Doom

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 delivers a robust Doom experience, with benchmark results showing a clear progression from playable 4K frame rates to exceptionally high refresh-rate performance at 1080p. This combination ranks in the 57th percentile of all tested system configurations for this title, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the 2,930 total combos measured.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1440p as the sweet spot, delivering an average of 101 FPS on High settings, which comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining visual fidelity. At 4K, High settings average 54 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, while 1080p High produces 155 FPS for maximum responsiveness.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in overall benchmarks?

A: The RX 9060’s average benchmark score of 16,014 places it 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16,129), 1% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15,862), and 1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15,852). This indicates near-parity with the RTX 3060 Ti in synthetic testing.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average frame rate drops from 211 FPS on Low to 127 FPS on Ultra, representing a 39.8% reduction in performance when moving to maximum quality settings. The jump from Low to Medium costs 27 FPS, while Medium to High costs another 29 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: Benchmark results indicate the CPU is not a limiting factor. At 4K, frame rates scale from 45 FPS on Ultra to 74 FPS on Low, showing GPU-bound behavior. The i7-12700KF’s multi-core score of 28,838 in Cinebench R23 and single-core score of 4,071 provide ample headroom for Doom’s engine.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 55 FPS at 3840x2160 on Medium settings, with an average of 65 FPS and maximum of 74 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 101 FPS with a maximum of 137 FPS, and at 1080p Medium, the minimum is 156 FPS with a maximum of 212 FPS.

Q: How does the i7-12700KF rank among all CPUs tested?

A: The i7-12700KF sits in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35,365. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13700T, scores 35,403 (0.1% higher), while the Intel Core i5-13600T scores 35,305 (0.2% lower), indicating the 12700KF is well-positioned in its performance tier.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. This memory configuration proves adequate for Doom, as evidenced by the measured performance scaling across resolutions. The GPU’s boost clock of 2990 MHz and game clock of 2400 MHz drive its 1,792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines. The pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for Doom’s fast-paced environments.

The RX 9060’s 21.43 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power, combined with 28 ray tracing cores, supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 APIs. In Doom, which relies heavily on traditional rasterization, the GPU’s 59th percentile ranking versus all GPUs indicates solid mid-range positioning. The 4 nm process node from TSMC, with 29,700 million transistors on a 199 mm² die, contributes to efficient power delivery within its 132 W TDP, though the thermal design requires a 300 W suggested power supply.

At 4K Ultra, the GPU reaches its limit, producing only 45 FPS average. However, the measured data reveals that the RX 9060 has significant headroom at lower resolutions. The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for Doom’s texture streaming, as frame rates scale predictably with resolution changes rather than showing sudden drop-offs that would indicate memory capacity or bandwidth constraints. The 8 GB VRAM capacity proves adequate at all tested settings, with no evidence of texture thrashing or stuttering in the minimum frame rate data.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700KF and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination achieves a rank of 1,686 out of 2,930 tested combos in Doom. This places the system in the 57th percentile, meaning approximately 43% of tested configurations perform better in this specific title. The ranking reflects the RX 9060’s mid-range positioning, as the GPU’s 59th percentile among all GPUs aligns closely with the combo’s overall standing.

The CPU’s strong performance — 85th percentile among all processors — does not boost the combo ranking proportionally, indicating that Doom’s performance is predominantly GPU-limited in this configuration. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3,322 for the GPU, combined with the CPU’s 3DMark max threads score of 9,983, suggests balanced components, yet the game’s rendering demands favor the graphics card as the primary performance arbiter.

Comparing to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RX 9060’s average benchmark score of 16,014 sits just 0.7% below the RTX 3060 Ti’s 16,129. This close margin suggests systems built with the RTX 3060 Ti would likely achieve similar combo rankings in Doom, assuming identical CPUs. The 1% advantage over the RX 7700 and R9 370X positions the 9060 competitively within its class, though the 57th percentile combo rank indicates that higher-tier GPUs dominate the upper rankings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 211 FPS, Medium reaches 184 FPS (minimum 156, maximum 212), High achieves 155 FPS, and Ultra drops to 127 FPS. These numbers indicate that even at maximum quality, the system maintains frame rates well above 120 FPS, suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected resolution penalty. Low settings average 137 FPS, Medium averages 119 FPS (minimum 101, maximum 137), High averages 101 FPS, and Ultra averages 82 FPS. The 1440p results demonstrate that the RX 9060 can handle this resolution comfortably, with all settings except Ultra exceeding 100 FPS on average.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits. Low settings produce 74 FPS average, Medium drops to 65 FPS (minimum 55, maximum 74), High averages 54 FPS, and Ultra falls to 45 FPS. The 4K data reveals that only Low settings consistently maintain 60+ FPS, while Medium hovers near that threshold and High/Ultra fall below playable smoothness for competitive gaming.

The measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings shows a consistent pattern: the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference is 84 FPS (211 to 127), at 1440p it is 55 FPS (137 to 82), and at 4K it narrows to 29 FPS (74 to 45). This trend indicates diminishing returns from quality settings at higher resolutions, where pixel throughput becomes the dominant constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system’s bottleneck characteristics. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 155 at 1080p to 101 at 1440p (a 34.8% reduction) and further to 54 at 4K (a 65.2% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern is consistent with GPU-bound rendering, where the number of pixels rendered quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

Examining Ultra settings, the performance drops from 127 FPS at 1080p to 82 FPS at 1440p (35.4% decrease) and 45 FPS at 4K (64.6% decrease from 1080p). The similarity in percentage drops across settings suggests that the GPU’s fill rate and shading capacity scale predictably with pixel count, confirming that the RX 9060 is the limiting component rather than the CPU or memory bandwidth.

The i7-12700KF’s strong single-thread performance — evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1,043 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 410 — ensures that CPU-side frame generation does not constrain the GPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to plateau or drop disproportionately at lower resolutions where the CPU has less time to prepare frames. Instead, the smooth scaling from 211 FPS at 1080p Low to 74 FPS at 4K Low indicates that the rendering pipeline remains GPU-limited throughout.

The resolution scaling data also highlights the importance of settings adjustment at 4K. The jump from Ultra (45 FPS) to Low (74 FPS) at 3840x2160 represents a 64.4% performance increase, which is substantially larger than the equivalent jump at 1440p (67.1% increase from 82 to 137 FPS) or 1080p (66.1% increase from 127 to 211 FPS). This suggests that at 4K, reducing quality settings provides a proportionally larger frame rate benefit, making Low or Medium settings viable for 4K gaming on this hardware.

Settings Recommendations

For 1440p gaming, High settings at 101 FPS average provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, as it delivers frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining substantial graphical fidelity. The jump from High to Ultra costs 19 FPS (101 to 82), which may not justify the visual improvements for most players. Medium settings at 119 FPS offer additional headroom at the cost of some visual quality.

At 1080p, Ultra settings at 127 FPS average remain above 120 FPS, making this the recommended configuration for maximum visual quality without sacrificing smoothness. Players prioritizing competitive responsiveness may prefer High at 155 FPS or Medium at 184 FPS, but the Ultra setting’s 127 FPS average remains well within high-refresh-rate territory.

For 4K gaming, the data suggests that Medium settings at 65 FPS average (minimum 55 FPS) is the only quality tier that approaches playable frame rates, though the minimum FPS dips below 60. Low settings at 74 FPS average provides a more consistent experience, with the 19 FPS difference between Low and Medium representing a significant performance trade-off. Ultra and High settings at 45 and 54 FPS respectively are not recommended for smooth gameplay, as they fall below the 60 FPS target.

The measured minimum FPS data provides additional guidance. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 101 FPS ensures no drops below the 60 FPS threshold, while at 1080p Medium, the minimum of 156 FPS guarantees extremely consistent frame pacing. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 55 FPS introduces occasional stutter potential, making Low settings the safer choice for 4K users who prioritize frame time consistency.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF provides substantial processing headroom for Doom, with 12 cores and 20 threads running at a 3.60 GHz base clock and 5.00 GHz boost clock. This Alder Lake-S architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process, delivers a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28,838 and a single-core score of 4,071. The 25 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache support the game’s data access patterns, while the 125 W TDP allows sustained high-frequency operation.

The CPU’s 3DMark benchmarks show strong scaling from 2 threads (2,065) to max threads (9,983), indicating excellent multi-threaded performance. In Doom, which typically uses fewer than 8 threads for gameplay logic, the 8-thread score of 7,211 provides ample compute capacity. The PassMark multi-thread score of 34,092 and single-thread score of 3,984 further confirm the processor’s capability to handle any CPU-side workload the game presents.

The CPU’s 85th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 35,365, places it just 0.1% below the Core i7-13700T (35,403) and 0.2% above the Core i5-13600T (35,305). This close grouping indicates that the 12700KF performs nearly identically to its direct competitors in synthetic benchmarks, yet the combo’s 57th percentile ranking in Doom suggests that CPU differences have minimal impact on this game’s frame rates.

The measured FPS data corroborates this analysis. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see frame rate ceilings at lower resolutions where GPU load decreases. Instead, the 1080p Low setting produces 211 FPS average, far exceeding typical CPU frame-generation limits for games of Doom’s era. The CPU’s memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, combined with dual-channel memory bus, provides sufficient bandwidth for feeding the GPU without introducing latency bottlenecks.

The 12-core configuration, with its 20 threads, also ensures that background system processes do not interfere with game performance. While Doom itself may not utilize all 12 cores, the headroom prevents CPU contention that could cause frame drops in demanding scenes. The CPU’s boost clock of 5.00 GHz delivers high single-thread performance, which remains important for game logic and draw call processing, even in a GPU-bound scenario.