Doom

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 paired with the Intel Core i7-13700K presents a curious case in Doom, a game from 2016 that remains a popular benchmark title. The data reveals a combination that is heavily constrained by the graphics card at higher resolutions, yet the CPU's strength becomes apparent only when the load on the GPU is reduced. This analysis will break down the measured performance across resolutions and settings to understand where the bottleneck lies and what the experience truly looks like.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The most telling information comes from observing how average frame rates decline as resolution increases. At 1080p with High settings, the combo achieves 130.2 FPS. Moving to 1440p, that number drops to 84.3 FPS, a significant reduction of 45.9 FPS. The jump to 4K is even more punishing, with the average falling to 42.5 FPS. This steep decline—a 67.3% reduction from 1080p to 4K at High settings—is a classic sign that the rendering workload is overwhelming the GPU.

The pattern is consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the frame rate goes from 173.6 FPS at 1080p to 115.5 FPS at 1440p, and then to 64.9 FPS at 4K. Even at the lowest preset, the 4K result is less than half of the 1080p result. This indicates that the RX 6600 is the primary limiting factor. The GPU's 8 GB of memory and its 128-bit bus, which provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, are likely struggling with the increased data throughput required at higher resolutions. The data suggests that the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which has a nearly identical average benchmark score, would likely face similar scaling challenges.

The Intel Core i7-13700K, with its 16 cores and 24 threads, is not the constraint here. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a much smaller performance gap between 1080p and 1440p, as the CPU's workload would remain relatively constant while the GPU's increases. Instead, the performance drops sharply with each resolution increase, confirming that the GPU is saturated.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

Out of 1681 tested combinations, this specific pairing of the i7-13700K and RX 6600 ranks at position 1353 in Doom. This places it in the lower 20% of all tested combos, which is a surprisingly low position given the caliber of the CPU. The ranking suggests that while the CPU is a top-tier performer, the GPU drags the overall gaming experience down significantly in this title.

The GPU itself is ranked in the 69th percentile among all GPUs, meaning it performs better than 69% of them. However, the CPU is in the 93rd percentile. This massive discrepancy in raw component performance is not reflected in the overall combo ranking, which is heavily weighted by the GPU's performance in a graphics-intensive game like Doom. The data implies that the combo's rank is dictated almost entirely by the GPU, as a more powerful graphics card would likely catapult this combo much higher up the list. The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals are all within 0.5% of its score, indicating that swapping the i7-13700K for an AMD EPYC 4364P or an Intel Core i9-12900F would not change the gaming outcome in any meaningful way, as the GPU would remain the limiting factor.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The data suggests that 1080p is the only resolution where the combo consistently delivers a high-refresh-rate experience. At 1080p, even the Ultra preset achieves 105.8 FPS, which is above the 100 FPS mark. However, the Medium preset provides a substantial boost to 154.5 FPS, and Low pushes it to 173.6 FPS. For a fast-paced FPS, the jump from 105.8 to 154.5 FPS is substantial and likely worth the visual trade-off.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more delicate. The High preset runs at 84.3 FPS, which is playable but may not be ideal for competitive play. Dropping to Medium yields 100.5 FPS, a much more comfortable margin for a smooth experience. The Low preset at 115.5 FPS offers the best performance but comes with a significant visual downgrade. For 1440p, the Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot, balancing playable frame rates with reasonable visual fidelity.

At 4K, the results are disappointing. The best-case scenario is the Low preset at 64.9 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. The High preset drops to 42.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 34.7 FPS. For 4K gaming, the data strongly suggests that the user should either stick to the Low preset for a playable experience or consider lowering the resolution entirely, as the GPU cannot maintain a solid frame rate at this resolution with higher settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The complete dataset provides a clear picture of the combo's capabilities. At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS for each preset is as follows: Low delivers 173.6 FPS, Medium 154.5 FPS, High 130.2 FPS, and Ultra 105.8 FPS. This shows a consistent degradation as visual quality increases, with a 39% performance drop from Low to Ultra.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers are: Low at 115.5 FPS, Medium at 100.5 FPS, High at 84.3 FPS, and Ultra at 69.3 FPS. The scaling here is steeper, with the Ultra preset delivering only 60% of the Low preset's frame rate. The transition from 1080p to 1440p results in an average performance hit of roughly 34% across all settings.

