Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H paired with the AMD Radeon 760M is a profoundly GPU-limited configuration in Doom, with the integrated graphics struggling to maintain playable frame rates at any resolution above 1080p. Benchmark results show that the CPU, which sits in the 84th percentile of all processors, is never the bottleneck; instead, the Radeon 760M, which lands in the 35th GPU percentile, caps performance so severely that even the game's Low preset yields an average of only 65 FPS at 1080p. This combo ranks 2919th out of 2930 tested configurations in this game, placing it in the bottom 0.4% of all systems, a direct consequence of the GPU's 5.323 TFLOPS of FP32 compute being insufficient for a title that rewards discrete graphics muscle.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate collapse from 1080p to 4K is the single clearest indicator that the Radeon 760M is the limiting component. At 1080p with the High preset, the system averages 48 FPS; dropping to 1440p High reduces that to 31 FPS, a 35% loss; and at 4K High the average plunges to 17 FPS, a 65% loss from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern — roughly halving performance for each doubling of pixel count — is characteristic of a GPU that is saturated even at the lowest tested resolution, with no headroom to absorb the increased pixel throughput.

The data reveals an even more telling trend when comparing presets across resolutions. At Low settings, the system delivers 65 FPS at 1080p, 42 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop), and 23 FPS at 4K (a 65% drop from 1080p). The consistency of these percentage losses across all presets — High, Medium, and Ultra all show nearly identical relative declines — proves that the bottleneck is purely rasterization throughput, not memory bandwidth or CPU draw-call limits. A CPU-limited system would show smaller frame rate gaps at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work, but here the Radeon 760M's 16 ROPs and 512 shading units are overwhelmed uniformly.

At 4K, the situation becomes academic for playability. Even the Low preset averages only 23 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS threshold typically considered the minimum for interactive play. The Medium preset at 4K averages 20 FPS with a minimum of 17 FPS and a maximum of 23 FPS, indicating that the frame time variance is tight but the absolute performance is far too low. The Ultra preset at 4K averages just 14 FPS, making the game effectively a slideshow. The scaling from 1080p Ultra (39 FPS) to 4K Ultra (14 FPS) represents a 64% reduction, reinforcing that the GPU's 2599 MHz boost clock cannot compensate for the sheer pixel count.

The 1440p results offer a slightly brighter picture but still fall short of smooth gameplay. Medium at 1440p averages 37 FPS, which is technically above the 30 FPS floor but with a minimum of 31 FPS, leaving no margin for combat-heavy scenes. High at 1440p drops to 31 FPS, and Ultra falls to 25 FPS, both of which are marginal at best. The data suggests that 1080p is the only resolution where this combo can approach acceptable performance, and even there, only the Low preset breaks past the 60 FPS mark.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 760M, built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a 4 nm process, is the decisive factor in every benchmark result. Its 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs deliver a peak FP32 throughput of 5.323 TFLOPS, which the measured FPS data shows is simply not enough for Doom at high settings. The GPU's boost clock of 2599 MHz and base clock of 800 MHz are respectable for an integrated part, but the 15 W TDP and system-shared memory architecture create an insurmountable bandwidth limitation that no clock speed can overcome.

The GPU's benchmark scores contextualize its in-game performance. Its Passmark G3D score of 5310 places it in the 35th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon RX 6400 (deltaPct 0.3) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M (deltaPct 0.3). The fact that it trades blows with a dedicated GTX 770M from a decade earlier explains why Doom — a 2016 title that scales well on modern hardware — still struggles. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 400 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 30336 further indicate that the GPU is positioned at the very bottom of the performance spectrum, just above the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server's average score of 5996 (deltaPct 0.4).

