Doom

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT delivers a highly capable 1080p and 1440p experience in Doom, with the data showing a clear progression of frame rates that scales predictably with settings and resolution. While the combination ranks in the 66th percentile of all tested combos, the measured results indicate that this pairing is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at mainstream resolutions, though 4K performance requires careful settings management.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 2560x1440 as the sweet spot, with an average of 93.2 FPS on High settings. This provides a significant jump from the 49.3 FPS seen at 3840x2160 on the same preset, while still maintaining a smooth experience above 60 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 149.2 FPS at 1920x1080 to 49.3 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a performance reduction of approximately 67% and clearly indicating that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at all resolutions?

A: The Ultra preset yields 118.2 FPS at 1920x1080 and 78.4 FPS at 2560x1440, which are both smooth experiences. However, at 3840x2160, the average drops to 41.5 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold typically desired for a fast-paced FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 47282, with its nearest rival, the Core i7-13700KF, scoring 47334, a difference of -0.1%. The AMD EPYC 4364P is 0.3% ahead, while the Ryzen 9 PRO 5945 is 0.5% ahead.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The Radeon RX 7600 XT sits in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20146. Its closest competitor is the Radeon RX 7600, which scores 20258, a delta of -0.6%.

Q: Does the Low preset offer a massive performance boost over High?

A: Yes, the data shows a substantial gain. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 201.2 FPS compared to 149.2 FPS on High, a difference of 52 FPS. This gap narrows at higher resolutions, with a 25.8 FPS difference at 2560x1440 and an 18.6 FPS difference at 3840x2160.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 33 chip, featuring a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2755 MHz. The card carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. In Doom, these specifications translate into a performance profile where the GPU is the dominant factor at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling.

The measured results show that the GPU's capabilities are best utilized at 1920x1080 and 2560x1440. At 1080p High settings, the card delivers 149.2 FPS, which climbs to 201.2 FPS on Low. The 16 GB VRAM allocation is generous for this title, ensuring that memory capacity is not a bottleneck even at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS of 41.5 is limited by raw compute rather than memory. The GPU's 22.57 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 64 ROPs are the likely contributors to the observed scaling, with the card's texture rate of 352.6 GTexel/s handling the game's environments efficiently.

The data suggests that the GPU's performance ceiling in Doom is reached around the 4K High preset, where it manages 49.3 FPS. The transition from Medium to Ultra at 4K results in a drop from 59.6 FPS to 41.5 FPS, indicating that the card's shading units and TMUs are heavily taxed by the higher visual fidelity.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS or higher, the data supports using the High preset at 2560x1440, where the average of 93.2 FPS provides ample headroom. At 1920x1080, even the Ultra preset achieves 118.2 FPS, making it the recommended choice for users with high-refresh-rate monitors who want maximum visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the optimal choice, delivering 59.6 FPS. This is the only 4K setting that stays above the 60 FPS mark, albeit marginally. The High preset at 49.3 FPS is playable but may feel less fluid, while the Ultra preset's 41.5 FPS is best avoided for competitive play. The Low preset, while achieving 67.9 FPS at 4K, sacrifices too much visual detail for the modest gain over Medium.

The data indicates that the scaling from Low to Medium to High is relatively consistent, with each step costing approximately 15-20% performance at 1440p and 4K. The jump from High to Ultra is more costly, particularly at 4K where the average drops by 7.8 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are disproportionately demanding on this GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings is viable. The Low preset leads with 201.2 FPS, followed by Medium at 174.4 FPS, High at 149.2 FPS, and Ultra at 118.2 FPS. The spread of 83 FPS between Low and Ultra demonstrates the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates even when visual fidelity is maximized.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 131.8 FPS on Low, 111.9 FPS on Medium, 93.2 FPS on High, and 78.4 FPS on Ultra. This resolution maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS across all presets, with even the most demanding Ultra setting staying well within playable territory.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope tightens considerably. The Low preset achieves 67.9 FPS, Medium drops to 59.6 FPS, High falls to 49.3 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 41.5 FPS. The 26.4 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K highlights the GPU's struggle to maintain high frame rates at this resolution, with each settings tier costing roughly 8-10 FPS.

The data reveals that the performance gap between Low and Ultra narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference is 83 FPS, at 1440p it is 53.4 FPS, and at 4K it is 26.4 FPS. This pattern is consistent with a GPU that becomes increasingly bottlenecked by pixel throughput at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT combination ranks 1110 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the 66th percentile. This ranking reflects a system that is solidly above average, though not at the top tier of performance. The relative position suggests that while the CPU is a high-end part in the 93rd percentile of all processors, the GPU's 63rd percentile standing pulls the overall combo down.

The GPU's nearest rival, the Radeon RX 7600, scores 20258 in average benchmarks, a -0.6% delta from the RX 7600 XT's 20146. This close margin indicates that the extra VRAM and slight clock differences do not translate into significant raw performance gains. Similarly, the CPU's closest competitor, the Core i7-13700KF, is virtually identical with a -0.1% delta, confirming that the K variant offers no meaningful advantage in this pairing.

The combo's rank of 1110 out of 1681 suggests that it is a mid-to-upper-tier configuration. For a game like Doom, which is known for its scalability, this ranking aligns with the measured FPS data that shows strong 1080p and 1440p performance, but 4K results that are more modest relative to top-tier systems.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K features 16 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. In Doom, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations, and the data suggests it does so without becoming a bottleneck at lower resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the CPU's single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 1136 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5505, is sufficient to push the GPU to its limits. The jump from 149.2 FPS on High to 201.2 FPS on Low at 1080p indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor even at this resolution, as the CPU can clearly handle higher frame rates.

The multi-threaded capabilities, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39000, ensure that the CPU does not struggle with the game's background tasks. The 24 threads provide ample headroom for streaming, recording, or other concurrent workloads without impacting frame rates. The CPU's 125 W TDP and dual-channel memory support are consistent with a desktop part designed for sustained performance.

The data implies that the CPU is not a constraint in this pairing. The GPU's 63rd percentile rank is the more limiting factor, particularly at 4K where the CPU's high clock speeds and core count are largely underutilized.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern of degradation as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average drops from 149.2 FPS at 1080p to 93.2 FPS at 1440p, a 37.5% reduction, and then to 49.3 FPS at 4K, a further 47.1% reduction. This scaling is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario where the RX 7600 XT's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints.

The Low preset shows a similar trend, with 201.2 FPS at 1080p dropping to 131.8 FPS at 1440p and 67.9 FPS at 4K. The relative drop from 1440p to 4K is 48.5%, which is nearly identical to the High preset's 47.1% drop. This consistency suggests that the GPU's scaling is resolution-bound rather than settings-bound, reinforcing that the graphics card is the limiting component.

The difference between 1080p and 1440p is more pronounced than the difference between 1440p and 4K in absolute terms, but the percentage drops are similar. This indicates that the GPU's performance scales linearly with pixel count, which is expected for a card with a 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The 16 GB VRAM capacity does not appear to be a factor in these results, as even the 4K Ultra preset with its 41.5 FPS does not suggest a memory capacity bottleneck.