Doom

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT lands at rank 2080 out of 2930 tested combinations for Doom. That places this combo in the 29th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 71% of configurations deliver higher average frame rates in this title. The ranking reflects a pairing where the GPU, positioned in the 70th percentile among all GPUs, is the dominant constraint—the CPU sits in the 96th percentile among all processors, making it one of the most capable components in this system.

This rank is not surprising given the GPU's relative standing. The RX 6600 XT's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (0.7% higher average benchmark score), the Intel Arc A350M (0.8% lower), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (0.8% higher), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (1.1% higher). The RX 6600 XT sits within a tight cluster of GPUs, with all four rivals within roughly 1.1% of its average benchmark score. This suggests that the GPU's performance tier is well-defined, and its placement in Doom's rankings aligns with its expected position relative to these comparable cards.

The CPU's nearest rivals tell a different story. The Intel Xeon 6520P matches its average score exactly (0% delta), while the AMD EPYC 4564P trails by 1.5%, the AMD EPYC 9175F by 1.9%, and the AMD EPYC 4565P by 2.1%. These are enterprise-class processors, which underscores how far ahead the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is in raw compute capability compared to what this game actually needs. The gap between the CPU's 96th percentile ranking and the combo's 29th percentile ranking in Doom highlights a significant imbalance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is built on the Navi 23 chip using RDNA 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It packs 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, with 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units. The GPU also includes 32 ray tracing cores. Memory consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Clock speeds are notable for this segment. The base clock runs at 1968 MHz, with a game clock of 2359 MHz and a boost clock reaching 2589 MHz. Memory operates at 2000 MHz, translating to 16 Gbps effective. These clocks produce a pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput stands at 10.60 TFLOPS, with FP16 reaching 21.21 TFLOPS using a 2:1 ratio.

In Doom, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the resolutions tested, but the memory bus width and bandwidth become limiting factors as resolution climbs. At 1080p, the GPU can push frame rates well above 100 FPS at most settings, but the data shows a consistent decline as pixel count increases. The 256.0 GB/s bandwidth appears adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K the GPU's compute resources and memory bandwidth struggle to maintain high frame rates.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its mid-range positioning. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1804. Geekbench results show 88720 in Metal, 80503 in OpenCL, and 72417 in Vulkan. Passmark scores include 16461 in G3D and 7520 in GPU compute. The 70th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it outperforms a majority of graphics cards, yet it remains far from top-tier performance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 141 FPS at 1920x1080 to 91 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 49 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 35% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 46% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K is 65%.

Low settings show a similar trend but with higher absolute values. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 192 FPS average, dropping to 124 FPS at 1440p (35% reduction) and 67 FPS at 4K (46% reduction from 1440p, 65% from 1080p). Medium settings follow the same pattern: 167 FPS at 1080p, 108 FPS at 1440p, and 59 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings produce 115 FPS at 1080p, 75 FPS at 1440p, and 40 FPS at 4K.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings suggests that resolution scaling is primarily GPU-bound. The CPU, with its 24 cores and 24 threads, is unlikely to become a bottleneck at any of these resolutions. The frame rate reductions are nearly proportional to the increase in pixel count, which is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario. The 4K results, where even Low settings only produce 67 FPS, indicate that the RX 6600 XT is not well-suited for 4K gaming in Doom.

The data also shows that the gap between settings narrows at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 77 FPS (192 vs 115). At 4K, this gap shrinks to 27 FPS (67 vs 40). This compression suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that setting changes have diminishing returns—the hardware is saturated regardless of graphical fidelity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 192 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth for competitive play. Medium settings yield 167 FPS with a minimum of 142 and maximum of 192 FPS. High settings reduce the average to 141 FPS. Ultra settings bring the average down to 115 FPS. All 1080p results exceed 100 FPS, making this resolution the sweet spot for high refresh rate displays.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains respectable but drops noticeably. Low settings average 124 FPS. Medium settings deliver 108 FPS with a minimum of 92 and maximum of 124 FPS. High settings produce 91 FPS. Ultra settings fall to 75 FPS. The 1440p results show that the system can handle this resolution comfortably at lower settings, but Ultra dips below the 80 FPS threshold that many players consider minimum for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the RX 6600 XT begins to struggle. Low settings average 67 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. Medium settings drop to 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 and maximum of 67 FPS. High settings produce 49 FPS. Ultra settings bring the average down to 40 FPS. The 4K results are consistently below 70 FPS, with Ultra dipping into the 40 FPS range, which is below the threshold for comfortable first-person shooter gameplay.

