Doom

# FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS for this combo at 1080p with Ultra settings in Doom?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 achieves an average of 127 FPS at 1920x1080 on Ultra settings. This is the lowest average among the four settings tested at this resolution, with Low delivering 211 FPS, Medium at 184 FPS, and High at 155 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Core i7-14700KF has an average benchmark score of 70,163, which places it 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69,996). It is also 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875) and 0.9% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515), while trailing the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K by 1% (70,879).

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration, and how might it affect Doom?

A: The Radeon RX 9060 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's memory clock is 2250 MHz, with an effective speed of 18 Gbps. For a 2016 FPS title like Doom, this memory subsystem is likely sufficient, though the 8 GB capacity could become a limiting factor at higher resolutions if texture requirements were more demanding.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested combinations for Doom?

A: The combo ranks 1,686 out of 2,930 tested combinations, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the database. This ranking reflects the measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings, indicating that while this pairing is capable, it does not reach the top tier of performance for this game.

Q: How does the GPU's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Radeon RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16,014, which is 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16,129). It sits 1% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15,862) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15,852), and 2.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15,679).

Q: What is the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 155 at 1920x1080 to 101 at 2560x1440 and then to 54 at 3840x2160. This represents a 65% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as resolution scales upward.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Doom reveals a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate across the four settings presets. At 1920x1080, all settings produce playable frame rates, but the differences are substantial. Low settings deliver 211 FPS, Medium reaches 184 FPS, High achieves 155 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 127 FPS. For competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays, the Low preset at 1080p offers the highest headroom, nearly doubling the frame rate of Ultra. However, the Medium preset at 184 FPS provides a more balanced experience, retaining some visual enhancements while still maintaining a frame rate well above typical 144 Hz monitor refresh rates.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low settings produce 137 FPS, Medium follows at 119 FPS, High drops to 101 FPS, and Ultra falls to 82 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution appears to be the sweet spot, offering a 17% improvement over High while remaining comfortably above 60 FPS. The minimum FPS recorded at Medium is 101, which ensures consistent smoothness even during demanding scenes. Ultra at 82 FPS is still playable but leaves less margin for frame time spikes, making it less ideal for fast-paced action.

At 3840x2160, only the Low preset achieves a frame rate above 60 FPS, hitting 74 FPS. Medium averages 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 and maximum of 74, placing it right at the edge of playability. High drops to 54 FPS, and Ultra falls to 45 FPS. For 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only option that consistently provides a smooth experience, while Medium is borderline acceptable. The data suggests that for the best overall experience, players should prioritize Medium at 1440p, as it balances visual quality with performance headroom. At 4K, Low is recommended for sustained frame rates, while those who prioritize visuals over smoothness could tolerate Medium with occasional dips below 60 FPS.

# GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. The GPU contains 29,700 million transistors on a 199 mm² die, with a transistor density of 149.2 million per mm². Its shading units number 1,792, paired with 112 texture mapping units and 64 raster output units. The GPU also includes 28 ray tracing cores, though Doom's original 2016 release does not utilize ray tracing, meaning these cores remain idle during gameplay.

Clock speeds play a significant role in the GPU's performance. The base clock is 1700 MHz, the game clock is 2400 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2990 MHz. This boost clock is notably high, suggesting that the GPU can sustain elevated frequencies under load, which contributes to its measured performance in Doom. The pixel rate is 191.4 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 334.9 GTexel/s, while FP32 performance is rated at 21.43 TFLOPS.

The GPU's memory configuration—8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth—is a potential bottleneck at higher resolutions. In Doom, the measured FPS at 4K Ultra is 45 FPS, which is only 35% of the 127 FPS achieved at 1080p Ultra. This steep decline suggests that memory bandwidth and capacity become limiting factors as resolution increases. The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth may struggle to feed the GPU's compute units efficiently at 4K, where texture and geometry data demands are significantly higher.

Interestingly, the GPU's benchmark scores paint a mixed picture. The PassMark G3D score is 17,631, while the DirectX 12 score is only 44, and the DirectX 11 score is 182. These low DirectX scores seem anomalous compared to the G3D score, but in Doom, the measured FPS indicates that the GPU performs reasonably well at lower resolutions. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 39,476 is more representative of modern API performance, and Doom's Vulkan support likely benefits from this capability.

# How This Combo Ranks

The combo of Intel Core i7-14700KF and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1,686 out of 2,930 tested combinations in Doom. This places it in the 57.5th percentile of all tested combos, meaning it outperforms roughly 57% of the database but trails the top 42.5%. This mid-tier ranking suggests that while the combination is competent, it does not excel in this particular game.

The CPU's percentile versus all CPUs is 94, indicating it is among the top 6% of processors in general benchmark performance. The GPU's percentile versus all GPUs is 59, placing it in the upper half but not the upper tier. The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-tier GPU results in a pairing where the CPU is likely not the limiting factor in most scenarios. Instead, the GPU's performance ceiling determines the overall ranking.

