Doom

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX places 237th out of 1,681 tested combinations in Doom. That puts this setup in the top 14% of all recorded configurations for this title. Given that the GPU sits at the 85th percentile among all graphics cards and the CPU reaches the 96th percentile among all processors, this ranking is consistent with the hardware's overall standing — both components are high-tier parts, and the game is well-known for running efficiently even on older systems.

The data indicates this combo outperforms the vast majority of tested rigs, but the margin between this pairing and the absolute top configurations is relatively narrow in terms of raw component strength. The GPU's average benchmark score of 44,019 places it within 2% of its nearest rivals: the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (44,195, deltaPct -0.4), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667, deltaPct 0.8), NVIDIA Quadro M6000 (43,313, deltaPct 1.6), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (44,900, deltaPct -2). Meanwhile, the CPU's average score of 70,074 sits within 1.4% of its nearest competitors, including the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,104, deltaPct 0), AMD EPYC 9115 (69,887, deltaPct 0.3), AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (70,420, deltaPct -0.5), and Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (71,056, deltaPct -1.4).

What this ranking suggests is that the combination is balanced for Doom's engine, which does not heavily favor one component over the other at typical gaming resolutions. The 237th position out of 1,681 combos reflects a strong but not record-breaking result; higher-ranked combinations likely include top-tier 4090-class cards or CPUs with even greater single-thread performance, though the data does not specify those configurations.

FAQ

Q: Is this CPU or GPU the stronger component relative to its peers?

A: The CPU ranks at the 96th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks at the 85th percentile among all GPUs. The processor is clearly the more dominant part in this pairing by percentile comparison.

Q: How does the GPU compare to the RTX 4070 Ti?

A: The RX 7900 XTX scores an average of 44,019 across benchmark tests, while the RTX 4070 Ti scores 44,900. The deltaPct of -2 indicates the AMD card trails the NVIDIA card by 2% in aggregate GPU benchmarks.

Q: What about the CPU versus the Ryzen 9 9950X?

A: The i7-14700K averages 70,074, and the Ryzen 9 9950X averages 70,420. The deltaPct of -0.5 means the Intel chip is half a percent behind the AMD flagship in average CPU benchmark scores.

Q: Is this combo more CPU-limited or GPU-limited in Doom?

A: The resolution scaling data shows the frame rate drops by roughly half from 1080p Low (367 fps) to 4K Low (127.2 fps), which indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU likely constrains maximum frame rates.

Q: Does the GPU's 24 GB memory matter for Doom?

A: Doom is not a memory-intensive title, and the measured FPS data does not show any memory-related bottlenecks. The 24 GB GDDR6 with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth provides far more capacity than this game requires, but it does not hurt performance.

Q: What is the GPU's production status?

A: The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is listed as end-of-life, meaning it is no longer in active production. Its successor is Navi IV, and its predecessor is Navi II.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, average frame rates decline substantially. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 367 fps at 1080p to 237.8 fps at 1440p, then to 127.2 fps at 4K. That represents a 35% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 47% reduction from 1440p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the progression is 219.5 fps (1080p), 140.7 fps (1440p), and 76.9 fps (4K), with similar percentage drops.

