DOOM Eternal PC Graphics Benchmark

Doom Eternal is the serial' latest demon-killing romp, bringing more weapon diversity, more movement possibilities, a plethora of new demons to face off confronting -- some pulled from the original Doom games, some entirely fresh -- and exciting new environments to explore. Today nosotros're taking 25 graphics cards to see how they perform in Doom Eternal using the latest optimized GPU drivers.

Nosotros may be a fiddling late to the party on this one, only there's a skillful reason. Although it was possible to gain early access to the game and we could have provided an in-depth benchmark analysis ahead of release, nosotros would have wasted our fourth dimension and yours by doing so. Nvidia didn't release GeForce game gear up drivers with day-1 optimizations for Doom Eternal until the actual launch.

The electric current GeForce 442.74 driver offers big operation gains for GeForce owners. Some early benchmarks showed the 5700 XT beating even the RTX 2080 Super, but as information technology turns out that data is no longer authentic. AMD also released a new Adrenalin commuter that boosts performance in Doom Eternal by up to v%, though that's when using the Ultra Nightmare settings.

Doom Eternal was built on top of id Tech vii, id Software's latest iteration of their impressive in-house game engine. The id Tech seven engine is exclusively Vulkan-based, significant OpenGL has been dropped which has saved developers time to focus entirely on this API. The new engine features x times the geometric detail of its predecessor (used in 2022 Doom and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus) along with higher texture fidelity. Improving immersion is a new organization called "Destructible Demons" that as the proper noun suggests, sees enemies' bodies deteriorated as they accept damage. The game features proper HDR support, and global illumination capabilities accept been enhanced.

The game does look amazing and appears to run very well on mod hardware. There's a good degree of customization along with half a dozen presets and for testing today we'll be using the 3rd highest pick labeled "Ultra," simply with resolution scaling gear up to off. The reason we're using this preset is that the game imposes a VRAM restriction on cards without enough retentivity to run at the college settings. For instance, 6GB cards can't use the next higher preset 'Nightmare', at resolutions above 1080p. Ideally we want to provide apples-to-apples data, so you can encounter how much faster an RTX 2070 Super is compared to a GTX 1070, for example, and this is the best style to provide that data.

With the "Ultra" preset we can sew to 4K with 6GB cards. Nevertheless, for 4GB and lower models, the ultra preset isn't an selection as v.ii GB is used at 1080p. Yous'll demand to driblet downwards to "High" for 4GB graphics cards. Just to exist clear here, you lot cannot exceed the VRAM limits, so it'southward not possible to test a 4GB RX 570 with the Nightmare or Ultra Nightmare presets, without manually lowering sure settings such every bit textures to reduce VRAM consumption.

We'll provide some preset scaling results using the RTX 2080 Ti and Radeon VII, equally both cards feature fat VRAM buffers. We'll also provide some results using the dynamic resolution scaling feature, though nosotros won't be looking into visual quality comparisons.

For testing we've used an early department of the game, right after the first Hell Priest has been terminated nosotros're having a 60 second pass, with all results based on a 3-run average. Testing took place on our usual GPU test rig which features a Cadre i9-9900K clocked at 5 GHz with 16GB of DDR4-3400 memory.

Update (3/25): After publishing this benchmark feature we detected some bugs with the game and AMD Radeon drivers that affected results. Nosotros take updated all data below to reflect those changes. While margins have not changed dramatically, for the sake of transparency and accurateness nosotros conducted several more hours of tests and have updated all graphs appropriately.

Benchmarks

First up we have the 1080p results and as nosotros found previously, pretty much any modern GPU, as long as information technology has at least 6GB of VRAM, tin deliver playable performance at 1080p. Here we see the 8GB 5500 XT averaging 91fps, the same level of operation likewise seen from the RX 580 and 590. The RX 580 was a whopping 20% faster than the GTX 1060, averaging 91 fps and never dipping below 70 fps, and then a prissy smooth feel there.

The 5600 XT is a standout mod GPU in the ~$300 price range, pumping out over 100 fps at all times for 133 fps on average. That made it 7% faster than the RTX 2060 and it even managed to outplace Vega 64. Moreover, the RX 5700 was only a farther 8% faster, though that'due south a fairly typical margin and information technology meant the RX 5700 yet falls short of the RTX 2060 Super in our testing.

Nosotros too included the GTX 980 Ti, though it would also seem as though Nvidia'southward notwithstanding to optimize for Maxwell based GPUs equally the GTX 1660 Super smashed the GTX 980 Ti out of the park, not something you'd await to encounter.

