Doom

# FAQ

Q: What is the best-performing settings preset for this CPU-GPU pairing in Doom?

A: The data shows the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS at every resolution tested. At 1080p, Low achieves 364.3 FPS, which is 45 FPS higher than Medium (319.1 FPS) and 147.2 FPS higher than Ultra (217.1 FPS). The gap narrows at 4K, where Low reaches 126.5 FPS versus 113 FPS for Medium and 77 FPS for Ultra.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Doom?

A: This combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks 244th out of 1,681 tested combos. This places it in the top 14.5% of all configurations, indicating a strong performer that sits well above the median tested system.

Q: What is the FPS difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 269.1 at 1080p to 173.1 at 1440p and further to 93.9 at 4K. This represents a 65.1% reduction from 1080p to 4K, suggesting the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as pixel count rises.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i5-12400 scores 19,850 in the average benchmark, sitting just 0.1% above the Intel Core i7-9700 (19,831) and 0.4% above the Intel Core i5-11600K (19,771). It trails the Intel Core i7-8700 by 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX by 0.4%, showing near-parity across all four rivals.

Q: What is the GPU's VRAM capacity and how does it relate to Doom's requirements?

A: The RX 7900 XTX features 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. This large capacity means VRAM is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any tested settings, as even the heaviest Ultra preset at 4K maintains a playable 77 FPS average.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy across presets, with the Low setting providing the highest frame rates at all resolutions. At 1080p, Low produces 364.3 FPS, while Medium drops to 319.1, High to 269.1, and Ultra to 217.1. This pattern persists at 1440p, where Low hits 235.2 FPS versus 203.4 for Medium, 173.1 for High, and 143.4 for Ultra. At 4K, the spread narrows but remains consistent: Low achieves 126.5 FPS, Medium 113, High 93.9, and Ultra 77.

For competitive play, the Low preset offers the highest headroom above display refresh rates. At 1080p, the 364.3 FPS average provides nearly double the frame rate of the Ultra preset, which could matter for fast-paced FPS gameplay where input latency and frame pacing are critical. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 45.2 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 52 FPS, indicating that each step up in quality costs a meaningful chunk of performance.

For visually oriented players, the High preset at 1440p strikes a compelling balance. The 173.1 FPS average remains well above 144 Hz refresh rates, while the visual uplift from Low is substantial. The Ultra preset at 1440p still delivers 143.4 FPS, which is just below typical 144 Hz displays, making it a viable choice for those prioritizing image quality. At 4K, only the Low preset (126.5 FPS) exceeds 120 FPS, while High (93.9) and Ultra (77) remain comfortably above 60 FPS for smooth single-player experiences.

The data suggests that the optimal preset depends heavily on the target display. For 1080p esports-style play, Low or Medium offers the highest competitive advantage. For 1440p high-refresh monitors, High provides the best quality-to-performance ratio. For 4K, players should choose between Ultra for maximum fidelity at 77 FPS or Medium for a 113 FPS experience.

# GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the dominant component in this pairing, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across resolutions. The GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6 memory with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth provides ample headroom for Doom's texture-heavy environments, even at 4K Ultra. The 384-bit memory bus ensures that data throughput is unlikely to bottleneck the rendering pipeline at any tested configuration.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base clock of 1929 MHz, a game clock of 2365 MHz, and a boost clock of 2498 MHz. The relatively small gap between game and boost clocks (133 MHz) indicates consistent sustained performance under load. The 5 nm process node and 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die deliver substantial compute resources: 6,144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. The 61.39 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power directly translates to the high frame rates observed in the measured data.

The GPU's benchmark results reinforce its capabilities. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6,841 and the Geekbench Vulkan score of 192,597 demonstrate strong API-level performance. The Passmark G3D score of 31,238 places it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (which scores 44,900, 2% higher) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667, 0.8% higher).

In Doom specifically, the GPU's performance scales predictably with resolution. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at High settings reduces FPS by 95.9 (from 269.1 to 173.1), while the 1440p to 4K transition costs another 79.2 FPS (down to 93.9). This progressive scaling indicates the GPU is the primary driver of performance, as the CPU remains relatively constant across these resolution changes.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the measured results show a wide spread across presets. The Low preset achieves 364.3 FPS, which is the highest score recorded for this combo. Medium delivers 319.1 FPS, High reaches 269.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 217.1 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 147.2 FPS, representing a 40.4% reduction in frame rate when moving to maximum quality.

