Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H paired with the AMD Radeon 880M is a mobile combination that produces a very specific performance profile in Doom (2016). The data reveals a system that is heavily constrained by its integrated graphics, yet the CPU demonstrates sufficient headroom to push frame rates at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings, contextualizes the combo’s standing among 2,930 tested configurations, and explores the distinct roles of the processor and GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates show a steep and predictable decline as resolution increases, confirming that the AMD Radeon 880M is the primary bottleneck in this pairing. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 90 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that figure to 58 FPS, a reduction of 32 FPS. At 4K Low, the average falls to 31 FPS, which is less than half of the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is typical for an integrated GPU, where the pixel fillrate and memory bandwidth become increasingly strained at higher resolutions.

The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 32 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 27 FPS. These are not linear drops, indicating that the GPU is not just struggling with raw pixel count but also with the increased memory pressure from larger framebuffers. The Radeon 880M uses System Shared memory, meaning its performance is dependent on the system’s RAM bandwidth. As resolution increases, the demand on this shared resource grows, causing the frame rate to deteriorate more rapidly than a dedicated GPU with its own VRAM might.

Interestingly, the relative performance drop from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings. For instance, at High settings, the drop is from 66 FPS to 23 FPS, a 65% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 54 FPS to 19 FPS, a 65% reduction as well. This consistency suggests that the limiting factor is not the complexity of the scene (which scales with settings) but the sheer number of pixels being processed. The GPU’s 16 ROPs and 139.2 GTexel/s texture rate are simply insufficient for 4K output, regardless of how much detail is being rendered.

The data implies that 4K is not a viable target for this combination in Doom. Even at the lowest settings, the 31 FPS average is below the threshold for smooth, responsive gameplay. The 1440p results are more interesting, with Low settings hitting 58 FPS and Medium reaching 51 FPS. These numbers suggest that 1440p is playable, but only with compromises. The 1080p results are where this combo shines, with all settings except Ultra exceeding 60 FPS. This points to a clear conclusion: the Radeon 880M is designed for 1080p gaming, and pushing beyond that resolution results in a rapid loss of playability.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience for this hardware is found at 1080p with Medium settings. This configuration produces an average of 78 FPS, with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. The 78 FPS average is well within the territory of smooth gameplay, and the minimum of 66 FPS indicates that the frame rate does not dip into unplayable territory during intense moments. This is a better balance than the Low preset, which offers 90 FPS but sacrifices visual quality for a performance margin that is not strictly necessary.

At 1080p High, the average drops to 66 FPS, which is still acceptable, but the Medium preset provides a 12 FPS advantage with only a modest reduction in visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 54 FPS, which is playable but begins to show the GPU’s limits. The step from Medium to Ultra is a 24 FPS loss, which is a significant penalty for the extra graphical features. For players who prioritize a stable frame rate, Medium is the clear choice.

At 1440p, the situation changes. The Low preset produces 58 FPS, which is the only setting that approaches smoothness at this resolution. Medium drops to 51 FPS, and High falls to 43 FPS. While 51 FPS is technically playable, it is on the edge of what most users would consider acceptable for a fast-paced FPS. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with the best option being Low at 31 FPS. None of the 4K settings provide a competitive experience.

The data suggests a tiered approach: for 1080p, Medium is the sweet spot; for 1440p, Low is the only viable option; for 4K, the game is effectively unplayable. The fact that the Medium preset at 1080p has a minimum FPS of 66, which is higher than the average of the High preset at 1440p, reinforces that resolution has a greater impact than settings on this hardware. Users should prioritize lowering resolution before reducing settings to maintain a stable frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and AMD Radeon 880M combination ranks 2,858 out of 2,930 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the bottom 2.5% of all configurations, a stark indicator of its limited gaming capability. The rank is driven almost entirely by the GPU’s performance, as the CPU is a mobile processor designed for efficiency rather than raw gaming power. This ranking is not surprising given the Radeon 880M’s overall benchmark percentile of 43, which places it below the median of all GPUs.

The combo’s rank is a direct consequence of the GPU’s measured FPS. The Radeon 880M’s average benchmark score is 8,436, which puts it in the company of older mobile and entry-level desktop parts. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX, which has a score of 8,427 and a deltaPct of 0.1, and the NVIDIA GeForce MX330, with a score of 8,458 and a deltaPct of -0.3. These comparisons show that the 880M is performing at a level similar to dedicated GPUs from several generations ago, which explains its low ranking in a modern game like Doom.

The CPU, by contrast, is a much stronger component. The Ultra 7 165H has an average benchmark score of 34,083, placing it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H, with a score of 33,989 and a deltaPct of 0.3, and the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, with a score of 34,260 and a deltaPct of -0.5. This indicates that the CPU is capable of handling modern workloads, but its potential is wasted in this gaming scenario because the GPU cannot keep up.

The disconnect between the CPU’s high percentile and the combo’s low rank underscores the importance of balanced hardware. A powerful CPU does not compensate for a weak GPU in gaming. The data shows that this combo is firmly in the entry-level gaming tier, suitable for esports titles at low settings but not for demanding AAA games at high resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 90 FPS. The Medium preset averages 78 FPS, with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. High settings yield 66 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 54 FPS average. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 36 FPS, showing that the GPU has enough headroom to handle graphics settings but not enough to maintain high frame rates at maximum quality.

At 2560x1440, the results are significantly lower. Low settings average 58 FPS, Medium averages 51 FPS with a minimum of 43 FPS and a maximum of 58 FPS, High averages 43 FPS, and Ultra averages 35 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 23 FPS, which is a smaller absolute difference than at 1080p. This suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is already so constrained by resolution that the impact of settings is reduced.

