Doom

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT delivers a playable Doom experience across all tested settings, but the data reveals a clear hierarchy. The sweet spot is the High preset, which offers the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, while the Ultra preset is only viable at lower resolutions. This combination ranks in the 69th percentile of all tested combos, indicating a solid mid-to-upper tier performance level for this title.

Settings Recommendations

The High preset is the optimal choice for this hardware combination. At 1920x1080, it delivers an average of 142.5 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides headroom for demanding scenes. At 2560x1440, the High preset still maintains a strong 93.6 FPS average, making it entirely suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors. Even at 3840x2160, High produces 51.6 FPS, which is playable though not ideal for competitive play.

The Ultra preset, while technically available, imposes a significant performance penalty that is difficult to justify. At 1920x1080, it drops to 116.5 FPS, a 26 FPS reduction compared to High. This gap widens at higher resolutions: at 2560x1440, Ultra averages 72.4 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 41 FPS. The visual gains from Ultra over High are typically marginal in Doom, so the frame rate loss is not worth the trade-off.

The Low preset is unnecessary for this configuration. It provides the highest frame rates—195 FPS at 1080p and 126 FPS at 1440p—but sacrifices too much visual quality. The Medium preset sits between Low and High, offering 167.6 FPS at 1080p and 109 FPS at 1440p, but High provides better visuals with only a 25 FPS penalty at 1080p and a 15 FPS penalty at 1440p. The data indicates that High is the most efficient setting for this specific CPU-GPU pairing.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the primary performance limiter in this configuration. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock of 2589 MHz and game clock of 2359 MHz are paired with 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Its FP32 throughput of 10.60 TFLOPS and texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s are sufficient for Doom's engine, but the 8 GB VRAM capacity becomes a constraint at 4K with higher settings.

The benchmark results confirm this GPU-bound behavior. At 3840x2160, the frame rate scales almost linearly with the quality preset: Low averages 64.8 FPS, Medium 58.7 FPS, High 51.6 FPS, and Ultra 41 FPS. This 23.8 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 4K demonstrates that the RX 6600 XT's compute and memory resources are fully taxed as settings increase. The GPU's percentile ranking of 71 places it above average, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, is within 0.1% in average benchmark score, confirming that this is a capable but not top-tier graphics solution.

The RDNA 2.0 architecture with 32 ray accelerators and DirectX 12 Ultimate support is well-suited for Doom's Vulkan-based rendering. The GPU's 7 nm process node and 11,060 million transistors provide efficient throughput, but the 128-bit memory bus limits bandwidth compared to wider implementations. This is reflected in the 4K results, where the GPU struggles to maintain 60 FPS even on Low settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate degradation from 1080p to 4K is substantial and follows a predictable pattern across all settings. At 1080p High, the combo averages 142.5 FPS. Dropping to 1440p High reduces this to 93.6 FPS, a 34% decrease. At 4K High, the average falls to 51.6 FPS, which is a further 45% reduction from 1440p. This steep decline indicates that the RX 6600 XT's fill rate and memory bandwidth are increasingly overwhelmed as pixel count rises.

The scaling behavior differs by preset. At Low settings, the 1080p to 4K drop is from 195 FPS to 64.8 FPS, a 67% reduction. At Ultra, the drop is from 116.5 FPS to 41 FPS, a 65% reduction. This consistency suggests that the GPU is the bottleneck at all settings, with the CPU having ample headroom to feed it. The i7-13700K's 16 cores and 24 threads, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, are more than sufficient for Doom's workload, even at lower resolutions where CPU overhead could become apparent in other titles.

The 1440p results show the best balance for this hardware. At High settings, 93.6 FPS is comfortably above 60 FPS, and even Ultra maintains 72.4 FPS. This resolution leverages the GPU's capabilities without exposing its limitations as severely as 4K does. For users with 1440p monitors, this combo delivers a smooth experience across all presets, with High being the recommended choice.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings is viable. Low averages 195 FPS, Medium 167.6 FPS, High 142.5 FPS, and Ultra 116.5 FPS. All four presets exceed 100 FPS, making 1080p the resolution where this combo shines brightest. The 52.5 FPS spread between Low and Ultra indicates that even the most demanding preset leaves performance headroom.

