Doom

# Doom Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT

The combination of Intel's 24-core Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and AMD's Radeon RX 7800 XT delivers a thoroughly playable Doom experience across all tested resolutions, with the data showing a clear shift from GPU-bound behavior at 4K to increasingly CPU-bound behavior at 1080p. The measured frame rates range from a 60 FPS average at 4K Ultra to a 284 FPS average at 1080p Low, demonstrating both the scalability of the id Tech engine and the balanced nature of this particular pairing. The system ranks 925th out of 2,930 tested combinations in this game, placing it comfortably in the upper third of all configurations while highlighting that more specialized hardware exists for extreme refresh-rate chasing.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K tells a straightforward story about where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p Low, the system produces 284 FPS average, which drops to 184 FPS at 1440p Low and further to 99 FPS at 4K Low. That represents a 65% reduction from 1080p to 4K at the lowest settings, a substantial hit that points directly at the GPU becoming the limiting factor as pixel count quadruples. The RX 7800 XT's 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 624.1 GB/s bandwidth are ample for Doom's textures, so the scaling is driven by raw shading throughput rather than memory constraints.

Moving up the settings ladder, the scaling pattern remains consistent but the percentages shift. At High settings, the system delivers 209 FPS at 1080p, 135 FPS at 1440p, and 73 FPS at 4K — a 65% drop from 1080p to 4K, nearly identical to the Low setting scaling. At Medium settings, the averages are 247 FPS at 1080p, 160 FPS at 1440p, and 87 FPS at 4K, representing a 65% reduction as well. The uniformity of these scaling ratios across settings suggests that resolution is the dominant variable, with settings having a secondary but still significant impact.

The Ultra preset shows the steepest absolute decline, going from 171 FPS at 1080p to 110 FPS at 1440p to 60 FPS at 4K — a 65% drop from 1080p to 4K once again. This consistent 65% scaling factor across all four settings presets is remarkable and indicates that the game's rendering pipeline scales linearly with pixel count when the GPU is the constraint. The 4K Ultra result of exactly 60 FPS is precisely at the threshold for smooth 60 Hz display output, though the lack of a reported minimum frame rate for that configuration leaves some uncertainty about frame pacing.

At 1080p, the data reveals that the CPU begins to assert itself. The gap between Low (284 FPS) and Medium (247 FPS) is 37 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High (209 FPS) is 38 FPS, and between High and Ultra (171 FPS) is 38 FPS. These nearly identical incremental drops suggest the GPU is still doing meaningful work at 1080p, but the absolute frame rates — exceeding 170 FPS even at Ultra — indicate that the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with its 24 cores and 5.80 GHz boost clock has ample headroom to feed the GPU without becoming a constraint at these settings.

CPU Role

The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus brings substantial processing resources to this pairing, with 24 cores and 24 threads operating at a 3.70 GHz base clock and 5.80 GHz boost clock. The absence of hyperthreading — 24 threads for 24 cores — is notable, but the high boost clock compensates in a game like Doom that historically favors fewer, faster cores. The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7,303 and multi-core score of 51,731 place it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, and the data shows it is not the limiting factor at any tested resolution.

The benchmark results indicate that Doom's engine is well-optimized for the CPU's architecture. The Passmark single-thread score of 4,823 and multithread score of 60,860 demonstrate strong per-core performance, which is critical for a game engine that typically distributes work across a limited number of threads. The CPU's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide substantial on-die storage for game data, potentially reducing memory latency in scenes with many entities or complex geometry.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus shows minimal performance deltas. It sits 0.2% ahead of the Core Ultra 9 285K, 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX, and 1.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9135, while trailing the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%. These sub-2% differences in synthetic benchmarks suggest that within this performance tier, CPU choice has negligible impact on Doom's frame rates at standard resolutions — the GPU is doing the heavy lifting.

At 1080p, however, the CPU's role becomes more apparent through the frame rate ceilings. The 284 FPS at Low settings approaches the practical limit for many display refresh rates, and the fact that the system can maintain such high averages indicates the CPU is feeding frames faster than most monitors can display them. The measured minimum FPS of 210 at 1080p Medium (with a 247 average) shows that even in demanding scenes, the CPU keeps frame delivery consistent. The CPU's Passmark physics score of 3,315 and floating point math score of 214,760 suggest strong computational throughput for game logic and physics calculations.

FAQ

Q: Does the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus bottleneck the RX 7800 XT in Doom?

A: No. The data shows the CPU delivers 284 FPS at 1080p Low and 171 FPS at 1080p Ultra, with no indication of CPU-limited frame rates at any resolution. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking and 5.80 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom for the GPU.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 135 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and suitable for high refresh rate monitors up to 144 Hz.

Q: Is 4K Ultra playable with this combination?

A: Yes, but just barely. The measured average is exactly 60 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. For consistent 60 FPS with headroom, dropping to High settings (73 FPS average) or Medium settings (87 FPS average) is recommended.

Q: How does the RX 7800 XT compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 7800 XT has an average benchmark score of 11,627, which is 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (11,680), 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M (11,528), and 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla K20c (11,479), while trailing the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT (11,842) by 1.8%.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Low settings produce 99 FPS average while Ultra produces 60 FPS average — a 39 FPS difference. The Medium preset (87 FPS) and High preset (73 FPS) fall between these extremes.

Q: Does the game support the CPU's 24-core configuration?