At 3840x2160, the performance is marginal. Low settings average 31 FPS, Medium averages 27 FPS with a minimum of 23 FPS and a maximum of 31 FPS, High averages 23 FPS, and Ultra averages 19 FPS. The range from Low to Ultra at 4K is only 12 FPS, indicating that the GPU is completely saturated by the pixel count, and settings have minimal effect on the final frame rate.

The data reveals a clear pattern: at 1080p, the GPU is the bottleneck, but settings have a meaningful impact on FPS. At 4K, the GPU is so overwhelmed that settings barely matter. The Medium preset at each resolution shows a stable minimum FPS that is equal to the Low preset’s average at the next higher resolution. For example, 1080p Medium has a minimum of 66 FPS, which matches the 1440p High average. This suggests that the GPU operates within a predictable performance envelope, and users can use the Medium preset’s min/max values to estimate the range of performance they will experience.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 880M is a significant factor in this combo’s performance. It is an integrated GPU based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. The chip, codenamed Strix Point, has 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs. It features 12 ray tracing cores and a boost clock of 2900 MHz, with a base clock of 400 MHz. The GPU’s FP32 performance is 4.454 TFLOPS, which is modest for modern gaming.

The most critical limitation is its memory configuration. The 880M uses System Shared memory, meaning it has no dedicated VRAM. The memory bus width is also System Shared, and the bandwidth is listed as System Dependent. This means that the GPU’s performance is tied to the speed and bandwidth of the system’s DDR5 memory, which is shared with the CPU. In Doom, a game that benefits from fast memory access, this shared arrangement can cause stuttering and lower frame rates, especially at higher resolutions where memory pressure increases.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect its entry-level status. Its Passmark G3D score is 7,615, and its Geekbench Vulkan score is 40,006. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 535, which is quite low. These scores place the 880M in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs, meaning it performs worse than the majority of discrete graphics cards. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX, has a similar score, highlighting that the 880M offers performance comparable to a mobile GPU from over a decade ago.

The GPU’s pixel rate is 46.40 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 139.2 GTexel/s. These figures explain why 4K performance is so poor. At 4K, the GPU must fill over 8 million pixels per frame, and with a pixel rate of 46.4 GPixel/s, it can theoretically output around 5 frames per second at full fill rate, though in practice, the 19-31 FPS results show that the game’s other bottlenecks prevent this. The 16 ROPs are a severe constraint, as they limit the number of pixels that can be written to the framebuffer per clock cycle.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Doom on this hardware?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the average FPS exceeds 60 on any setting. At 1080p Low, the average is 90 FPS, and at Medium it is 78 FPS. At 1440p, the maximum average is 58 FPS on Low, and at 4K, the maximum average is 31 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: No. The measured FPS at 3840x2160 ranges from 19 FPS on Ultra to 31 FPS on Low. These averages are below the threshold for smooth gameplay, and the minimum FPS values are even lower, indicating significant stuttering.

Q: How does the Radeon 880M compare to its closest rivals?

A: The 880M has an average benchmark score of 8,436. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX, has a score of 8,427, a deltaPct of 0.1. The NVIDIA GeForce MX330 has a score of 8,458 and a deltaPct of -0.3. This indicates the 880M is within 0.3% of these older dedicated GPUs.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck in this game?

A: No. The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H has an average benchmark score of 34,083 and is in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. The FPS drops are consistent with GPU limitations, not CPU limitations. The CPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, has a score of 34,260, showing the CPU is competitive.

Q: What is the impact of the GPU’s shared memory?

A: The Radeon 880M uses System Shared memory, with bandwidth listed as System Dependent. This means performance is tied to the system RAM, which is shared with the CPU. This likely contributes to the significant FPS drops at higher resolutions, as memory bandwidth becomes a bottleneck.

Q: What settings should I use for a stable 60 FPS experience?

A: At 1080p, the Medium preset provides an average of 78 FPS with a minimum of 66 FPS. The Low preset provides 90 FPS average. To achieve a stable 60 FPS, either Low or Medium at 1080p is recommended, as High averages 66 FPS, which is close to the threshold.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is a mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on a 7 nm process at Intel. It features 16 cores and 22 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The CPU has a 24 MB shared L3 cache and a TDP of 28 W, making it a power-efficient part for laptops. Its integrated graphics, the Arc Xe-LPG 128EU, is separate from the discrete Radeon 880M in this test, but the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with data.

In Doom, the CPU’s performance is more than adequate. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 14,551, and its single-core score is 1,759. These scores indicate that the CPU can handle the game’s physics and AI calculations without causing a bottleneck. The Passmark multithread score is 25,933, and the single-thread score is 3,509. The CPU’s high percentile (84) versus the combo’s low rank (2,858 out of 2,930) confirms that the CPU is not the limiting factor.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth is listed as 89.6 GB/s, which is shared with the GPU. This shared bandwidth is a potential issue, as the GPU’s performance is dependent on the same memory controller. However, the CPU’s dual-channel memory support helps mitigate this, but it is still a shared resource. The CPU’s 16 cores and 22 threads are far more than Doom requires, as the game is not heavily multithreaded. This means that the CPU is likely idle during gameplay, waiting for the GPU to catch up.

The nearest rivals to the Ultra 7 165H include the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H, which has a score of 33,989 and a deltaPct of 0.3, and the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, with a score of 34,260 and a deltaPct of -0.5. These comparisons show that the CPU is a solid performer, but its potential is wasted in this configuration. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a more powerful discrete GPU would yield significantly better gaming performance, as the CPU has ample headroom to support a faster graphics card. The launch MSRP of the CPU is $460, but its value is diminished when paired with an entry-level integrated GPU.