Examining the nearest rivals provides context. The GPU's closest competitor, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, has an average score 0.7% higher. The AMD Radeon R9 370X and RX 7700 are 1% lower, and the Radeon Pro W5500 is 2.1% lower. This tight grouping suggests that the RX 9060 sits in a competitive segment where small differences in optimization can sway results. In Doom, the measured FPS data shows that the combo performs adequately, but the 1,686 ranking indicates that many other combinations achieve higher frame rates.

The rank relative to the total number of combos implies that for players seeking the absolute highest performance in Doom, this pairing is not the top choice. However, it is far from the bottom, and the FPS data at 1080p and 1440p shows that the combo is capable of delivering smooth gameplay at those resolutions. The 4K performance is less compelling, with only the Low preset exceeding 60 FPS.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, specifically the Raptor Lake-R codename from the Core 14th Gen series. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU is built on Intel's 10 nm process with a die size of 257 mm², and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration.

The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. This substantial cache capacity helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for gaming workloads that exhibit repetitive access patterns. The CPU also supports PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes, ensuring high bandwidth for the GPU.

Benchmark results indicate strong multi-threaded performance. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 44,167, while the single-core score is 6,235. Geekbench multi-core reaches 21,462, and single-core 2,578. PassMark multi-thread scores 52,425, with single-thread at 4,480. These numbers place the CPU in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, confirming its high-end status.

In Doom, the CPU's role is likely secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but at 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance becomes more relevant. The game was released in 2016, and its engine is known to be well-optimized, often scaling with both single-core and multi-core performance. The 5.60 GHz boost clock provides excellent single-thread responsiveness, which is crucial for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios.

The nearest rivals show that the CPU is competitive with other high-end processors. It is 0.2% ahead of the Ryzen 7 9700F, 0.4% ahead of the Ryzen 9 7940HX, and 0.9% ahead of the Ryzen 9 7950X, while being 1% behind the Core Ultra 7 265K. These small margins suggest that for gaming, the choice between these CPUs would have minimal impact on frame rates, especially when the GPU is the limiting factor as resolution increases.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS data shows a wide range across settings. Low settings produce an average of 211 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combo. Medium settings yield 184 FPS, with a minimum of 156 and maximum of 212. High settings drop to 155 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 127 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 84 FPS, representing a 40% reduction in performance when moving to the highest preset.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 137 FPS for Low, 119 FPS for Medium, 101 FPS for High, and 82 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset records a minimum of 101 FPS and maximum of 137 FPS, indicating good consistency. The drop from Low to Ultra is 55 FPS, a 40% reduction, mirroring the proportional decline seen at 1080p. This suggests that the relative performance impact of settings is similar across these two resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 74 FPS for Low, 65 FPS for Medium, 54 FPS for High, and 45 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 55 FPS and maximum of 74 FPS, meaning that frame times can vary significantly. The drop from Low to Ultra is 29 FPS, a 39% reduction. Interestingly, the absolute FPS values at 4K are much lower, but the percentage impact of settings remains consistent.

The measured data reveals that at every resolution, the step from Low to Medium costs approximately 35 FPS at 1080p, 18 FPS at 1440p, and 9 FPS at 4K. The step from Medium to High costs 29 FPS at 1080p, 18 FPS at 1440p, and 11 FPS at 4K. The step from High to Ultra costs 28 FPS at 1080p, 19 FPS at 1440p, and 9 FPS at 4K. These consistent deltas suggest that each settings tier imposes a similar relative burden on the GPU, regardless of resolution.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 211 at 1080p to 137 at 1440p, a 35% reduction, and then to 74 at 4K, a 46% reduction from 1440p. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 65%. At Medium settings, the averages are 184, 119, and 65, representing a 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 45% drop from 1440p to 4K, with a total reduction of 65%. At High settings, the averages are 155, 101, and 54, showing a 35% drop to 1440p and a 47% drop to 4K, totaling 65%. At Ultra settings, the averages are 127, 82, and 45, with a 35% drop to 1440p and a 45% drop to 4K, also totaling 65%.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings is striking. Regardless of whether the game runs at Low or Ultra, the resolution scaling penalty is nearly identical. This uniformity indicates that the limiting factor is the GPU's raw rendering capability, not memory bandwidth or cache behavior that might vary with settings. The GPU's 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 GB capacity are likely the primary constraints at 4K, as the pixel throughput requirements increase by 4x from 1080p to 4K.

The data implies that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see smaller FPS drops at higher resolutions, as the CPU workload remains constant while the GPU workload increases. Instead, the proportional FPS drops suggest that the GPU is the sole limiting factor, with the CPU's 5.60 GHz boost clock and 20 cores providing ample headroom even at 1080p where CPU load is highest.

The 65% total FPS reduction from 1080p to 4K is slightly less than the theoretical 75% reduction that would occur if performance scaled purely with pixel count. This discrepancy suggests that the GPU is not entirely pixel-bound, and other factors such as memory latency and cache efficiency play a role. However, the near-consistent scaling across settings indicates that the GPU's compute and memory subsystems are well-balanced, with no single component creating an unexpected bottleneck at higher resolutions.