Doom

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 delivers a playable but not flawless experience in Doom, with performance scaling that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. This combination ranks 2883rd out of 3712 tested combos in this title, placing it in the lower half of the database. The data shows a system that excels at 1080p, holds its own at 1440p, but struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K, particularly with the most demanding visual settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance drop as resolution increases, a classic indicator of GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p with High settings, the combo averages 129 FPS, which is already well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Moving to 1440p High drops the average to 84 FPS, a 35% reduction. The jump to 4K High is far more punishing, with the average falling to 45 FPS, a 46% drop from the 1440p figure and a 65% decline from 1080p. This scaling curve is steep and consistent, pointing directly at pixel throughput as the limiting factor.

The pattern persists across all quality presets. At Low settings, the system produces 176 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is notable because it is the only 4K configuration that clears the 60 FPS mark, but it does so by a razor-thin margin. At Medium settings, the averages are 153 FPS at 1080p, 99 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K. With Ultra settings, the numbers fall to 106 FPS at 1080p, 68 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is particularly telling, as it represents a 65% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score of 106 FPS.

This data suggests that the limiting component shifts based on resolution. At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that CPU overhead could become relevant, but the sheer magnitude of the 4K performance collapse indicates the GPU is saturated. The RX 6600's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely the constraining factor at 4K, where texture data and fill-rate demands outpace the card's capabilities. The 4K Medium result, with a minimum FPS of 46 and maximum of 62, shows significant frame-time variance, reinforcing that the GPU is working at its limit.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture using the Navi 23 chip on a 7 nm process from TSMC. It features 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units, along with 28 ray tracing cores. The card's base clock is 1626 MHz, with a game clock of 2044 MHz and a boost clock of 2491 MHz. The memory runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 14 Gbps effective on 8 GB of GDDR6 across a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s.

In Doom, the GPU's role is dominant. The frame rates at 1080p and 1440p are strong, but the 4K results expose the card's limitations. The pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s are respectable for a mid-range card, but they are insufficient for 4K Ultra settings. The FP32 throughput of 8.928 TFLOPS offers a baseline for compute performance, but the game's rasterization demands at 4K outstrip what this card can deliver.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context for its position. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 15096 and a Passmark DirectX 12 score of 51, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1492. Its percentile ranking against all GPUs is 63, meaning it outperforms 63% of the database. The nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark list include the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (avg score 19030, delta 0%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (avg score 19049, delta -0.1%), and the NVIDIA Tesla K20m (avg score 19089, delta -0.3%). These small delta percentages confirm the RX 6600 sits in a tightly contested performance tier, with no single rival holding a clear advantage in synthetic tests.

The GPU's VRAM capacity of 8 GB is adequate for 1080p and 1440p in Doom, but the 4K Ultra preset likely pushes memory usage to the limit. The 128-bit memory bus is a known constraint for higher resolutions, and the bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s becomes a bottleneck when the engine needs to stream large textures. The measured data supports this: the gap between 4K High (45 FPS) and 4K Medium (54 FPS) is only 9 FPS, while the gap between 4K Medium and 4K Low (62 FPS) is 8 FPS. This compression of frame rates at 4K suggests the card is hitting a memory bandwidth ceiling rather than a compute ceiling.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory and connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 CPU lanes.

In Doom, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. At 1080p Low, the system produces 176 FPS, which is high enough that CPU overhead could theoretically matter, but the CPU's strong single-thread performance mitigates this. The processor scores 1043 in 3DMark single-thread tests and 1726 in Cinebench R20 single-core, indicating robust per-core capability. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz is particularly relevant for a game like Doom, which relies on fast single-threaded execution for game logic and draw calls.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is also strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19784 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 15790. The 12 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks, but Doom is not a heavily threaded title, so the extra cores are unlikely to impact frame rates. The 3DMark 8-thread score of 7202 and 16-thread score of 9276 show scaling, but the game's engine does not appear to leverage this fully.

The CPU's benchmark percentile is 84 against all CPUs, placing it well above the GPU's percentile of 63. This disparity is the root cause of the bottleneck behavior: the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more frames than the GPU can render at higher resolutions. The nearest CPU rivals include the Intel Core i5-13600T (avg score 35305, delta -0.1%), the Intel Core i7-12700KF (avg score 35365, delta -0.2%), and the Intel Core i7-13700T (avg score 35403, delta -0.3%). These extremely small delta percentages indicate the i7-12700K is performance-identical to its closest competitors, reinforcing that the CPU is not a differentiator in this pairing.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Doom?*

A: The data shows 1080p is the sweet spot, with all settings except Ultra producing over 129 FPS. At 1440p, High settings yield 84 FPS, which is still smooth, but 4K is only playable at Low settings with 62 FPS.

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

A: Only at Low settings, where it averages 62 FPS. At Medium it drops to 54 FPS, at High to 45 FPS, and at Ultra to 37 FPS, all of which fall below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The CPU's percentile ranking of 84 versus the GPU's 63, combined with the steep FPS drops from 1080p to 4K, indicates the RX 6600 is the limiting component at all resolutions.

Q: How does the RX 6600 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 6600 has an average benchmark score of 19036, which is within 0.4% of the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18954) and within 0.3% of the NVIDIA Tesla K20m (19089). The differences are negligible.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at 4K?

A: At 4K Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 46 and the maximum is 62, showing a wide variance. This suggests frame pacing issues under heavy GPU load, which could lead to stutter despite the 54 FPS average.

*Q: Does the CPU's 12-core configuration help in Doom?*

A: The data does not indicate a significant multi-threaded benefit. The CPU's single-thread score of 1043 in 3DMark and 1850.5 in Cinebench R23 are more relevant, as Doom appears to favor strong single-core performance over core count.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and AMD Radeon RX 6600 ranks 2883rd out of 3712 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the bottom 22% of the database. This ranking reflects the GPU's modest position in the overall hierarchy, despite the CPU's strong performance. The CPU's percentile of 84 against all CPUs would suggest a high-ranking combo, but the GPU's percentile of 63 drags the overall result down.

The rank is consistent with the measured FPS data. The combo produces 129 FPS at 1080p High, which is respectable, but the 4K Ultra result of 37 FPS is below what many other combos achieve. The data indicates that this pairing is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming, where the RX 6600 can deliver smooth frame rates. At 4K, the combo falls behind more capable GPU pairings, and the rank of 2883 reflects this limitation.

The CPU's nearest rivals all have nearly identical average benchmark scores, with deltas of -0.1% to -0.4%, meaning the choice of CPU has minimal impact on the overall combo rank. The GPU is the differentiator, and its rank of 63rd percentile against all GPUs is the primary driver of the combo's 2883rd position. For users considering this combo, the data suggests it is a balanced 1080p machine, but it lacks the headroom for 4K gaming.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers strong performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 176 FPS, Medium averages 153 FPS with a minimum of 130 and maximum of 176, High averages 129 FPS, and Ultra averages 106 FPS. All of these results are well above the 60 FPS threshold, making 1080p the ideal resolution for this pairing.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains playable but shows a clear step down. Low settings average 114 FPS, Medium averages 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 and maximum of 114, High averages 84 FPS, and Ultra averages 68 FPS. The Ultra setting at 1440p is the first configuration to approach the 60 FPS boundary, but it still clears it by 8 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. Low settings average 62 FPS, which is marginally above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 and maximum of 62, indicating significant frame time variance. High averages 45 FPS, and Ultra averages 37 FPS. The 4K results show a consistent pattern of performance degradation, with the gap between Low and Ultra being 25 FPS. The data confirms that 4K gaming is only viable at the lowest settings, and even then, the frame rate is borderline.