A: The benchmark data shows strong multi-core performance with the CPU's Passmark multithread score of 60,860, and the game sustains high frame rates across all settings, indicating effective utilization. However, Doom's engine typically scales better with high single-thread performance, which this CPU provides with its 5.80 GHz boost clock.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 284 FPS average, Medium produces 247 FPS average with a minimum of 210 FPS and maximum of 284 FPS, High produces 209 FPS average, and Ultra produces 171 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra is 113 FPS, representing a 40% reduction at the highest settings preset. The Medium setting's minimum of 210 FPS and maximum of 284 FPS indicate consistent frame delivery with no severe dips.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but drops noticeably from 1080p. Low settings yield 184 FPS average, Medium yields 160 FPS average with a minimum of 136 FPS and maximum of 184 FPS, High yields 135 FPS average, and Ultra yields 110 FPS average. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 74 FPS, a 40% reduction. The Medium setting's minimum of 136 FPS still exceeds 120 FPS, making it suitable for high refresh rate displays.

At 3840x2160, the system settles into more conventional gaming territory. Low settings produce 99 FPS average, Medium produces 87 FPS average with a minimum of 74 FPS and maximum of 100 FPS, High produces 73 FPS average, and Ultra produces 60 FPS average. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 39 FPS, a 39% reduction. The Medium setting's minimum of 74 FPS provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while Ultra's 60 FPS average sits right at the standard refresh rate threshold.

The settings scaling at each resolution shows consistent incremental behavior. At 1080p, each step from Low to Medium adds 37 FPS, from Medium to High adds 38 FPS, and from High to Ultra adds 38 FPS. At 1440p, the steps are 24 FPS, 25 FPS, and 25 FPS respectively. At 4K, the steps are 12 FPS, 14 FPS, and 13 FPS respectively. This pattern indicates that each settings tier imposes a similar relative cost regardless of resolution, with the absolute impact shrinking as pixel count rises.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the primary performance driver in this configuration, and the data reflects its capabilities clearly. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 624.1 GB/s bandwidth, the GPU has ample resources for Doom's texture-heavy environments at any resolution. The 3,840 shading units and 96 ROPs provide substantial fill rate, evidenced by the 233.3 GPixel/s pixel rate and 583.2 GTexel/s texture rate. The boost clock of 2430 MHz and game clock of 2124 MHz keep the Navi 32 chip running at high throughput.

The GPU's 37.32 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is more than sufficient for Doom's rendering requirements, and the 60 ray accelerators provide headroom for any enhanced lighting effects the game might employ. The 51st percentile ranking among all GPUs and average benchmark score of 11,627 place it in the mid-range tier, which aligns with its measured performance in this game — strong at 1080p and 1440p, adequate but not overwhelming at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's benchmark performance relative to its nearest rivals shows a tightly clustered group. The RX 7800 XT's average score of 11,627 is within 1.8% of all four nearest competitors, with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (11,680) and AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT (11,842) slightly ahead, and the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M (11,528) and NVIDIA Tesla K20c (11,479) slightly behind. This clustering suggests that synthetic benchmarks at this tier do not fully capture real-world gaming differences, as the RX 7800 XT's measured Doom performance demonstrates.

At 4K, the GPU's VRAM capacity becomes relevant. The 16 GB frame buffer ensures that even at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, texture data fits comfortably without swapping. The memory bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s supports the high resolution rendering without becoming a bottleneck, as evidenced by the 60 FPS average at 4K Ultra being exactly at the target threshold rather than below it. The GPU's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides sufficient bandwidth for data transfer from the CPU's DDR5 memory.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K displays, the data suggests that Medium settings provide the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom. The 87 FPS average at 3840x2160 Medium, with a minimum of 74 FPS, delivers smooth gameplay well above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining a reasonable visual fidelity. High settings at 73 FPS average are also viable for players who prioritize image quality over frame rate margin, but the 60 FPS average at Ultra leaves no room for demanding scenes or frame time spikes.

At 1440p, High settings at 135 FPS average represent the sweet spot for players with 144 Hz monitors. The 110 FPS average at Ultra is still excellent and may be preferable for those who want maximum visual quality, while Medium at 160 FPS and Low at 184 FPS cater to competitive players seeking maximum refresh rates. The measured minimum of 136 FPS at Medium settings ensures that even the most demanding moments stay above 120 FPS.

For 1080p, the system has enough performance that settings choice becomes purely a matter of preference. Ultra settings at 171 FPS average exceed the refresh rate of most standard monitors, while Low settings at 284 FPS approach the limits of high-end 240 Hz displays. The Medium preset's 247 FPS average with a 210 FPS minimum provides an excellent combination of visual quality and extreme frame rates. Given that the frame rate differences between presets at 1080p are relatively small in percentage terms, players should select Ultra or High for the best visual experience without sacrificing playability.

The overall recommendation across all resolutions is to prioritize frame rate stability over absolute maximums. The data shows that Ultra settings at 4K produce exactly 60 FPS average, which is technically playable but leaves no safety margin. Medium settings at 4K, High at 1440p, and Ultra at 1080p each provide comfortable headroom above their respective display refresh rate thresholds while maintaining high visual quality. The system's consistent scaling behavior means that dropping one settings tier typically yields a 12-38 FPS improvement depending on resolution, making it easy to fine-tune performance to match specific display capabilities.