The Radeon 5700 XT is impressive, averaging 163 fps, making information technology a few fps faster than the RTX 2060 Super. That said the RTX 2070 Super was 15% faster, though keep in mind information technology does cost about 25% more. (For those wondering, earlier we updated the benchmarks, the 2070 Super was xix% faster, so it's not a dramatic change -- having carried out fresh installs and tested across multiple test systems, nosotros're confident in these results.)

Information technology's worth noting that in a less demanding area/test, AMD does perform ameliorate relative to Nvidia. For example, if we don't accident the barrels up and don't focus on the more demanding scenes, the 5700 XT can get within 10% of the RTX 2070 Super's performance. But for the purpose of this exam, and all our GPU tests, we aim to focus on benchmarking the more than enervating areas of a game.

Naturally jumping upwards to 1440p pushes quite a few GPUs into and even just below the lx fps range, now for that smoother lx fps experience you'll crave an RX 5500 XT, RX 580 or GTX 1660.

For over eighty fps on average the GTX 1070, 1660 Ti, RTX 2060, 1070 Ti and Vega 56 are all quite evenly matched.

Then for the next large footstep up in performance you'll require the RTX 2060 Super, 5700 XT or Radeon Vii. Beyond that information technology's all Nvidia with products such equally the GTX 1080 Ti, RTX 2070 Super, RTX 2080 and and then on.

Now for those wanting to game at 4K without any kind of resolution scaling trickery, for effectually sixty fps y'all'll want at the very least an RTX 2060 Super, though ideally something more than like the 5700 XT. Meanwhile the RTX 2070 Super kept frame rates above 60 fps throughout the duration of our test, while the RTX 2080 Ti powered through with ease.

Interestingly, while the 5600 XT continues to suffer, information technology'south now slower than an 8GB 5500 XT. The 6GB GeForce GPUs don't appear to suffer though, with the RTX 2060 remaining potent. It's difficult to know if Nvidia isn't performing some trickery at the driver level, the difference between AMD and Nvidia performance with 6GB of VRAM seems too extreme.

When information technology comes to preset scaling nosotros see once again that the Ultra, Nightmare and Ultra Nightmare settings are all very like in terms of operation, as long equally y'all have 8GB or more VRAM available. For a performance heave yous'll demand to drop down to Medium, this resulted in an 8 to 10% increment in frame charge per unit, while Depression provided a further 5 to 6% boost.

Dynamic resolution scaling seems to work very well in Doom Eternal. Nosotros don't plan to clarify paradigm quality, only for the most part it'south very difficult to spot the differences, and then this setting is worth having on if you're in need of some extra frames.

At 4K and a 60 fps target boosted the RTX 2060 by 14% and a massive 94% for the 5600 XT equally the lower resolution alleviates the VRAM bottleneck. The Radeon 5700 saw a milder 11% performance increase. Then we see the 120 fps target boosted the 5700 by a massive 45%, 23% for the 5600 XT, and 38% for the RTX 2060.

Smoothen Gameplay

That'due south how the current generation of GPUs perform in Doom Eternal, at least those with 6GB of VRAM or more. For parts such as the 4GB 5500 XT or GTX 1650 series, we'll take to test afterwards to see how they perform forth with a broad range of older GPUs.

Those of y'all gaming with a GTX 1060, or something of equivalent performance, the signal of this test is to give you lot an idea of what you will need to upgrade to, in order to boost your performance by the desired corporeality, whether that boost is 30%, 40% or more.

For instance, at 1440p the GTX 1060 averaged 50 fps with the ultra preset, a 65% heave can be had with the GTX 1660 Super, pushing over 70 fps in our exam. So, for around $230 that'due south a good way to get stiff 1440p functioning. In that location's also dynamic resolution scaling which can boost functioning dramatically, but how much this impacts visual quality, or at least how noticeably, will be an article for another twenty-four hour period.

Both AMD and Nvidia hardware performs exceptionally well in this title. Equally long as you take enough VRAM, y'all're good to go. In some preliminary testing nosotros have noticed however that older hardware struggles on Doom Eternal, even with the "Depression" quality preset, but nosotros plan to follow up with that testing shortly. That depression preset still looks pretty good, though on the other manus, in that location isn't a ton of extra performance to be gained by dropping from ultra to low. When we tested this using a 5700 XT we saw a mere 21% boost, which is nothing considering we're dropping the preset down three levels.

Doom Eternal destroys 2GB graphics cards using the lowest quality settings. To cite 1 example, the GTX 770 isn't able to deliver playable performance at 1080p, frequently dipping well below 30 fps. For at present y'all can become by using a 6GB GTX 1060 or 8GB RX 580 at 1080p using the Ultra quality settings, and of course, at that place's also the dynamic resolution scaling to play effectually with for an extra boost if needed.