The system-shared memory is a critical weakness. With no dedicated VRAM, the Radeon 760M must use the same DDR5 memory as the CPU, and the memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent" — a far cry from the dedicated GDDR6 found on discrete cards. In Doom, which can use over 4 GB of VRAM at Ultra settings, this shared memory arrangement causes the GPU to thrash as it competes with the CPU for bandwidth. The result is visible in the frame rate collapse at Ultra: 39 FPS at 1080p, 25 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K, with the Ultra preset showing a larger relative drop from High than the jump from Medium to High.

The GPU's 8 ray tracing cores are present but functionally irrelevant in this context. Doom does not use ray tracing, and even if it did, the 5.323 TFLOPS of compute would be insufficient to drive RT workloads at any reasonable resolution. The 16 ROPs are the true limiter for pixel fill rate, as evidenced by the steep resolution scaling, and the 83.17 GTexel/s texture rate is adequate for 1080p but becomes a bottleneck as texture loads increase with resolution. The GPU's Passmark DirectX 11 score of 52 and DirectX 12 score of 25 illustrate that it is operating at the edge of its capabilities even in legacy API modes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is unequivocally not the limiting factor in any of the measured scenarios. With 16 cores and 22 threads across a Meteor Lake architecture, this mobile processor delivers a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14551 and a single-core score of 1759, placing it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H (deltaPct 0.3) and AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (deltaPct -0.5), indicating that it punches well above its 28 W TDP for a mobile part.

The CPU's 5.00 GHz boost clock and 3.80 GHz base clock provide more than enough single-threaded performance for Doom's game logic and physics. The Passmark single-thread score of 3509 and the Cinebench R15 single-core score of 257 confirm that the CPU can feed the GPU with draw calls faster than the Radeon 760M can render them. Even in the most CPU-intensive moments, such as large enemy encounters that spawn dozens of demons, the 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache ensure that data is readily available to the cores.

The evidence for CPU headroom is found in the frame rate scaling itself. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates at 1080p Low (65 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (39 FPS) would be much closer, since the CPU workload does not change significantly with graphics settings. Instead, the 26 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p — a 40% difference — is entirely attributable to the GPU's fill rate and shader throughput. At 4K, the gap between Low (23 FPS) and Ultra (14 FPS) narrows to 9 FPS, further proving that the GPU is the sole constraint, as the CPU has even less work to do per frame at higher resolutions.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is shared with the GPU, but this does not manifest as a CPU bottleneck. The Passmark data compression score of 291161 and integer math score of 89415 show that the CPU can process game data at rates far exceeding what Doom requires. The 84th percentile ranking, combined with the fact that the nearest rival AMD EPYC 4244P (deltaPct -0.4) is a server chip, underscores that this CPU is overqualified for the task at hand. The only scenario where the CPU might matter is if paired with a much faster discrete GPU, but with the Radeon 760M, the CPU idles while the GPU struggles.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a single viable configuration for this combo: 1080p with the Low preset. This is the only combination that achieves a 65 FPS average, which is smooth enough for the fast-paced combat Doom demands. The Low preset at 1080p provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold, and while the minimum FPS was not recorded, the Medium preset's minimum of 48 FPS at 1080p suggests that Low should maintain similarly stable frame times.

For users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, 1080p Medium is the next best option, averaging 57 FPS with a minimum of 48 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS. This preset is the highest visual quality that remains within striking distance of 60 FPS, though the 48 FPS minimum means there will be noticeable dips during intense firefights. The High preset at 1080p drops to 48 FPS average, which is playable but not ideal for a twitch shooter, and the Ultra preset at 39 FPS is borderline unplayable for competitive play.

At 1440p, the data strongly recommends against any preset above Low. The Low preset at 1440p averages 42 FPS, which is acceptable for single-player exploration but will feel sluggish in combat. Medium at 1440p averages 37 FPS, High drops to 31 FPS, and Ultra falls to 25 FPS — all below the 30 FPS minimum that most players consider acceptable. The 4K resolution is effectively unusable, with even Low averaging only 23 FPS, so any 4K attempt should be avoided entirely.

