Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H paired with the AMD Radeon 8060S demonstrates a distinct performance profile in Doom (2016), with the measured frame rates revealing a system that scales predictably across resolutions and settings. The combination ranks 1671 out of 2930 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database, yet the actual FPS figures show this is a capable setup for the game’s fast-paced action, particularly at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured data to show where the strengths and limitations lie.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, and the pattern across all settings indicates a GPU-bound system at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 211 FPS at 1920x1080 to 137 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 74 FPS, and then to 74 FPS at 3840x2160, a further drop of 63 FPS. This steep decline—roughly a 35% loss from 1080p to 1440p and another 46% from 1440p to 4K—shows that the AMD Radeon 8060S is the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases. The GPU’s system-shared memory and bus width mean that at 4K, the demand for memory bandwidth grows sharply, and the data reflects this with the Ultra preset dipping to just 45 FPS.

At Medium settings, the same trend holds: 184 FPS at 1080p, 119 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 65 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 54 FPS, showing a slightly more gradual decline than at Low settings. High settings follow a similar pattern, with 155 FPS at 1080p, 101 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 127 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p, and 45 FPS at 4K. Notably, the 4K Ultra result is only 10 FPS above the 4K Low result at 74 FPS, but that’s because the Low 4K number is still quite high. The overall scaling suggests that the CPU has ample headroom at 1080p, but the GPU’s limits become apparent as resolution climbs.

The ratio of FPS at 1080p to 4K at each setting reveals the GPU bottleneck. At Low, the 4K average (74) is 35% of the 1080p average (211). At Medium, 4K (65) is 35% of 1080p (184). At High, 4K (55) is 35% of 1080p (155). At Ultra, 4K (45) is 35% of 1080p (127). This consistency—exactly 35% across all settings—indicates a purely resolution-driven scaling that is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario. The CPU’s 14 cores and 18 threads are not the constraint here, as the frame rate drops are uniform regardless of the graphical load.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H perform in Doom at 1080p?

A: The CPU does not bottleneck the game at this resolution. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 127 at Ultra settings to 211 at Low settings, with Medium at 184 and High at 155. These high numbers indicate that the processor’s 14 cores and 18 threads, with a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, are sufficient to feed the GPU without limiting frame rates.

Q: What is the best resolution to play Doom with this combo for a smooth experience?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS stays above 82 across all settings, with Low at 137, Medium at 119, and High at 101. Even Ultra at 82 FPS is playable. At 3840x2160, only Low (74 FPS) and Medium (65 FPS) reach acceptable averages, while High drops to 55 and Ultra to 45. The data suggests 1440p is the sweet spot for balancing visual quality and frame rate.

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

A: The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a GPU limitation. The FPS at 4K is 35% of the 1080p figure across all four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), which is a textbook sign of the GPU being the bottleneck. The CPU’s benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 12804.5, are not the limiting factor in this game.

Q: How does the AMD Radeon 8060S compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 55757 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, which scores 55698, a delta of 0.1%. It is 0.6% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 (56083) and 2.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (54247). This places it in a competitive mid-range position.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 74 FPS, while Ultra averages 45 FPS, a difference of 29 FPS. Medium sits at 65 FPS, and High at 55 FPS. This shows that the Ultra preset’s additional graphical effects cost roughly 39% of the Low preset’s performance at this resolution.

Q: Does the CPU’s 28W TDP affect gaming performance?

A: The 28W TDP is a mobile-oriented power limit, but the measured FPS data shows no signs of thermal throttling impacting Doom’s performance. The 1080p results, with averages up to 211 FPS at Low, demonstrate that the processor can maintain high throughput when needed. The benchmark scores, such as a Passmark multithread score of 21100, support this.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for choosing settings based on target frame rates. For a 60 FPS target, the data shows that at 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the highest quality option that achieves this, averaging 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 and a maximum of 74. High settings at 4K fall short at 55 FPS, so Medium is the recommended choice for 4K play. At 2560x1440, all settings exceed 60 FPS, with Ultra at 82 FPS being the highest quality option that still provides a comfortable margin above the target. Low at 137 FPS and Medium at 119 FPS offer even more headroom, but Ultra delivers the best visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset averages 127 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target and provides a high-refresh-rate experience. High at 155 FPS and Medium at 184 FPS are even faster, but Ultra is the best balance of quality and speed. The minimum FPS values are only recorded for Medium settings: 156 at 1080p, 101 at 1440p, and 55 at 4K. These minimums are all within 10% of the average, indicating stable frame pacing. If a player prioritizes maximum frame rate over visuals, the Low preset at 1080p yields 211 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play. However, for most users, the Ultra preset at 1080p or the Medium preset at 4K offers the best experience per the measured data.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and AMD Radeon 8060S ranks 1671 out of 2930 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the 43rd percentile of all combinations, meaning roughly 57% of tested systems perform better in this specific game. The rank is influenced by the GPU’s mid-range positioning; the Radeon 8060S has a percentileVsAllGpus of 87, indicating it outperforms 87% of all GPUs in general benchmarks, but the CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus is 79, which is slightly lower. The combo rank of 1671 is lower than either component’s individual percentile would suggest, which implies that Doom’s performance is sensitive to the interaction between the two, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU’s system-shared memory becomes a limiting factor.

