroom to keep up at lower settings. Here is a breakdown of how this specific combo behaves in the 2016 FPS title, based strictly on the measured data.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is steep and consistent across all settings, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 148 FPS at 1080p to 96 FPS at 1440p, and then plummets to 52 FPS at 4K. That represents a 35% reduction in performance from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 46% reduction from 1440p to 4K. This scaling pattern indicates that the Radeon RX 7600 XT is the limiting component as pixel count increases; the CPU is not holding the combo back at any resolution.

Looking at the Low preset, the trend is similar but with higher absolute numbers. The combo hits 202 FPS at 1080p, drops to 130 FPS at 1440p, and still manages 71 FPS at 4K. The gap between Low and High settings widens as resolution decreases, which is a classic sign of the GPU becoming less of a constraint at lower pixel counts. At 1080p Low, the frame rate is likely being capped or heavily influenced by the CPU’s single-thread performance, whereas at 4K Low, the GPU is still working hard enough to keep the CPU from being the main bottleneck.

The Medium preset provides the most complete dataset, with min and max frame rates recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 176 FPS with a minimum of 149 FPS and a maximum of 202 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 114 FPS with a min of 97 FPS and a max of 131 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 62 FPS with a min of 52 FPS and a max of 71 FPS. The min-to-max spread at each resolution is fairly tight, suggesting stable frame pacing without major stutters, but the 4K Medium minimum of 52 FPS is right at the edge of what most players would consider playable for a fast-paced shooter.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 33 chip and features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The card’s base clock is 1980 MHz with a boost clock of 2755 MHz, and it holds 2048 shading units. In Doom, the GPU’s role is dominant, as evidenced by the significant frame rate drops when moving from 1440p to 4K. The 16 GB frame buffer is more than sufficient for this game, as even at 4K Ultra the VRAM capacity is not the limiting factor; the raw compute throughput of the 22.57 TFLOPS FP32 performance is what determines the final frame rate.

The card’s 60th percentile ranking among all GPUs in the database puts it in the mid-range tier, and its average benchmark score of 17083 aligns closely with rivals like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, which scores 17208, a delta of just -0.7%. This close parity in synthetic benchmarks suggests the RX 7600 XT should perform similarly to an RTX 3070 in Doom, though the measured data here specifically reflects the combo with the i5-12400. The GPU’s boost clock of 2755 MHz is relatively high, and the data shows that at 1080p Low, the card can push well past 200 FPS, indicating it is not power-limited in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 2346 out of 3712 combos for Doom. That places it in the lower-middle portion of the pack, which is a direct reflection of the GPU’s mid-range standing rather than the CPU’s. The i5-12400 itself sits at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 18683, putting it within 0.9% of the Intel Core i3-14100F (18519) and 0.1% of the AMD EPYC 7643 (18697). The GPU, however, only reaches the 60th percentile among all GPUs, which drags the overall combo ranking down.

The rank of 2346 out of 3712 suggests that while this combo is fully capable of running Doom well at mainstream resolutions, there are many other pairings in the database that deliver higher average frame rates. This is not a criticism of the combo’s playability—the measured FPS numbers at 1080p and 1440p are excellent—but it does indicate that for the most demanding 4K scenarios, other builds with higher-tier GPUs will rank significantly better. The data shows that the CPU is not the weak link; swapping in a faster GPU would likely improve the combo’s rank substantially, while upgrading the CPU alone would yield minimal gains in this title.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, the Medium preset is the clear sweet spot for this combo. At 1920x1080 Medium, the combo delivers 176 FPS on average, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of most gaming monitors. The minimum of 149 FPS ensures that even in heavy combat scenes, frame rates stay consistently smooth. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average drops to 114 FPS, which is still excellent for a high-refresh-rate 1440p panel, and the minimum of 97 FPS remains playable.

High settings are also viable for those who prioritize visuals over raw frame rates. At 1080p High, the average is 148 FPS, which is still very smooth, and at 1440p High, it drops to 96 FPS, which is acceptable for most players. However, the jump to 4K High yields only 52 FPS, which is borderline for a fast-paced FPS. The Ultra preset is not recommended for this combo at any resolution above 1080p. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 121 FPS, which is fine, but at 1440p Ultra it falls to 78 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 43 FPS, which is too low for competitive play. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p is the most balanced configuration, offering high frame rates without sacrificing too much visual quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo is clearly CPU-limited at the lowest settings, as evidenced by the 202 FPS average on Low. The Medium preset averages 176 FPS with a minimum of 149 FPS and a maximum of 202 FPS, while High averages 148 FPS and Ultra averages 121 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is roughly linear in terms of percentage drops, but the absolute numbers remain high enough for smooth gameplay on any setting.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates drop by about 35% across the board. Low averages 130 FPS, Medium averages 114 FPS with a min of 97 FPS and max of 131 FPS, High averages 96 FPS, and Ultra averages 78 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 97 FPS is still above 60 FPS, making it a safe choice for 1440p gaming. The gap between Low and Medium is 16 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 18 FPS, showing that the GPU is starting to feel the load at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is fully saturated. Low averages 71 FPS, Medium averages 62 FPS with a min of 52 FPS and max of 71 FPS, High averages 52 FPS, and Ultra averages 43 FPS. The jump from 1440p to 4K roughly halves the frame rate, which is a typical result for a mid-range GPU. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that dips below 45 FPS, making it unsuitable for serious play. For 4K, Low or Medium settings are the only viable options, with Medium providing a decent 62 FPS average.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It features 18 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In Doom, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, but it is still important for maintaining high frame rates at low resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 202 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s maximum single-thread throughput for this game.

The i5-12400’s single-thread performance is strong, as evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 910 and its passmark_single_thread score of 3456. The processor’s 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs and its average benchmark score of 18683 place it slightly above the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 (18811, delta -0.7%) and just below the Intel Core i7-1355U (18730, delta -0.3%). These rival scores are within 1% of the i5-12400, indicating that the CPU is not a differentiator in this game; any of these processors would yield nearly identical frame rates in Doom when paired with the same GPU.

The CPU’s multi-threaded performance is also solid, with a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 15989 and a passmark_multithread score of 18747. However, Doom is not a heavily threaded game, so the 12 threads are largely underutilized. The data indicates that the CPU is never the bottleneck at 1440p or 4K, as the frame rate drops are almost entirely attributable to the GPU’s pixel throughput limits. For this combo, the i5-12400 provides more than enough processing power to feed the RX 7600 XT at all settings, making it a well-matched pair for 1080p and 1440p gaming.