At 3840x2160, the performance collapses: Low is 64.9 FPS, Medium 52.2 FPS, High 42.5 FPS, and Ultra 34.7 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 30.2 FPS, a massive gap. The data shows that the step from High to Ultra is particularly punishing at all resolutions, with a 19.4 FPS drop at 1080p, 15 FPS at 1440p, and 7.8 FPS at 4K, suggesting the Ultra preset includes effects that are disproportionately expensive for this GPU.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 23 chip. Its performance in Doom is likely tied to its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and the 128-bit bus. While 8 GB is often sufficient for 1080p gaming, the high-resolution textures and effects in Doom at 4K can push memory usage to the limit. The measured frame rates at 4K, particularly the 34.7 FPS at Ultra, suggest that the GPU is not only compute-bound but may also be experiencing memory bandwidth limitations.

The GPU's boost clock is listed at 2491 MHz, with a game clock of 2044 MHz. These relatively high clocks for the architecture help maintain performance at lower resolutions, as seen with the 173.6 FPS at 1080p Low. However, the raw compute power, rated at 8.928 TFLOPS, appears insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering in this title. The GPU's pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s are more suited for 1080p and 1440p workloads. The benchmark scores for the GPU show a Passmark G3D score of 15096, placing it in the 69th percentile. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 890M, has a nearly identical average score, indicating that this level of performance is the expected baseline for this class of hardware.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. In Doom, a game that can be CPU-intensive at high frame rates, this processor provides ample headroom. The data shows that at 1080p, where the GPU is less of a bottleneck, the combo achieves frame rates up to 173.6 FPS, indicating that the CPU is fully capable of feeding the GPU with data.

The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39000 and a single-core score of 5505. This raw processing power is why the combo's 1080p performance is so strong. The single-threaded performance of 5505 points is particularly relevant for gaming, as many game engines, including Doom's, rely heavily on strong single-core performance. The CPU's performance is so high that it is not the limiting factor in any of the measured scenarios. At 4K, the frame rates drop to 42.5 FPS at High, but this is purely a GPU limitation. The i7-13700K is effectively idle in comparison, waiting for the RX 6600 to complete its rendering tasks. The CPU's 30 MB of shared L3 cache likely helps maintain consistent frame pacing, preventing stutters even when the GPU is under heavy load.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

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

A: The data strongly indicates 1080p is the optimal resolution. At 1080p, even the Ultra preset achieves 105.8 FPS, while the Low preset reaches 173.6 FPS. At 1440p, the frame rates are playable but lower, and at 4K, they are not consistently above 60 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other tested systems in Doom?

A: The combo ranks 1353 out of 1681 tested combinations. This places it in the lower 20% of all tested combos, a ranking that is primarily attributed to the GPU's performance limitations.

Q: Which settings preset provides the best balance of performance and visual quality at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 100.5 FPS, which is the only setting at that resolution to break the 100 FPS barrier. The High preset drops to 84.3 FPS, and Ultra falls to 69.3 FPS, making Medium the best choice for a smooth experience.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-13700K the bottleneck in this system for Doom?

A: No. The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the limiting component. Frame rates drop significantly as resolution increases, which is a characteristic of a GPU-bound system. The CPU's high benchmark scores, including a Geekbench multicore score of 17731, show it has more than enough performance for this game.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: The difference is substantial. At 4K, the Low preset achieves 64.9 FPS, while the Ultra preset only manages 34.7 FPS. This is a 30.2 FPS difference, representing a performance loss of over 46% when switching to the highest quality settings.

Q: How does the RX 6600's performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: In terms of average benchmark score, the RX 6600's score of 25235 is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon 890M, which scores 25246, and the AMD Radeon RX 6700M, which scores 25180. It is also very close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti's score of 25120.