Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers an exceptionally high-performance experience in Doom, with average frame rates that consistently exceed the refresh rate capabilities of most displays across all tested resolutions and settings. The data shows a configuration that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but retains enough CPU headroom to push frame rates past 300 FPS at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the measured performance metrics, contextualizes the ranking against other tested combinations, and examines the respective roles of the CPU and GPU in producing these results.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K displays, the optimal balance between visual fidelity and frame rate is achieved at Medium settings, which produces an average of 103 FPS with a minimum of 88 FPS and a maximum of 119 FPS. This preset keeps the experience above the 60 FPS threshold with significant margin while only sacrificing a moderate amount of visual quality compared to High settings. The High preset at 4K still delivers a playable 87 FPS average, but the 16 FPS drop from Medium to High represents a more substantial performance cost for what is likely a subtle visual upgrade in a fast-paced FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 71 FPS, which is technically playable but leaves little room for demanding scenes and makes Medium the safer choice for consistent performance.

At 1440p, the High preset emerges as the standout option, delivering 161 FPS average. This is high enough to take advantage of 144Hz and 165Hz displays, and the jump from Medium to High costs only 30 FPS (191 to 161). The Ultra preset at 1440p still provides a very smooth 132 FPS, which is ideal for 120Hz panels, but the 29 FPS difference between Ultra and High suggests diminishing returns on visual quality for that performance hit. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 219 FPS, which is excellent for 240Hz displays but sacrifices the graphical features that make Doom visually striking.

For 1080p, the High preset is the clear recommendation for most users, delivering 249 FPS average. This is sufficient for even the fastest 240Hz gaming monitors and provides a substantial visual upgrade over the Medium preset, which runs at 295 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p still achieves a very high 203 FPS, making it a viable option for users with 200Hz displays who prioritize image quality above all else. The Low preset at 338 FPS offers no practical advantage for most users since the High preset already surpasses the refresh rate limits of virtually all consumer displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT achieves a rank of 533 out of 2930 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the top 18.2% of all configurations tested. This ranking reflects a strong overall pairing that excels in a game known for its demanding id Tech engine. The percentile placement indicates that while this is not an absolute top-tier combination — those would be reserved for the most extreme CPUs paired with the fastest GPUs — it outperforms the vast majority of systems tested, including many with newer or more expensive components.

The GPU's individual benchmark scores provide context for this ranking. The RX 7900 XT holds a percentile of 55 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13745. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Radeon 660M with a score of 13812 (a delta of -0.5%), the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile at 13821 (delta -0.5%), and the AMD Radeon RX 570X at 13871 (delta -0.9%). Interestingly, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT scores 13543, putting it 1.5% behind the RX 7900 XT in these aggregate benchmarks. This suggests that the RX 7900 XT is performing at a level consistent with its synthetic scores in Doom, rather than being an outlier in either direction.

The CPU's individual standing reinforces this assessment. The Core Ultra 7 265 has a percentile of 93 against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 64640. Its nearest rivals are the AMD EPYC 4464P at 64823 (delta -0.3%), the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F at 64438 (delta 0.3%), and the AMD EPYC 7343 at 64202 (delta 0.7%). The narrow delta percentages against these rivals indicate that the CPU is performing exactly as expected based on its synthetic capabilities. The combination's strong in-game rank relative to its component percentiles suggests that Doom scales well with both the CPU's 20 cores and the GPU's substantial memory bandwidth.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT serves as the primary performance driver in this configuration, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus with 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which provides ample memory capacity and throughput for Doom's texture-heavy environments. The 20 GB frame buffer is more than sufficient for 4K resolution, and the memory bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s ensures that texture streaming does not become a bottleneck at any tested setting.

The GPU's clock behavior is notable in the context of Doom's performance. The base clock is 1387 MHz, with a game clock of 2025 MHz and a boost clock of 2394 MHz. The measured performance across settings suggests that the GPU is consistently operating near its boost clock during gameplay, as the frame rates scale predictably with resolution and settings changes. The 20 Gbps effective memory speed contributes to the high bandwidth figure, which is critical for a game like Doom that relies on rapid texture loading during fast-paced movement.

The GPU's rendering capabilities are substantial, with 5376 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 192 render output units. The pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s indicate that the GPU can handle the fill rate demands of 4K resolution at high settings. The FP32 performance of 51.48 TFLOPS provides the raw compute power needed for the game's lighting and particle effects. The presence of 84 ray tracing cores, while not heavily utilized in this 2016 title, adds future-proofing for other games in a library.

The GPU's synthetic benchmarks reinforce its capability. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5623 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 71068 both indicate strong DirectX 12 and Vulkan performance, which is directly relevant to Doom's Vulkan renderer. The PassMark G3D score of 29009 places it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, confirming that it is a mid-to-high-range performer in the broader GPU landscape.

FAQ

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between Medium and High settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160 resolution, the Medium preset delivers an average of 103 FPS, while the High preset delivers 87 FPS. This represents a 16 FPS decrease when moving from Medium to High, or approximately 15.5% lower performance.

Q: Does the configuration maintain 60 FPS at all settings and resolutions?

A: Yes, the data shows that every tested combination of resolution and settings achieves an average FPS above 60. The lowest recorded average is 71 FPS at 4K Ultra settings, which still provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from 1440p to 1080p at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS increases from 161 at 2560x1440 to 249 at 1920x1080. This is a gain of 88 FPS, or approximately 54.7% higher performance at the lower resolution.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the entire dataset?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 88 FPS, which occurs at 4K resolution with Medium settings. This minimum value of 88 FPS is still well above the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the Ultra preset at 1080p compare to the Low preset at 4K?