At 2560x1440, the results show a tighter grouping. Low averages 126 FPS, Medium 109 FPS, High 93.6 FPS, and Ultra 72.4 FPS. The 53.6 FPS spread is similar to 1080p, but the absolute values are lower. Ultra remains above 60 FPS, which is the minimum threshold for smooth gameplay, while High offers a comfortable margin.

At 3840x2160, the limitations become apparent. Low averages 64.8 FPS, Medium 58.7 FPS, High 51.6 FPS, and Ultra 41 FPS. Only Low achieves the 60 FPS target, and even that is marginal. Medium and High are playable but not ideal, while Ultra dips below 45 FPS, which can cause noticeable stutter in fast-paced action. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo requires sacrificing visual quality to maintain acceptable frame rates.

FAQ

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

A: The data indicates that 2560x1440 provides the best balance, with High settings averaging 93.6 FPS and Ultra at 72.4 FPS. At 1080p, all presets exceed 116 FPS, but the GPU's capabilities are underutilized. At 4K, only Low settings achieve 64.8 FPS.

Q: Can this combo run Doom at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only with reduced settings. At 4K Low, the average is 64.8 FPS, which is playable. Medium drops to 58.7 FPS, High to 51.6 FPS, and Ultra to 41 FPS. For consistent 60 FPS at 4K, Low is the only viable preset.

Q: How does the RX 6600 XT compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RX 6600 XT's average benchmark score is 27985, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti's 27956. It trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 by 0.9%, which scores 28238.

Q: Is the Core i7-13700K a bottleneck for the RX 6600 XT in Doom?

A: No. The CPU's 3DMark max threads score of 12412 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39000 indicate it has substantial processing power. The frame rate scaling with resolution and settings shows the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p, High averages 142.5 FPS versus Ultra's 116.5 FPS, a 26 FPS difference. At 1440p, the gap is 21.2 FPS (93.6 vs 72.4). At 4K, the gap narrows to 10.6 FPS (51.6 vs 41).

Q: Does the GPU's 8 GB VRAM cause issues in Doom?

A: The data does not show VRAM-related stutters, but the 4K results suggest memory bandwidth constraints. The 256.0 GB/s bandwidth and 128-bit bus limit performance at high resolutions, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops from 1440p to 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a high-end processor that provides more than enough performance for Doom. Its 16 cores and 24 threads, with base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz, place it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39000 and single-core score of 5505 demonstrate exceptional throughput, while the 30 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency.

In this game, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU efficiently. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 195 FPS, which indicates the CPU can handle high frame rates without becoming a constraint. Even at 4K, where the GPU is heavily taxed, the CPU maintains enough headroom to avoid bottlenecking. The i7-13700K's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13700KF, is within 0.1% in average score, confirming that this processor delivers near-top-tier performance.

The CPU's integrated UHD Graphics 770 is irrelevant for this gaming scenario, as the discrete RX 6600 XT handles all rendering. The processor's 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory make it a flexible platform, though the dual-channel memory bus is standard for this class. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1136 indicates strong per-core performance, which is important for Doom's engine that relies on a few main threads.

How This Combo Ranks

This Intel Core i7-13700K and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT combination ranks 1162 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the 69th percentile. This is a respectable position, given that the GPU is mid-range while the CPU is high-end. The ranking reflects the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions, as the CPU is clearly capable of supporting a more powerful graphics card.

The combo's position is influenced by the RX 6600 XT's 71st percentile GPU ranking. While the CPU sits in the 93rd percentile, the overall combo rank is dragged down by the GPU's performance ceiling. This asymmetry is typical for configurations where the GPU is the primary gaming component. In Doom, the combo outperforms the 31% of tested configurations that rank below it, but it trails the 31% that feature more powerful GPUs.

For users considering this pairing, the data shows that it is well-matched for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with solid performance at 4K only on lower settings. The combo's rank of 1162 means it sits near the middle of the pack, offering a balanced experience that prioritizes CPU headroom over GPU brute force. This makes it a sensible choice for users who may upgrade the GPU in the future while keeping the same processor.