Doom

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers a commanding performance profile in Doom, with the data indicating a system that scales exceptionally well from high-refresh 1080p gaming into the demanding 4K resolution. The measured frame rates reveal a combination that comfortably handles the game’s Vulkan-based engine, though the scaling behavior between resolutions and settings paints a nuanced picture of where the bottleneck shifts.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, yet the system retains excellent playability at the top resolution. At High settings, the average frame rate descends from 269.2 FPS at 1920x1080 to 175.1 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 96.5 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 64.1% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is significant but expected for a game that scales heavily with pixel count.

What the scaling data implies is that the RX 7900 XTX is the limiting component at higher resolutions, while the i9-14900K has headroom to spare. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at High settings costs 94.1 FPS, a 35% drop, while the move from 1440p to 4K costs 78.6 FPS, a 44.9% drop. This acceleration in the performance penalty suggests that the GPU is increasingly saturated as resolution rises, with the CPU becoming less relevant to the final frame rate.

At Low settings, the scaling pattern is even more revealing. The frame rate at 1080p reaches 363.3 FPS, dropping to 237.4 FPS at 1440p and 129 FPS at 4K. The 4K result at Low settings is only 33.5% higher than the High settings result at the same resolution, indicating that the GPU is already heavily loaded even when graphical fidelity is minimized. The data suggests that at 4K, the RX 7900 XTX is the primary constraint, while at 1080p, the CPU’s performance ceiling is not being approached, given the massive frame rates achieved.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database of 1681 tested combinations, this specific pairing of the i9-14900K and RX 7900 XTX achieves a combo rank of 238 in Doom. This places it in the top 14.2% of all tested configurations, a strong result that reflects the high-end nature of both components. The ranking is particularly notable because Doom is not a title that heavily favors either Intel or AMD, yet this combination still outperforms the vast majority of alternatives.

The combo’s position in the rankings is consistent with the individual performance percentiles of its components. The CPU sits at the 97th percentile against all processors, while the GPU is at the 85th percentile against all graphics cards. The slight discrepancy between these percentiles and the combo’s top-14.2% ranking suggests that the CPU’s exceptional single-threaded and multi-threaded capabilities contribute more to the final result than the GPU’s already high standing. The data indicates that in Doom, the i9-14900K’s strength helps boost the overall combination beyond what the GPU alone might achieve.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. Its architecture, Raptor Lake, built on a 10 nm process, features a substantial 36 MB of shared L3 cache. In Doom, a game that is primarily GPU-bound at high resolutions, the CPU’s role is to ensure that frame pacing remains consistent and that no CPU-side bottleneck limits the GPU’s output.

The benchmark data shows that the CPU’s performance is more than adequate for this title. At 1080p with Low settings, the combination achieves 363.3 FPS, a frame rate that would heavily tax most processors. The i9-14900K’s boost clock of 6.00 GHz, combined with its high single-core performance, is likely a key factor in sustaining such high frame rates without stutter. The CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872, are less critical in Doom but provide headroom for background tasks.

The comparison to the AMD EPYC 7413, which has an average score of 80041 versus the i9-14900K’s 79824, shows a negligible 0.3% difference. This indicates that the i9-14900K is at the top of the desktop CPU hierarchy, though the EPYC’s server-oriented design offers no advantage in gaming. The data suggests that for Doom, the CPU’s single-threaded prowess, not its core count, is the primary driver of its contribution to the frame rate.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo in Doom?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 363.3 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 75 FPS, which is still smooth but significantly lower than at lower settings.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations in Doom?

A: The combo ranks 238th out of 1681 tested combinations, placing it in the top 14.2%.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low settings, the combination reaches 363.3 FPS, suggesting the CPU is not a limiting factor and the GPU is still capable of higher output.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings yield 175.1 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 140.6 FPS, a difference of 34.5 FPS.

Q: Is the RX 7900 XTX’s 24 GB of VRAM a factor in Doom?

A: The 24 GB memory allocation is far beyond Doom’s requirements, as the game’s performance scales primarily with resolution and settings, not memory capacity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 363.3 FPS for Low, 314.5 FPS for Medium, 269.2 FPS for High, and 221.2 FPS for Ultra. These results show a clear progression where each settings tier costs roughly 40-50 FPS, reflecting the GPU’s ability to handle the load at this resolution without CPU interference.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average frame rates are 237.4 FPS for Low, 207.3 FPS for Medium, 175.1 FPS for High, and 140.6 FPS for Ultra. The percentage drop from 1080p is consistent across settings, averaging around 35%, which indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck as pixel count increases.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are 129 FPS for Low, 109.3 FPS for Medium, 96.5 FPS for High, and 75 FPS for Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 54 FPS, a 41.9% reduction, which is slightly larger than at lower resolutions. This suggests that the GPU’s shading units and memory bandwidth are increasingly taxed at 4K, with the 960.0 GB/s bandwidth and 61.39 TFLOPS FP32 performance being pushed to their limits.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 31 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It features 6144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, and 192 raster operation units, with a base clock of 1929 MHz and a boost clock of 2498 MHz. The 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for high-resolution gaming.

In Doom, the GPU’s performance is the dominant factor in determining frame rates at 1440p and 4K. The scaling data shows that at 4K, the frame rate is heavily influenced by the settings preset, with a 54 FPS difference between Low and Ultra. This indicates that the GPU’s compute and memory subsystems are the limiting factor, as the CPU has ample headroom at these resolutions.

The GPU’s benchmark scores support its strong gaming performance. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6841 and Passmark G3D score of 31238 place it in the 85th percentile against all GPUs. Compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, which has an average benchmark score of 44900 versus the RX 7900 XTX’s 44019, the Radeon is 2% behind in raw compute, yet the measured Doom performance shows it is more than capable of delivering high frame rates. The GPU’s 96 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support indicate future-proofing, though Doom does not heavily utilize these features.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the optimal experience depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 4K gaming, High settings at 96.5 FPS provides the best balance between visual fidelity and smoothness, as Ultra drops to 75 FPS, which may be below the threshold for high-refresh displays. Medium at 109.3 FPS is also viable for those prioritizing frame rate over visual quality.

At 1440p, Ultra settings at 140.6 FPS are recommended for the best visual experience, as the frame rate remains well above 120 FPS, suitable for most high-refresh monitors. High at 175.1 FPS offers an additional 34.5 FPS headroom for competitive play, but the visual difference between High and Ultra is often minimal in Doom’s fast-paced action.

For 1080p, the data shows that even Ultra settings at 221.2 FPS are far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors, making the choice of settings purely aesthetic. Low at 363.3 FPS may be useful for extreme competitive scenarios, but Medium at 314.5 FPS or High at 269.2 FPS provides a better balance of image quality and performance. The data indicates that this combination is never CPU-bound at 1080p, so users can maximize visual settings without worrying about frame rate drops.