Doom

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Doom, with frame rates that suggest the game is far more forgiving of the CPU’s age than many modern titles. At 1080p, the combination is clearly GPU-bound only at the highest settings, while at 4K, the scaling pattern reveals a system that remains playable throughout, though the i5-9400’s six-thread limitation begins to show its hand in the most demanding presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a predictable and healthy decline in average frame rates as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that decline varies significantly depending on the quality preset. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 178 at 1920x1080 to 115 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 35.4%, and then to 62 at 3840x2160, another 46.1% drop from the 1440p figure. This pattern is typical of a GPU that is being progressively loaded with more pixels, but the fact that the 4K High result still clears 60 FPS suggests the RX 7700 has ample headroom for this title.

When we look at the Low preset, the scaling is even more revealing. The system produces 241 FPS at 1080p, which falls to 156 at 1440p (a 35.3% drop) and then to 85 at 4K (a 45.5% drop from 1440p). The 1080p Low result of 241 FPS is suspiciously close to a classic CPU limit for a six-thread processor, and the fact that the 1440p Low result only drops to 156 FPS indicates that the i5-9400 is still keeping pace with the GPU’s output at that resolution. The 4K Low figure of 85 FPS confirms that lowering settings does not remove the resolution penalty; the GPU is still the primary driver of performance at that pixel count.

The Medium preset offers a clear intermediate step, with scores of 210 FPS at 1080p, 136 FPS at 1440p, and 74 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is a 35.2% reduction, nearly identical to the High preset’s drop, which suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this range. The most telling data point comes from the Ultra preset, where the 1080p average is 145 FPS, the 1440p average is 94 FPS, and the 4K average falls to 51 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-60 FPS figure in the entire dataset, and it represents a 64.8% drop from the 1080p Ultra score. This steep decline at Ultra settings indicates that the game’s most demanding effects are heavily stressing the GPU’s compute resources, and the RX 7700’s 16 GB of VRAM is not enough to offset the raw shading load at 4K.

The overall pattern points to a system that is well-balanced for 1440p gaming. At 1080p, the CPU begins to cap performance in lighter presets, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the unequivocal bottleneck at every setting level. The i5-9400’s six cores and six threads are sufficient to feed the RX 7700 at 1440p, but the data suggests that pushing to 4K Ultra is beyond the comfortable envelope of this pairing.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Doom?*

A: Yes, but with caveats. The measured data shows an average of 62 FPS at 4K High settings and 74 FPS at 4K Medium, both of which are playable. However, the 4K Ultra preset drops to 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for smooth play.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the RX 7700 in this game?

A: The data indicates that the CPU is not a major limiting factor at 1440p or 4K. At 1080p Low, the system hits 241 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s practical limit, but at higher resolutions, the frame rates scale in a way that suggests the GPU is the dominant constraint.

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this combo?

A: Based on the measured FPS, 2560x1440 offers the best balance of image quality and performance. The High preset at 1440p delivers 115 FPS, and even Ultra settings maintain a solid 94 FPS, making it the sweet spot for this hardware.

Q: How does the RX 7700’s 16 GB of VRAM affect performance?

A: The 16 GB frame buffer is not a limiting factor at any of the tested settings. The performance drops from High to Ultra at 4K are more attributable to the GPU’s shading units and clock speeds than to memory capacity, as the game does not appear to be exceeding the VRAM allocation.

Q: Is there a big difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: Yes. The average FPS at 1080p Low is 241, while at 1080p Ultra it is 145. This represents a 39.8% reduction in performance, which is a significant trade-off for the visual improvements that Ultra settings provide.

Q: What do the min and max FPS values tell us about frame pacing?

A: The only presets with reported min and max values are Medium. At 1080p Medium, the range is 179 to 242 FPS, and at 1440p Medium, it is 116 to 156 FPS. These ranges are relatively tight, indicating consistent frame delivery without major stutters.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is clearly the star of this pairing, and its specifications explain why it performs so well in Doom. The GPU is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture using TSMC’s 5 nm process, with a boost clock of 2459 MHz and a game clock of 2041 MHz. These clocks, combined with 2560 shading units, allow the card to produce a pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s. For a game like Doom, which is known for its fast-paced action and detailed environments, these raw throughput numbers translate directly into the high frame rates seen in the measured data.

The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, running at an effective 19.5 Gbps on a 256-bit bus, provides a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. This is more than sufficient for the textures and geometry in Doom, and the data confirms that VRAM capacity is not a bottleneck. The FP32 performance of 25.18 TFLOPS is also a key indicator, as it shows the GPU’s ability to handle the complex shader work required by the game’s Vulkan-based engine. The RX 7700’s position in the broader market is defined by its percentileVsAllGpus score of 58, which places it above the median GPU. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon R9 370X, scores 15862 in the average benchmark, a delta of -0.1%, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129, a delta of -1.7%. These comparisons show that the RX 7700 is competitive with these cards in synthetic tests, but the Doom data reveals how it performs in a real-world scenario.

The GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU can often keep up, but at 4K, the RX 7700’s compute resources are stretched. The 4K Ultra result of 51 FPS is a direct consequence of the GPU’s shading and rasterization limits, not a memory issue. The card’s 96 ROPs and 160 TMUs are the components that handle pixel output and texture mapping, and these are the units that are pushed hardest at 4K. The boost clock of 2459 MHz is also relevant, as it indicates the card is capable of maintaining high frequencies under load, which is essential for sustaining the frame rates seen in the Medium and High presets. Overall, the RX 7700 is a capable GPU that provides the majority of the performance in this system, and its strengths are most apparent at 1440p where it can stretch its legs without being fully constrained by the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides a comprehensive picture of how this combo performs across all tested configurations. Starting at 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 241 FPS on Low settings, which is the highest score in the entire run. The Medium preset drops to 210 FPS, with a minimum of 179 FPS and a maximum of 242 FPS. High settings produce 178 FPS, while Ultra settings bring the average down to 145 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is capable of driving high-refresh-rate monitors even with most settings maxed out, though the gap between Low and Ultra is substantial.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong. Low settings yield 156 FPS, Medium produces 136 FPS with a minimum of 116 and a maximum of 156, and High settings achieve 115 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p delivers 94 FPS, which is still comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a smooth experience for most players. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets, with an average reduction of roughly 35%, showing that the GPU is handling the additional pixel load efficiently.

At 3840x2160, the system begins to show its limits. The Low preset averages 85 FPS, which is playable, while Medium averages 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 and a maximum of 85. High settings drop to 62 FPS, which is right at the edge of the 60 FPS target. The Ultra preset falls to 51 FPS, which is the only result below 60 FPS in the entire dataset. This 4K breakdown reveals a clear hierarchy: the system can handle 4K with reduced settings, but it is not a 4K Ultra machine for this title. The Medium preset at 4K, with its 74 FPS average and 63 FPS minimum, is arguably the best option for those who want to play at this resolution, as it offers a playable experience without the steep performance penalty of Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of benchmark results, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 holds a comboRankInGame of 1314 out of 2930 total tested combos. This places the pairing in the 44.8th percentile of all systems tested for Doom, meaning that slightly more than half of the tested configurations are faster. This is a respectable position for a CPU that was released in 2018, and it underscores the fact that Doom is not a particularly CPU-intensive game, especially when compared to more modern titles that benefit from higher thread counts.

The rank is influenced more by the GPU than the CPU. The i5-9400’s percentileVsAllCpus is 47, and its avgBenchmarkScore is 2254, which puts it in the middle of the pack. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (avgScore 2259, delta -0.2%) and the Intel Core i3-10305 (avgScore 2264, delta -0.4%), show that the CPU is performing exactly as expected for its class. The RX 7700, on the other hand, has a percentileVsAllGpus of 58 and an avgBenchmarkScore of 15852, which is above average. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon R9 370X, scores 15862 (delta -0.1%), while the RX 9060 scores 16014 (delta -1%). This GPU-centric performance is what drives the combo to its position in the rankings.

The rank of 1314 suggests that while this system is not at the top of the leaderboard, it is far from being a weak performer. It sits in the upper half of all combos, which confirms the RX 7700’s ability to carry the workload in Doom. The i5-9400 is not holding the system back significantly, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rates at 1440p are high enough to compete with systems that have more modern CPUs. If a user were to pair this GPU with a stronger processor, the rank would likely improve, but the data shows that the current combo is well-balanced for the demands of this game.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured FPS data, the best experience for this system depends on the user’s target resolution and refresh rate. For 1920x1080, the High preset at 178 FPS is the recommended choice for most players, as it offers a significant visual improvement over Medium (210 FPS) while still maintaining a frame rate that is far above the 144 Hz mark. Ultra at 145 FPS is also viable for those who prioritize image quality over raw speed, and it remains smooth on most displays. The Low preset at 241 FPS is only recommended for competitive players who need the absolute maximum frame rate, as the visual sacrifices are considerable.

For 2560x1440, the High preset at 115 FPS is the clear sweet spot. It provides a great balance of visual fidelity and performance, and it is well-suited for 144 Hz monitors. The Ultra preset at 94 FPS is also a strong option, as it remains above 90 FPS and offers the best image quality available. The Medium preset at 136 FPS is a good choice for those who prefer higher frame rates, but the visual downgrade from High is noticeable. The Low preset at 156 FPS is only for those who are chasing maximum refresh rates, but it is not necessary for a smooth experience at this resolution.

For 3840x2160, the recommendations are more constrained. The Medium preset at 74 FPS is the best option for 4K gaming, as it provides a playable frame rate with a minimum of 63 FPS, which ensures that the experience remains fluid even during intense scenes. The High preset at 62 FPS is playable and offers better visuals, but the average frame rate is close to the 60 FPS threshold, and any demanding scene could push it lower. The Ultra preset at 51 FPS is not recommended for 4K, as the frame rate drops below the playable threshold. The Low preset at 85 FPS is viable for those who want to prioritize performance, but the graphical compromises are significant at this resolution. In summary, the data strongly suggests that this system is best utilized at 1440p with High or Ultra settings, where it delivers a premium gaming experience without any compromises.