The Medium settings rows provide the most complete data, including minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the range spans from 142 to 192 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 92 to 124 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range narrows to 50 to 67 FPS. These ranges show that frame pacing remains consistent, with the spread between minimum and maximum staying relatively tight across all resolutions.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the strongest resolution, with all settings producing average frame rates above 115 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low and Medium settings remain above 100 FPS, while High and Ultra fall below that threshold. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only achieve 67 FPS average.

Q: How does the RX 6600 XT compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 at 0.7% higher average benchmark score, the Intel Arc A350M at 0.8% lower, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti at 0.8% higher, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER at 1.1% higher. These deltas indicate the RX 6600 XT sits in a competitive mid-range tier.

Q: Is the CPU bottlenecking the GPU in this game?

A: The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus ranks in the 96th percentile among all CPUs, while the combo ranks in the 29th percentile. This large gap, combined with consistent frame rate drops proportional to resolution increases, indicates the GPU is the limiting component rather than the CPU.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 142. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 92. At 4K Medium, the minimum drops to 50 FPS. These values show that frame pacing remains stable, but the floor falls significantly as resolution increases.

Q: How does the Ultra 7 270K Plus compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Intel Xeon 6520P matches its average benchmark score exactly. The AMD EPYC 4564P trails by 1.5%, the AMD EPYC 9175F by 1.9%, and the AMD EPYC 4565P by 2.1%. These are enterprise processors, highlighting the desktop CPU's strong compute performance.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Doom?

A: At 4K, the average frame rates range from 40 FPS at Ultra to 67 FPS at Low. While the game is playable at Low settings, the experience is not ideal. The data indicates that 1440p or 1080p are more appropriate resolutions for this GPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread desktop processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, based on the Arrow Lake Refresh codename. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The CPU has a TDP of 125W and uses the Intel Socket 1851. It is fabricated on a 3 nm process at TSMC, containing 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die.

Cache configuration includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support includes DDR5 with dual-channel configuration, providing 115.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU also supports ECC memory and offers PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU. Integrated graphics are provided by Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 execution units.

Benchmark results show exceptional compute performance. In Cinebench R15, the CPU scores 6656 multi-core and 354 single-core. Cinebench R20 results are 24461 multi-core and 3453 single-core. Cinebench R23 scores reach 44253 multi-core and 2439 single-core. Passmark tests show 68574 in multithread, 5068 in single-thread, 804322 in data compression, 59097 in data encryption, and 229491 in floating point math.

The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all processors places it near the top of the performance spectrum. Its nearest rivals are all enterprise server chips, which suggests this desktop CPU offers compute capability comparable to high-end data center parts. However, in Doom, this CPU power is largely underutilized. The game's frame rates scale with resolution in a pattern consistent with GPU limitation, meaning the CPU has headroom to spare.

The 24-core configuration is far more than Doom requires. This game, released in 2016, is not known for heavy multi-threaded CPU demands. The single-core performance, evidenced by the 354 Cinebench R15 single-core score and 5068 Passmark single-thread score, is more relevant for gaming. These scores are strong, but the game's performance is ultimately capped by the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience with this combo in Doom, the data suggests prioritizing 1080p resolution. At 1920x1080, all settings produce average frame rates above 115 FPS. High settings at 141 FPS offer a good balance of visual quality and performance, while Medium at 167 FPS and Low at 192 FPS prioritize smoothness. Ultra at 115 FPS remains playable and delivers the best visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, the recommended settings are Medium or Lower. Medium produces 108 FPS average, which is smooth, while High drops to 91 FPS. Low at 124 FPS is the best choice for players who prioritize frame rate over visuals. Ultra at 75 FPS is borderline, but may be acceptable for players who prefer visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the data indicates that Low settings are the only reasonable option, producing 67 FPS average. Medium at 59 FPS is marginally playable, but High at 49 FPS and Ultra at 40 FPS fall below the threshold for comfortable first-person shooter gameplay. Players using this combo should avoid 4K unless they are willing to accept significant performance compromises.

The Medium settings rows provide the most detailed data, including minimum FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 142 FPS ensures consistent smoothness. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 92 FPS maintains playability. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 50 FPS shows that frame drops become noticeable. The overall recommendation is to use 1080p with High or Ultra settings, or 1440p with Medium settings, for the best balance of performance and visual quality.