Doom

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a commanding performance in Doom, with benchmark results showing a combination that scales predictably across resolutions. The data indicates a system capable of extreme refresh rates at 1080p, remaining highly playable at 4K, though the performance curve reveals a clear shift in system bottleneck as resolution increases. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, the role of the GPU's specifications, and how this specific pairing ranks among the 1,681 tested combinations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a classic resolution scaling pattern, where the frame rate penalty from 1080p to 4K is substantial but not catastrophic. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 215.7 FPS at 1920x1080 down to 140.6 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 76.4 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 64.6% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest tested resolution to the highest. The scaling is consistent across all settings presets, with the Low preset showing the steepest absolute drop, falling from 291.4 FPS at 1080p to 103.5 FPS at 4K.

The frame rate behavior indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT becomes the primary limiting factor at 4K, while the Intel Core i5-12600KF retains enough headroom to push very high frame rates at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 291.4 FPS, a figure that is likely constrained by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls rather than the GPU's raw rendering capacity. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 35% performance drop at High settings, which is a moderate penalty, but the subsequent drop from 1440p to 4K is a more severe 45.7% reduction, suggesting the GPU is hitting its memory bandwidth or pixel fill limits.

The variance between settings at each resolution also tells a story. At 4K, the spread between Low (103.5 FPS) and Ultra (62.4 FPS) is 41.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU's computational load scales heavily with the quality presets. This is expected behavior for an RDNA 2.0 architecture GPU, where the 20.74 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability is stretched by higher graphical fidelity. The system never drops below 62 FPS in any tested configuration, which means even the most demanding 4K Ultra setting remains fluid for standard 60 Hz displays.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 7 nm process node, featuring a die size of 520 mm² and 26,800 million transistors. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1825 MHz and a boost clock of 2250 MHz, with a game clock rated at 2015 MHz. These clock speeds, combined with the 4608 shading units and 288 TMUs, produce a texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s. The FP32 throughput of 20.74 TFLOPS places this GPU in the upper tier of the Radeon RX 6000 series, which is reflected in its 87th percentile ranking against all GPUs.

Memory configuration plays a significant role in the 4K results. The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is sufficient to feed the GPU's compute units at 4K, as evidenced by the 76.4 FPS average at High settings. However, the gap between 1440p and 4K performance suggests that the memory subsystem, while capable, does become a limiting factor as pixel count increases. The 16 GB capacity is ample for Doom at any settings, as the game's 2016 release date predates the higher VRAM demands of modern titles, so memory capacity is unlikely to be a constraining factor in these results.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate its gaming performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3689 and the PassMark G3D score of 24980 position it well above average. In the nearest rival comparison, the RX 6800 XT shows a 2.6% delta against the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, indicating slightly higher average benchmark scores while being 1.7% slower than the NVIDIA RTX A1000. These synthetic benchmarks align with the measured FPS data, showing a GPU that is competitive in its class and well-matched to the Intel CPU in this pairing.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of 1,681 tested CPU-GPU combinations for Doom, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT achieves a rank of 577. This places it in the upper 34.3% of all tested combos, indicating a strong but not elite configuration. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's processing power and the GPU's rendering capabilities, with the combination performing well enough to outrank 1,104 other pairings.

The CPU itself holds an 84th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27,827. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-10900K, scores nearly identically at 27,829, showing a delta of 0%. The i5-12600KF also edges out its direct sibling, the Intel Core i5-12600K, by a 0.1% margin, and outperforms the Intel Core i7-13700H by 0.4%. These margins are negligible in real-world gaming, but they demonstrate that the i5-12600KF sits at a performance plateau shared by several high-end processors.

The GPU's 87th percentile ranking against all GPUs is slightly higher than the CPU's percentile, suggesting that the graphics card is the more dominant component in this pairing. The RX 6800 XT's average benchmark score of 49,982 is notably higher than its nearest rivals, with a 0.5% lead over the Intel Arc A550M and a 1.9% lead over the NVIDIA CMP 50HX. This combination of a top-tier CPU and a high-end GPU results in a rank of 577, which is respectable given that the database includes many pairings with newer, more expensive components.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional frame rates across all settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 291.4 FPS, which drops to 254.1 FPS at Medium, 215.7 FPS at High, and 174.9 FPS at Ultra. These figures indicate that the CPU is the limiting factor at this resolution, as the frame rates are high enough to saturate most high-refresh-rate monitors, but the GPU is not being fully utilized due to the relatively low graphical load.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average frame rates remain very high. The Low preset averages 186.3 FPS, Medium averages 163.3 FPS, High averages 140.6 FPS, and Ultra averages 113.8 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 36% reduction at Low settings, which is a moderate penalty. The GPU begins to assert its influence here, as the frame rates are still high enough to suggest that the CPU is no longer the sole bottleneck.

At 3840x2160, the system settles into a more GPU-bound regime. The Low preset averages 103.5 FPS, Medium averages 89.9 FPS, High averages 76.4 FPS, and Ultra averages 62.4 FPS. The 4K results show a consistent pattern where each settings tier costs roughly 13-14 FPS, with the exception of the jump from High to Ultra, which costs 14 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that dips below 70 FPS, but it still maintains a playable 62.4 FPS average.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 144 FPS?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 140.6 FPS, which is close to but slightly below 144 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 163.3 FPS, comfortably exceeding the 144 FPS threshold. At 1920x1080, all settings including Ultra (174.9 FPS) exceed 144 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its direct sibling, the i5-12600K?

A: The Intel Core i5-12600KF has an average benchmark score of 27,827, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i5-12600K's score of 27,851. This difference is negligible and within measurement variance.

Q: Does the GPU have enough memory for 4K gaming?

A: Yes, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is ample for Doom at 4K. The GPU achieves an average of 76.4 FPS at 4K High settings, indicating that memory capacity does not limit performance in this game.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 103.5 FPS while the Ultra preset averages 62.4 FPS. This represents a 41.1 FPS difference, or a 39.7% reduction in performance when moving from Low to Ultra settings.

Q: How does this GPU rank against the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER?

A: In benchmark scores, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT has an average score of 49,982, which is 2.6% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's score of 48,704.

*Q: Where does this combo rank among all tested pairings for Doom?*

A: This combination ranks 577th out of 1,681 tested CPU-GPU combinations, placing it in the upper 34.3% of all configurations in the database.