The nearest rivals for the GPU provide context. The Radeon 8060S’s average benchmark score of 55757 is 0.1% above the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698), so in general compute tasks they are essentially equal. However, in Doom, the 8060S’s performance at 4K Ultra (45 FPS) is relatively low, suggesting that the game’s engine does not fully leverage the GPU’s capabilities. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (avg score 27535, delta -0.1%), are also close in general benchmarks, but the combo’s rank indicates that Doom’s specific workload does not favor this pairing as much as synthetic tests might suggest. The rank is a measure of measured FPS, so the 4K results drag the overall standing down.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a 14-core, 18-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. The L3 cache is 18 MB shared, and the processor supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. In Doom, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic, and the measured FPS at 1080p indicates it does this effectively. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 12804.5 and single-core score of 1647.5 are moderate, but Doom is not a highly CPU-intensive game, so the processor’s performance is sufficient.

The Passmark single-thread score of 3399 is relevant because Doom’s engine relies on a few primary threads for game logic. The boost clock of 4.50 GHz helps maintain high single-thread performance, which is reflected in the 211 FPS result at 1080p Low. The 14 cores and 18 threads do not hurt, but they are not fully utilized in this game; the CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus of 79 shows it is above average, but the combo rank of 1671 is more affected by the GPU. The data shows that at 4K, the FPS drops are uniform across settings, which confirms the CPU is not the bottleneck—if it were, the Low settings at 4K would show a smaller drop from 1440p than the Ultra settings. Instead, all settings lose the same proportion, pointing to the GPU as the limiting component.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS is 211 at Low, 184 at Medium, 155 at High, and 127 at Ultra. The Medium preset has a minimum of 156 and a maximum of 212, showing a wide range but a stable average. The spread from Low to Ultra is 84 FPS, indicating that graphical settings have a significant impact at this resolution. At 2560x1440, the averages are 137 (Low), 119 (Medium), 101 (High), and 82 (Ultra). The Medium minimum is 101 and maximum is 137. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 74 FPS at Low, 65 FPS at Medium, 54 FPS at High, and 45 FPS at Ultra. This shows that higher settings suffer slightly less in absolute FPS loss, but the relative loss is consistent.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 74 (Low), 65 (Medium), 55 (High), and 45 (Ultra). The Medium minimum is 55 and maximum is 74. The 4K results are the weakest, with Ultra dipping below 50 FPS. The overall pattern is that each increase in resolution costs roughly 35% of the FPS, regardless of settings. The 1080p Medium result of 184 FPS is particularly notable, as it is higher than the 1440p Low result of 137 FPS, showing that resolution has a larger impact than setting changes. The data also shows that the Low preset at 4K (74 FPS) is only 9 FPS slower than the High preset at 1440p (101 FPS), which is a useful comparison for players deciding between resolution and quality.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 8060S is built on the RDNA 3.5 architecture with a 4 nm process from TSMC, featuring 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It has 40 ray tracing cores, though Doom (2016) does not use ray tracing, so this feature is irrelevant here. The GPU’s clock speeds are 1295 MHz base and 2900 MHz boost, with a pixel rate of 185.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 464.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 14.85 TFLOPS, which is a mid-range figure. The memory is system-shared, meaning the GPU uses the CPU’s DDR5 memory, and the bandwidth is system-dependent. This is a critical limitation for a game like Doom, which benefits from dedicated VRAM.

In Doom, the GPU’s role is to render the fast-paced environments, and the measured FPS shows it handles 1080p and 1440p well. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2162 is a measure of modern rendering performance, but Doom’s Vulkan API and older engine mean the GPU’s raw throughput is what matters. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 84626 and Vulkan score of 80483 confirm the GPU’s compute capabilities, but the game’s frame rates are more dependent on fill rate and memory bandwidth. The GPU’s percentileVsAllGpus of 87 places it well above average, yet the 4K Ultra result of 45 FPS shows that the system-shared memory is a bottleneck at high resolutions. The GPU’s nearest rival, the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, has dedicated 12 GB of VRAM, which likely gives it an edge in Doom at 4K, even though their average benchmark scores are nearly identical. The data indicates that the Radeon 8060S is a capable GPU for 1080p and 1440p gaming in Doom, but its shared memory architecture limits its 4K performance, particularly at the Ultra preset.