Doom

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 delivers a high-performance experience in Doom (2016), consistently producing frame rates well above 60 FPS across all tested resolutions and settings. The data reveals a combination that is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, while at 1080p the CPU begins to assert its influence on the upper limits of performance. This analysis walks through the measured frame rates, scaling behavior, and the roles each component plays in shaping the results.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates show a pronounced drop as resolution increases, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the High preset, the average FPS falls from 218 to 141, a reduction of 77 frames. The transition from 1440p to 3840x2160 on the same High preset sees a further decline to 76 FPS, a drop of 65 frames. This pattern indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the primary limiting factor at 4K, as the workload shifts from CPU throughput to pixel-pushing capacity.

The scaling factor between 1080p and 4K on High is approximately 2.87x (218 FPS down to 76 FPS), which is steeper than the raw pixel count difference of 4x, suggesting that the GPU is not fully saturated at 1080p and that other bottlenecks, such as draw-call processing, are at play. On the Low preset, the 1080p average of 296 FPS drops to 104 FPS at 4K, a factor of 2.85x. This consistent scaling ratio across presets reinforces that the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth are the dominant constraints at higher resolutions, while the CPU still has headroom to push higher frame rates at lower pixel counts.

At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 258, with a minimum of 219 and a maximum of 296. The wide spread between min and max at this resolution (77 frames) hints at occasional CPU-driven variability, likely from the 10-core i5-12600KF managing thread scheduling across its P-cores and E-cores. By contrast, at 4K Medium the min FPS is 77 and the max is 104, a tighter spread of 27 frames, which aligns with a GPU-limited scenario where the render pipeline is more consistently saturated.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested CPU and GPU combinations for Doom, the i5-12600KF and RX 9070 combo holds rank 1118 out of 3712 total combos. This places it in the 69.9th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning it outperforms roughly 70% of other combos in this game. The rank reflects the overall balance of the two components, as the game’s id Tech 6 engine is well-known for its efficient multi-threading and scalability across hardware.

The CPU itself, the i5-12600KF, sits at the 79th percentile among all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 27799. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-10900K (avg score 27872, delta -0.3%), the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE (avg score 27712, delta +0.3%), the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (avg score 27887, delta -0.3%), and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (avg score 27896, delta -0.3%). The i5-12600KF is essentially neck-and-neck with these processors, trailing the 5800X3D by only 0.3%. This indicates that the CPU is not a weak link in this combo; its performance is highly competitive with much more expensive chips.

The GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 9070, has an average benchmark score of 23877 and sits at the 69th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (avg score 23736, delta +0.6%), the AMD Radeon RX 6800S (avg score 24063, delta -0.8%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile (avg score 23628, delta +1.1%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (avg score 24170, delta -1.2%). The RX 9070 is within 1.2% of the RTX 2080 SUPER, a desktop card from a previous generation, which contextualizes its 4K performance in Doom.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a 4 nm process node from TSMC. Its chip, Navi 48, contains 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 151.0M per mm². The GPU features 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 ROPs, with 56 ray tracing cores. The pixel rate is 322.6 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 564.5 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute rated at 36.13 TFLOPS.

Memory configuration is a 16 GB GDDR6 frame buffer on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 2518 MHz, with an effective data rate of 20.1 Gbps. The base clock is 1330 MHz, the game clock is 2070 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2520 MHz. This memory bandwidth is sufficient for Doom’s texture streaming at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS drops to 62, indicating that the GPU is fully utilized at that setting.

The RX 9070 supports PCIe 5.0 x16, DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Doom uses Vulkan natively, which allows the GPU to leverage its asynchronous compute capabilities. The 16 GB VRAM is more than adequate for the game’s texture budgets, even at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS is 62. The GPU’s TDP is 220 W, with a suggested PSU of 550 W.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers high frame rates across all settings. On Low, the average FPS is 296, with no min or max recorded. Medium yields an average of 258, with a minimum of 219 and a maximum of 296. High averages 218 FPS, and Ultra averages 178 FPS. The 118 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p shows that the GPU still has headroom to respond to settings changes, but the CPU is likely the limiting factor at the lowest settings, where the 296 FPS average approaches the ceiling of the game engine’s draw-call throughput.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high. Low averages 192 FPS, Medium averages 167 FPS (min 142, max 192), High averages 141 FPS, and Ultra averages 115 FPS. The drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low is 104 FPS, a 35% reduction, which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at this resolution. The Ultra preset at 1440p still delivers 115 FPS, well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily taxed. Low averages 104 FPS, Medium averages 90 FPS (min 77, max 104), High averages 76 FPS, and Ultra averages 62 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that dips below 70 FPS, but it still maintains a playable average of 62 FPS. The min FPS of 77 on Medium at 4K indicates that even at the most demanding resolution, the combo does not experience severe stuttering.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting a 60 FPS minimum, the Ultra preset at 4K delivers an average of 62 FPS, which is acceptable but leaves no margin for drops. The Medium preset at 4K, with an average of 90 FPS and a minimum of 77 FPS, provides a more comfortable buffer while still offering a substantial visual uplift over Low. At 1440p, the Ultra preset averages 115 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors, while the High preset at 141 FPS offers a good balance of visual quality and performance headroom.

At 1080p, the Ultra preset averages 178 FPS, which is sufficient for 144 Hz or even 165 Hz displays. The Medium preset at 258 FPS is overkill for most monitors but demonstrates the combo’s capability. The Low preset at 296 FPS is only useful for competitive play where every frame matters, but the visual trade-off is significant. The most balanced recommendation across all resolutions is the High preset, which delivers 218 FPS at 1080p, 141 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 4K, all of which are smooth and visually appealing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process node. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB L1 per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, with PCIe Gen 4 providing 20 lanes from the CPU.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-12600KF scores 1016 in 3DMark single-thread, 1995 in 2-thread, 3806 in 4-thread, 6128 in 8-thread, 7956 in 16-thread, and 7952 in max-thread tests. Cinebench R23 scores are 3302 single-core and 23391 multi-core. Geekbench scores are 2157 single-core and 12137 multi-core. The CPU’s percentile rank of 79 among all CPUs indicates it is a strong performer, but its nearest rivals show that it is not the absolute top tier.

In Doom, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the average FPS of 296 is likely limited by the game engine’s draw-call processing rather than pure compute. The i5-12600KF’s 10 cores (6 P-cores and 4 E-cores) allow the Vulkan renderer to distribute work efficiently, but the single-threaded boost of 4.90 GHz is crucial for the main render thread. The CPU’s L3 cache of 20 MB helps with texture and geometry data locality, though Doom’s id Tech 6 engine is not particularly cache-sensitive compared to modern titles.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS is 62 at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12600KF compare to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D in overall CPU benchmarks?

A: The i5-12600KF has an average benchmark score of 27799, while the Ryzen 7 5800X3D scores 27896, a delta of -0.3%, meaning the i5-12600KF is essentially tied with the 5800X3D.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium settings?

A: The minimum FPS is 142 at 2560x1440 with the Medium preset.

Q: How much VRAM does the AMD Radeon RX 9070 have?

A: The GPU has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory.

Q: What is the boost clock of the AMD Radeon RX 9070?

A: The boost clock is 2520 MHz.

Q: What rank does this combo hold among all tested configurations for Doom?

A: The combo is ranked 1118 out of 3712 tested combinations.