At 1440p, the performance hierarchy remains intact but the absolute numbers drop. Low produces 235.2 FPS, Medium 203.4 FPS, High 173.1 FPS, and Ultra 143.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 91.8 FPS, a 39% reduction. Notably, the 1440p Ultra score of 143.4 FPS is nearly identical to the 4K High score of 93.9 FPS when considering the resolution jump — the 4K High result is 34.5% lower than 1440p Ultra.

At 4K, the results compress further. Low delivers 126.5 FPS, Medium 113 FPS, High 93.9 FPS, and Ultra 77 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is 49.5 FPS, which is a 39.1% reduction — nearly identical to the percentage drop seen at 1440p. This consistency suggests the performance penalty per preset tier is stable regardless of resolution.

The data reveals that the Low preset at 4K (126.5 FPS) outperforms the Ultra preset at 1440p (143.4 FPS) by a margin of 16.9 FPS, but this comparison is misleading due to the resolution difference. More tellingly, the 4K Medium score of 113 FPS is only 30.4 FPS below the 1440p High score of 173.1 FPS, indicating that resolution has a larger impact on FPS than preset quality at these high performance levels.

# How This Combo Ranks

This configuration of the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks 244th out of 1,681 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the 85.5th percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly 85% of all tested configurations. The rank reflects the synergy between a mid-range 12th-gen CPU and a high-end RDNA 3 GPU.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 85 among all GPUs aligns closely with the combo's overall percentile, suggesting the graphics card is the primary determinant of this ranking. The CPU's percentile of 77 is slightly lower, indicating the processor may be a minor limiting factor in some scenarios. However, the combo rank of 244 out of 1,681 (top 14.5%) is better than the CPU's individual percentile would suggest, showing the GPU compensates for any CPU limitations.

The nearest rival GPUs provide context for the GPU's contribution. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 scores 44,195 (0.4% higher), while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti scores 44,900 (2% higher). These close margins indicate the RX 7900 XTX is positioned in a competitive performance tier. The combo's rank suggests that in Doom, this pairing outperforms many combinations that include nominally stronger CPUs, as the game appears to benefit more from GPU headroom than raw CPU throughput.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 brings 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core provide sufficient data locality for game workloads. The 10 nm Alder Lake architecture, while not the newest, delivers strong single-thread performance as evidenced by the 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,249.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are demonstrated by the 3DMark max threads score of 5,890 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15,935. The Passmark multithread score of 18,747 further confirms solid parallel performance. However, the nearest rival comparisons show the CPU sits in a tight cluster: the i7-9700 scores 19,831 (0.1% higher), the i7-8700 scores 19,894 (0.2% higher), and the i5-11600K scores 19,771 (0.4% lower). The Threadripper Pro 5995WX scores 19,928 (0.4% higher), which is surprisingly close given its workstation positioning.

In Doom, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent reduction that aligns with GPU-bound behavior. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS at 1080p would plateau rather than continue scaling with resolution. The fact that Low at 1080p reaches 364.3 FPS suggests the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently at lower resolutions, while the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 and DDR5) indicate a power-efficient design that pairs well with the GPU's 355 W TDP. The PCIe Gen 5 support (16 lanes) provides ample bandwidth for the GPU's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, ensuring no data transfer bottleneck.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck behavior. At High settings, the 1080p score of 269.1 FPS drops to 173.1 FPS at 1440p (a 35.7% reduction) and then to 93.9 FPS at 4K (a further 45.8% reduction from 1440p). This progressive decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound system, where each resolution increase adds pixel count that the GPU must process.

The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 364.3 FPS at 1080p, 235.2 FPS at 1440p (35.4% lower), and 126.5 FPS at 4K (46.2% lower from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across presets suggests the scaling behavior is stable regardless of quality settings. The slightly larger drop from 1440p to 4K compared to 1080p to 1440p indicates the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth become more strained as pixel count grows beyond 1440p.

The Ultra preset exhibits the smallest absolute FPS values but the same relative scaling: 217.1 at 1080p, 143.4 at 1440p (33.9% lower), and 77 at 4K (46.3% lower from 1440p). This consistency implies that the limiting factor shifts uniformly with resolution, reinforcing the GPU as the primary constraint.

The data also shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution. If the CPU were limiting, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions, but instead we see a clear decline that tracks pixel count. The 1080p Low result of 364.3 FPS demonstrates the CPU can support very high frame rates, and the fact that this number drops to 126.5 FPS at 4K confirms the GPU is the limiting component. The scaling behavior indicates that players targeting 4K should expect roughly 35-46% lower FPS compared to 1440p, while 1080p offers the highest possible frame rates for competitive play.