Doom

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 delivers a complex performance profile in Doom, one that shifts its bottleneck characteristics dramatically depending on resolution and settings. The measured data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly capable at 1080p but begins to show clear GPU limitations as pixel count rises, with the 4K results indicating a hard ceiling imposed by the graphics card.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a steep and consistent performance drop across all settings, confirming that the Radeon RX 7600 becomes the limiting component at higher resolutions. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 114.6 FPS at 1080p to 75 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of roughly 35%, and then plummets to 39.7 FPS at 4K, representing a 65% decline from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario where the pixel throughput demand outpaces the card's 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 21.75 TFLOPS compute capacity.

The Low preset tells a similar story but with higher absolute numbers. The jump from 195.1 FPS at 1080p to 123.1 FPS at 1440p is a 37% drop, and the 4K result of 68.7 FPS shows another 44% decline from 1440p. Even at the lowest settings, the RX 7600 cannot maintain playable 4K performance, indicating that the GPU's raw shading power is the primary constraint rather than any specific graphics feature. The Medium and High presets follow the same trajectory, with 4K averages of 56.9 FPS and 48.1 FPS respectively, both falling below the 60 FPS threshold that most users consider the baseline for smooth gameplay.

The data suggests that the Intel Core i9-14900K, with its 24 cores and 32 threads, is never the limiting factor at any resolution tested. The CPU's percentile score of 97 against all processors, combined with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872, indicates ample headroom for the game's engine. The bottleneck shifts entirely to the GPU at 1440p and 4K, while at 1080p the frame rates are high enough that even the powerful CPU may occasionally become relevant, though the measured averages suggest the RX 7600 still dominates the performance equation.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of 1681 tested combinations for Doom, this pairing of the Core i9-14900K and Radeon RX 7600 holds the 1173rd position. This places it in the lower third of all configs, a ranking that might initially seem surprising given the strong CPU, but it reflects the GPU's modest standing in the broader hierarchy. The RX 7600 sits at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20258, which is a solid mid-range result but not one that competes with top-tier cards.

Looking at the GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database provides context for this ranking. The RX 7600 XT scores 20146, a delta of 0.6% below the RX 7600, making the two cards effectively identical in this game's performance. More notably, the RX 460 scores 20088, a 0.8% difference, which is remarkable given the generational gap between these architectures. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and Intel Arc B570 both score slightly higher at 20534 and 20556 respectively, with deltas of -1.3% and -1.5%, indicating that the RX 7600 is positioned in a tightly contested performance band.

The combo rank of 1173 out of 1681 means that roughly 70% of tested configs outperform this one in Doom, but those superior results typically come from pairing higher-end GPUs with similarly strong CPUs. The Core i9-14900K itself performs within 0.9% of its nearest rivals, including the AMD EPYC 7413, Intel Core i9-14900KF, and Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF, confirming that the processor contributes no meaningful performance penalty to this combination.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 33 chip manufactured on a 6 nm process at TSMC. The card features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. The clock speeds show a base of 1720 MHz, a game clock of 2250 MHz, and a boost clock of 2655 MHz, with memory running at 2250 MHz or 18 Gbps effective. These specifications place the card firmly in the mid-range segment, and the measured Doom performance aligns with that positioning.

The relationship between VRAM capacity and this game's results is directly observable at 4K Ultra settings, where the average FPS drops to 39.7. Doom from 2016 is not a particularly demanding title by modern standards, but the 8 GB frame buffer can become a constraint at 4K with higher quality settings. The fact that the 4K Ultra result is significantly lower than the 4K High result, 39.7 versus 48.1, suggests that texture and shadow quality settings are consuming additional memory bandwidth and capacity, pushing the card beyond its comfortable operating range.

The GPU's compute capabilities, measured at 21.75 TFLOPS FP32 and a Pixel Rate of 169.9 GPixel/s, are well-suited for the game's fast-paced rendering requirements at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the card delivers strong performance across all settings, with the Low preset achieving 195.1 FPS and even the demanding Ultra preset managing 114.6 FPS. The Texture Rate of 339.8 GTexel/s appears sufficient for the game's environments at these resolutions, but the 4K results indicate that the card's 64 ROPs and 128 TMUs become insufficient when pixel count quadruples.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the balance between visual quality and frame rate. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 114.6 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS standard and suitable for high refresh rate displays. The High preset at 142.4 FPS and Medium at 170.5 FPS offer progressively higher performance, but the visual compromise may not be necessary given that Ultra already exceeds typical display refresh rates. For competitive play, the Low preset at 195.1 FPS provides the highest possible frame rate, though the visual downgrade is substantial.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts. The High preset at 91.2 FPS is the optimal choice for most users, offering a good balance of visual fidelity and performance above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset drops to 75 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 18% performance penalty for incremental visual gains. The Medium preset at 111.2 FPS is viable for those prioritizing frame rate, while the Low preset at 123.1 FPS is available for maximum responsiveness.

The 3840x2160 results are more challenging. None of the settings achieve a consistent 60 FPS average, with the best result being Low at 68.7 FPS and the worst being Ultra at 39.7 FPS. For 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only viable option if 60 FPS is a target, though the Medium preset at 56.9 FPS and High at 48.1 FPS may be acceptable for users who prioritize visual quality over smoothness. The Ultra preset is not recommended at 4K given its sub-40 FPS average.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates offers a detailed view of this combination's behavior across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 195.1 FPS, followed by Medium at 170.5 FPS, High at 142.4 FPS, and Ultra at 114.6 FPS. This represents a 42% decrease from Low to Ultra, a substantial gap that reflects the increasing load on the GPU as quality settings rise.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 123.1 FPS, Medium reaches 111.2 FPS, High achieves 91.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 75 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 39%, slightly smaller than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is beginning to saturate even at lower settings. The 1440p numbers show a clear hierarchy where each quality tier costs approximately 15-20% performance relative to the tier below it.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset manages 68.7 FPS, Medium falls to 56.9 FPS, High drops to 48.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 39.7 FPS. The performance spread from Low to Ultra is 42%, consistent with the 1080p pattern, but the absolute values are dramatically lower. Interestingly, the 4K Medium result of 56.9 FPS is nearly identical to the 1080p Ultra result of 114.6 FPS when expressed as a percentage of the respective Low preset scores, indicating that the GPU's scaling behavior is consistent across resolutions even as the absolute performance ceiling drops.

The data shows that resolution has a more significant impact on performance than settings changes. Reducing resolution from 4K to 1440p at Ultra settings more than doubles the frame rate from 39.7 to 75 FPS, while reducing settings from Ultra to Low at 4K only improves performance by 73% from 39.7 to 68.7 FPS. This suggests that users targeting higher frame rates should prioritize resolution reduction over quality reduction, as the pixel count has a more direct impact on the RX 7600's workload.