A: The Ultra preset at 1080p achieves an average of 203 FPS, while the Low preset at 4K achieves 119 FPS. This demonstrates that at lower resolutions, the Ultra preset can outperform a higher resolution with minimal settings by a significant margin of 84 FPS.

Q: Is this configuration more limited by the CPU or GPU in Doom?

A: The data indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 4K, frame rates range from 71 to 119 FPS depending on settings, while at 1080p they range from 203 to 338 FPS. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound pattern. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 249 at 1080p to 161 at 1440p to 87 at 4K. This represents a 35.3% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a further 46.0% decrease from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 162 FPS, or 65.1% lower performance. This substantial scaling indicates that the RX 7900 XT is the primary bottleneck as resolution increases, with the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth being taxed more heavily at higher pixel counts.

The Low settings scaling shows a similar pattern, with 338 FPS at 1080p dropping to 219 FPS at 1440p and 119 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 35.2% and 45.7% respectively, which is nearly identical to the High settings scaling. This consistency across settings suggests that the resolution scaling is primarily a function of pixel throughput rather than specific game settings. The fact that the scaling percentages remain stable from Low to High settings indicates that neither the CPU nor the game's draw call processing is introducing a variable bottleneck at different settings levels.

The Medium settings data provides additional insight through its recorded minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 251 FPS and the maximum is 339 FPS, showing a range of 88 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 57 FPS (162 to 219). At 4K Medium, the range narrows further to 31 FPS (88 to 119). This tightening of the FPS range at higher resolutions is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the frame time is more consistent because the GPU is consistently saturated with work.

The relationship between resolution and performance suggests that users with 1440p or 1080p displays are unlikely to experience any CPU-related limitations. The 20-core CPU provides more than enough processing power to feed the GPU at these resolutions, as evidenced by the high frame rates exceeding 300 FPS at 1080p Low settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 plays a supporting but essential role in this configuration, providing the processing headroom necessary for the GPU to achieve its maximum frame rates. The CPU features 20 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 at 5960 points, is particularly relevant for Doom, which relies heavily on a few primary threads for game logic and render command preparation.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are substantial, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216 and a PassMark multithread score of 49682. These scores indicate that the CPU can handle not only the game's main threads but also any background tasks, streaming, or recording software that a user might run concurrently. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide low-latency access to frequently used data, which helps maintain consistent frame times in fast-paced scenes.

The CPU's memory support includes dual-channel DDR5 with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, which is sufficient to feed the GPU's 800.0 GB/s memory bandwidth without creating a data transfer bottleneck. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes provides high-bandwidth connectivity to the GPU, although the RX 7900 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16, which is more than adequate for this game's data transfer requirements.

The CPU's benchmark performance places it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, which scores only 0.3% higher. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4689 is strong for gaming workloads, and its PassMark physics score of 2923 indicates solid performance in physics simulations, which are common in FPS games. The 65W TDP suggests efficient power delivery, allowing sustained boost clocks without thermal throttling in well-cooled systems.

In Doom specifically, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rates of 203 to 338 FPS across settings demonstrate that the CPU is capable of processing game logic fast enough to allow the GPU to render at maximum speed. The fact that the Ultra preset at 1080p still achieves 203 FPS indicates that even at the highest settings, the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution. The CPU's 20 threads also ensure that Vulkan's multi-threaded rendering capabilities are fully utilized, as Doom's Vulkan renderer can dispatch draw calls across multiple threads efficiently.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 338 FPS, representing the absolute ceiling of performance in this dataset. The Medium preset produces 295 FPS with a minimum of 251 FPS and a maximum of 339 FPS, showing a tight frame time distribution that indicates consistent performance. The High preset delivers 249 FPS average, which is still exceptionally high and suitable for 240Hz displays. The Ultra preset rounds out the 1080p results with 203 FPS average, demonstrating that even the most demanding settings do not push the configuration below 200 FPS at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, performance remains very high, with all settings exceeding 130 FPS average. The Low preset achieves 219 FPS, while the Medium preset delivers 191 FPS with a minimum of 162 FPS and a maximum of 219 FPS. The High preset produces 161 FPS average, which is ideal for 144Hz and 165Hz displays. The Ultra preset at 1440p still maintains a strong 132 FPS average, making it a viable option for users with 120Hz panels who want maximum visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 3840x2160, the configuration shows its limits but remains highly playable across all settings. The Low preset delivers 119 FPS average, which is excellent for 4K gaming and suitable for 120Hz 4K displays. The Medium preset produces 103 FPS with a minimum of 88 FPS and a maximum of 119 FPS, providing a consistent experience above 60 FPS. The High preset achieves 87 FPS average, which is still smooth but begins to show the GPU's workload at this resolution. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 71 FPS average, which is playable but represents the most demanding scenario in the dataset.

The progression of frame rates across resolutions and settings shows a clear hierarchy, with each setting tier at a given resolution performing predictably relative to the others. The Low preset consistently outperforms Medium by approximately 15% (338 vs 295 at 1080p, 219 vs 191 at 1440p, 119 vs 103 at 4K). The High preset consistently outperforms Ultra by approximately 20% (249 vs 203 at 1080p, 161 vs 132 at 1440p, 87 vs 71 at 4K). This consistent scaling suggests that the game's settings have predictable performance costs across different resolutions, making it easy for users to dial in their preferred balance of quality and frame rate.