Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 delivers a highly playable Doom experience at 1080p, but the GPU becomes the definitive limiting factor as resolution increases, with the frame rate nearly halving from 1080p to 4K. The measured data shows a clear hierarchy where the Ultra preset is only viable at lower resolutions, while High and Medium settings offer the best balance of visual fidelity and performance across the board. This combination ranks in the 77th percentile of all tested systems for this game, indicating a solid, if not top-tier, configuration that excels at mainstream resolutions but struggles to maintain high refresh rates at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The performance trajectory from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the RX 6600's bandwidth and compute limits. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 129 FPS, which is already a strong result for a fast-paced FPS. Moving to 1440p, the average drops to 84 FPS, a reduction of 45 FPS. Scaling up to 4K, the average falls further to 45 FPS, representing a 65% decrease from the 1080p High figure. This steep decline is a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering load outpaces the card's 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8.928 TFLOPS of compute power.

The pattern holds across all presets. With Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 176 FPS at 1080p to 114 FPS at 1440p, and then to 62 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, shows the most dramatic scaling penalty: it achieves 106 FPS at 1080p, 68 FPS at 1440p, and a mere 37 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that the CPU, with its 24 cores and 5.80 GHz boost clock, is never the bottleneck in this title; the consistent frame rate drops are directly proportional to the pixel count increase, which is the signature of a graphics card that has reached its limits.

The relative performance gap between resolutions also widens with higher settings. At Low, the 4K average is 35% of the 1080p average. At Ultra, the 4K average is 35% of the 1080p average as well, showing a consistent scaling factor. However, the absolute frame rate at 4K Ultra (37 FPS) is below the threshold for comfortable play, while 1080p Ultra (106 FPS) remains smooth. This suggests that for 4K gaming, the user must rely on lower presets to achieve playable frame rates, whereas at 1080p, the system has headroom to spare.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600, built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 23 chip, is the primary driver of the performance ceiling in this configuration. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The card's boost clock of 2491 MHz and game clock of 2044 MHz are the clocks that determine its peak throughput, and the measured FPS data reflects that this card is positioned for mainstream resolutions rather than enthusiast 4K gaming.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate this assessment. Its Passmark G3D score of 15096 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1492 place it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. This is a mid-range standing, and the nearest rivals are notably the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (deltaPct 0.0) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (deltaPct -0.1), indicating that the RX 6600's raw performance is closely matched with a professional workstation card and a laptop part. In the context of Doom, this translates to the observed frame rates: the card can push high frame rates at 1080p but falls to an average of 45 FPS at 4K High, which is simply not competitive with higher-tier GPUs.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is not directly stressed by the measured settings, as the game's texture requirements at these presets do not appear to exceed it, given the steady frame rates. However, the memory bus width and bandwidth are the architectural features that limit 4K performance. The FP32 performance of 8.928 TFLOPS is the raw compute that the game engine must feed, and at 4K, the pixel fill rate of 159.4 GPixel/s is insufficient to maintain high frame rates on the Ultra preset, which yields only 37 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear verdict on which preset to use for different resolutions. For 1080p, the Ultra preset is the best choice, as it delivers an average of 106 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 129 FPS and Medium at 153 FPS offer even higher frame rates, but the visual jump from Medium to Ultra is significant enough that the 47 FPS difference between them is a fair trade for the fidelity increase, given that 106 FPS is still highly responsive.

At 1440p, the High preset is the recommended setting. It achieves an average of 84 FPS, which is the sweet spot for competitive play on a 1440p monitor. The Ultra preset drops to 68 FPS, which is still playable, but the 16 FPS loss is noticeable, and the Medium preset at 99 FPS offers only a marginal frame rate advantage over High with a noticeable reduction in visual quality. Therefore, High provides the optimal balance between image quality and performance.

At 4K, the situation changes drastically. The Low preset is the only viable option, producing an average of 62 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 54 FPS, and High falls to 45 FPS, both of which are below the ideal 60 FPS target. The Ultra preset is not recommended, as its 37 FPS average is too low for a fast-paced FPS. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this GPU requires significant compromises, and users should stick to Low settings to maintain a playable frame rate, or consider lowering the resolution to 1440p to enjoy higher quality presets.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1080p is the optimal resolution, with all presets achieving an average of at least 106 FPS. At 1440p, the High preset is the best option at 84 FPS, while 4K is only playable on the Low preset at 62 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the 1080p Low preset compared to the 4K Low preset?

A: The 1080p Low preset averages 176 FPS, which is 114 FPS higher than the 4K Low preset's average of 62 FPS. This represents a 184% performance advantage for the lower resolution.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at 4K with this combination?

A: No. The 4K Ultra preset yields an average of only 37 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. This setting is only recommended for 1080p, where it achieves 106 FPS.

Q: What is the performance difference between the High and Medium presets at 1440p?

A: The High preset averages 84 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 99 FPS. The Medium preset is 15 FPS faster, but the High preset offers better visual quality for a modest frame rate cost.

Q: How does the RX 6600's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RX 6600 has an average benchmark score of 19036. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro K6000, has an average score of 19030, resulting in a deltaPct of 0.0, meaning they are effectively tied in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Does the 4K Medium preset maintain a stable frame rate?

A: The 4K Medium preset has an average of 54 FPS, with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS. The minimum frame rate indicates that there are dips below 50 FPS, which could cause noticeable stuttering in fast-paced scenes.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 2930 tested combinations in the database, this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 holds the 2255th rank for Doom. This places it in the 77th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms about 77% of the configurations in the database. This is a respectable ranking, but it is not a top-tier result, reflecting the fact that the GPU is a mid-range component that limits the overall system's performance in this game.

The ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU, as the CPU is a high-end part with a 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The bottleneck is clearly the graphics card, which is evidenced by the resolution scaling data showing significant frame rate drops as pixel count increases. If the system were paired with a more powerful GPU, the ranking would likely be much higher, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed a faster card. The data indicates that this combo is a balanced mainstream gaming setup, capable of excellent 1080p performance and decent 1440p performance, but it is not designed for 4K gaming at high settings.

The rank of 2255 out of 2930 also suggests that there are many other combinations that achieve better performance in Doom. This is expected, given that the RX 6600 is an end-of-life product with a 63rd percentile GPU ranking. The system's strong CPU does help in CPU-bound scenarios, but Doom is a GPU-intensive title, so the graphics card's limitations are the primary factor determining the overall rank.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a high-end desktop processor with 24 cores and 24 threads, built on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture using a 3 nm process. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.80 GHz provide substantial single-threaded performance, which is crucial for game engines. The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51731 and a single-core score of 7303, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. In Doom, this processing power ensures that the CPU is never the limiting factor.

The measured FPS data supports this conclusion. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is purely a function of resolution, which is a GPU workload. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would expect to see similar frame rates across different resolutions at the same settings, but the data shows a clear decline as resolution increases. This indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough draw calls and game logic updates to keep the frame rate high, and it is the GPU's rendering capabilities that cap the performance.

The CPU's large L3 cache of 36 MB and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 115.2 GB/s bandwidth also contribute to a smooth gaming experience by reducing memory latency and ensuring fast data access. The benchmark results show the CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, is only 0.2% different in average score, confirming that the 290K Plus is a top-tier processor. In this system, its role is to provide a stable platform for the RX 6600, and it performs this role admirably, allowing the GPU to reach its full potential without any processor-induced stutters or frame drops.