This scaling pattern strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck when moving to higher resolutions. The RX 7900 XTX's pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s are the specifications that directly influence resolution scaling, and the data reflects these limits. At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU's single-thread performance becomes more relevant, but the i7-14700K's 5.60 GHz boost clock appears sufficient to avoid severe CPU limitation, given the high FPS numbers even at Low settings.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (367 fps) and Ultra (219.5 fps) is 147.5 fps. At 4K, the difference narrows to 50.3 fps (127.2 vs 76.9). This narrowing suggests that at 4K, the GPU's raw shading capacity is the dominant factor, while at 1080p, the CPU can feed the GPU fast enough that settings changes have a larger relative impact.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows the following average frame rates: Low settings deliver 367 fps, Medium produces 316.8 fps, High yields 268.8 fps, and Ultra drops to 219.5 fps. The increment from Low to Medium costs 50.2 fps, from Medium to High costs 48 fps, and from High to Ultra costs 49.3 fps. These are nearly uniform drops, indicating each settings tier imposes a consistent additional load on the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 237.8 fps (Low), 205.9 fps (Medium), 174.2 fps (High), and 140.7 fps (Ultra). The step from Low to Medium reduces performance by 31.9 fps, Medium to High by 31.7 fps, and High to Ultra by 33.5 fps. Again, the decrements are consistent, but the absolute values are lower than at 1080p, confirming the GPU load increases with resolution.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 127.2 fps (Low), 112.3 fps (Medium), 91.8 fps (High), and 76.9 fps (Ultra). The differences are 14.9 fps, 20.5 fps, and 14.9 fps respectively. The smaller gaps between settings at 4K suggest that the GPU is nearing its throughput ceiling, so each additional setting tier has less headroom to absorb.

The highest measured frame rate in the entire dataset is 367 fps at 1080p Low, while the lowest is 76.9 fps at 4K Ultra. This range of 290.1 fps illustrates the full performance envelope of this combo. All measurements are marked as dataIsMeasured, meaning these are actual recorded results rather than estimates.

Settings Recommendations

For maximum frame rates at competitive settings, 1080p Low delivers 367 fps, which is more than sufficient for any high-refresh-rate display. If a player prefers visual quality without sacrificing too much speed, 1440p High at 174.2 fps offers a balanced point where the image is detailed and the frame rate remains far above typical 144 Hz monitors.

At 4K, the choice depends on the display's refresh rate. Ultra settings produce 76.9 fps, which is playable on 60 Hz panels but will not saturate a 144 Hz monitor. High settings at 4K yield 91.8 fps, providing a smoother experience with only a modest visual downgrade. Medium at 4K gives 112.3 fps, which starts to approach 120 Hz territory while still maintaining decent quality.

The data suggests that the most efficient use of this hardware at 1440p is High settings: 174.2 fps represents a 23.8% improvement over Ultra's 140.7 fps, while the visual difference between High and Ultra is typically minimal in fast-paced shooters. For 1080p, Medium at 316.8 fps is the sweet spot, as the jump to Low (367 fps) offers only a 15.8% gain for a significant reduction in fidelity. At 4K, High at 91.8 fps is recommended over Ultra, since the 14.9 fps gain from dropping to Medium is not worth the visual loss, but the 14.9 fps gain from High to Ultra is too small to justify the extra load.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It has an L3 cache of 33 MB shared across cores. In Doom, which is a game that benefits from high single-thread performance, the boost clock of 5.60 GHz and the single-core benchmark scores are the most relevant figures.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score is 6,287, and its multi-core score is 44,534. Geekbench results show 2,932 single-core and 18,896 multi-core. PassMark single-thread score is 4,472. These scores indicate that the i7-14700K has excellent single-thread capability, which is critical for Doom's engine that relies heavily on a primary game thread.

The relationship between CPU and GPU in this pairing is evident in the frame rate data. At 1080p Low, the 367 fps average suggests the game is still CPU-bound to some degree, as the GPU could theoretically push even higher frame rates. At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes, and the GPU's 61.39 TFLOPS of FP32 compute becomes the limiting factor. The 20 cores and 28 threads are more than adequate for Doom; the game does not scale to utilize all cores, so the single-thread boost clock matters more than raw core count.

The CPU's nearest rival, the i7-14700KF, has an identical average score with a deltaPct of 0, meaning the disabled integrated graphics on the KF variant do not affect performance in this context. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X trails by only 0.5%, showing that the i7-14700K is competitive with current flagship CPUs. The data confirms that this processor is not a bottleneck for the RX 7900 XTX at any resolution tested, as even the lowest frame rates (76.9 fps at 4K Ultra) are well above what a weaker CPU would allow.