The settings ladder shows diminishing returns: going from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 8 FPS (65 to 57), Medium to High costs another 9 FPS (57 to 48), and High to Ultra costs 9 FPS again (48 to 39). The visual uplift from Medium to Ultra may not justify the 18 FPS sacrifice. For the best balance of playability and visual quality, 1080p Medium is the recommended maximum, with 1080p Low being the only setting that guarantees smooth performance throughout. The 1440p Low preset is a viable alternative for users with 1440p monitors who prefer native resolution over frame rate, but the 42 FPS average leaves little room for error.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and AMD Radeon 760M combination ranks 2919th out of 2930 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the bottom 0.4% of all systems. This rank is a damning indictment of the GPU's capability, as the CPU alone would rank much higher — the 165H sits in the 84th CPU percentile, while the Radeon 760M sits in the 35th GPU percentile. The combo's rank is dragged down almost entirely by the GPU, which is the weakest component in the pairing.

To contextualize this rank, consider that the GPU's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6400 (avgScore 6001, deltaPct 0.3) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M (avgScore 6000, deltaPct 0.3). These are both discrete GPUs that, while old or entry-level, still outperform the integrated Radeon 760M in raw compute. The fact that the 760M is competitive with these parts in synthetic benchmarks but still ranks 2919th in Doom suggests that the game's engine is particularly sensitive to memory bandwidth and ROP throughput, both of which are weak points for the shared-memory IGP.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide a stark contrast. The Intel Core Ultra 5 338H (avgScore 33989, deltaPct 0.3) and AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (avgScore 34222, deltaPct -0.4) are all within 0.5% of the 165H's average benchmark score of 34083, indicating that CPU performance is not a differentiator in this combo. If the same CPU were paired with a mid-range discrete GPU, the combo rank would likely jump thousands of places, as the CPU has ample headroom to drive frame rates far above what the 760M can deliver.

The 0.4% bottom ranking means that out of 2930 tested configurations, only 11 perform worse in Doom. This places the combo in the same territory as systems with much older integrated graphics or severely underclocked mobile parts. The data shows that this is not a gaming configuration by any measure — it is a productivity laptop with a GPU that happens to be able to run Doom at low settings and low resolution. For anyone considering this combo for Doom, the rank should serve as a clear warning that the experience will be marginal at best.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this system in Doom?

A: The only setting that achieves a 65 FPS average is 1080p Low. The 1080p Medium preset averages 57 FPS, while 1440p Low averages 42 FPS. The 4K resolution is not viable, with even Low averaging only 23 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The GPU is the definitive bottleneck. The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H ranks in the 84th CPU percentile with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14551, while the AMD Radeon 760M ranks in the 35th GPU percentile with a Passmark G3D score of 5310. Frame rate scaling across resolutions shows consistent GPU-bound behavior.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested systems in Doom?

A: This combo ranks 2919th out of 2930 tested configurations, placing it in the bottom 0.4% of all systems. The GPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6400 (deltaPct 0.3) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M (deltaPct 0.3), while the CPU's nearest rival is the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H (deltaPct 0.3).

Q: Can this system run Doom at 1080p Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but only at an average of 39 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The 1080p Ultra preset has no recorded minimum FPS, but the 9 FPS drop from High to Ultra suggests that frame times will be inconsistent during combat.

Q: What is the impact of the GPU's shared memory on performance?

A: The Radeon 760M uses system-shared memory with bandwidth listed as "System Dependent," meaning it competes with the CPU for the same DDR5 memory. This is a significant weakness in Doom, which benefits from dedicated VRAM, and contributes to the steep frame rate drops at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H a capable CPU for gaming?

A: Yes, the CPU is more than capable, with 16 cores, 22 threads, and a 5.00 GHz boost clock. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14551 and 84th percentile ranking show it can handle any game's CPU workload, but it is wasted in this combo due to the GPU's limitations.