DOOM Eternal PC Graphics Benchmark

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

We may exist a little tardily to the party on this one, simply there's a good reason. Although it was possible to gain early access to the game and we could have provided an in-depth benchmark assay ahead of release, we would take wasted our time and yours past doing and so. Nvidia didn't release GeForce game prepare drivers with day-one optimizations for Doom Eternal until the bodily launch.

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

Doom Eternal was built on top of id Tech 7, id Software'southward latest iteration of their impressive in-firm game engine. The id Tech 7 engine is exclusively Vulkan-based, pregnant 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 2016 Doom and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus) along with higher texture fidelity. Improving immersion is a new system called "Destructible Demons" that as the name suggests, sees enemies' bodies deteriorated equally they have impairment. The game features proper HDR back up, and global illumination capabilities have been enhanced.

The game does expect amazing and appears to run very well on modern hardware. There's a good caste of customization along with half a dozen presets and for testing today nosotros'll be using the third highest option labeled "Ultra," merely with resolution scaling set to off. The reason nosotros're using this preset is that the game imposes a VRAM restriction on cards without enough memory to run at the higher settings. For case, 6GB cards tin can't employ the next higher preset 'Nightmare', at resolutions above 1080p. Ideally we want to provide apples-to-apples data, and so you can see how much faster an RTX 2070 Super is compared to a GTX 1070, for example, and this is the best manner to provide that data.

With the "Ultra" preset we can run up to 4K with 6GB cards. However, for 4GB and lower models, the ultra preset isn't an option as five.2 GB is used at 1080p. You'll need to drop down to "High" for 4GB graphics cards. Just to be clear here, you cannot exceed the VRAM limits, then information technology's non possible to test a 4GB RX 570 with the Nightmare or Ultra Nightmare presets, without manually lowering certain settings such every bit textures to reduce VRAM consumption.

We'll provide some preset scaling results using the RTX 2080 Ti and Radeon VII, as 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 section of the game, right afterwards the commencement Hell Priest has been terminated we're having a threescore 2nd pass, with all results based on a iii-run average. Testing took place on our usual GPU test rig which features a Core i9-9900K clocked at 5 GHz with 16GB of DDR4-3400 memory.

Update (3/25): After publishing this criterion feature nosotros detected some bugs with the game and AMD Radeon drivers that affected results. We have updated all data below to reflect those changes. While margins have non changed dramatically, for the sake of transparency and accuracy we conducted several more hours of tests and take updated all graphs appropriately.

Benchmarks

First upwards we take the 1080p results and equally we found previously, pretty much whatsoever modernistic GPU, every bit long equally it has at to the lowest degree 6GB of VRAM, can evangelize playable performance at 1080p. Here nosotros run into the 8GB 5500 XT averaging 91fps, the aforementioned level of performance also 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, then a nice smooth feel there.

The 5600 XT is a standout modern GPU in the ~$300 toll 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 fifty-fifty managed to outplace Vega 64. Moreover, the RX 5700 was merely a farther 8% faster, though that's a fairly typical margin and it meant the RX 5700 yet falls brusk of the RTX 2060 Super in our testing.

We also included the GTX 980 Ti, though it would also seem as though Nvidia's yet to optimize for Maxwell based GPUs as the GTX 1660 Super smashed the GTX 980 Ti out of the park, not something you lot'd expect to see.

The Radeon 5700 XT is impressive, averaging 163 fps, making it 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 virtually 25% more than. (For those wondering, earlier we updated the benchmarks, the 2070 Super was 19% faster, so it'due south not a dramatic change -- having carried out fresh installs and tested across multiple test systems, we're confident in these results.)

It's worth noting that in a less demanding area/test, AMD does perform amend relative to Nvidia. For example, if we don't blow the barrels upwards and don't focus on the more than demanding scenes, the 5700 XT can become within x% of the RTX 2070 Super's functioning. But for the purpose of this test, and all our GPU tests, we aim to focus on benchmarking the more demanding areas of a game.

Naturally jumping upwardly to 1440p pushes quite a few GPUs into and fifty-fifty just below the 60 fps range, now for that smoother threescore fps experience y'all'll require an RX 5500 XT, RX 580 or GTX 1660.

For over 80 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 step upwards in performance you'll require the RTX 2060 Super, 5700 XT or Radeon Seven. Across that it'southward all Nvidia with products such as the GTX 1080 Ti, RTX 2070 Super, RTX 2080 and and so on.

Now for those wanting to game at 4K without whatsoever kind of resolution scaling trickery, for around threescore fps you'll desire at the very least an RTX 2060 Super, though ideally something more 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, it'southward now slower than an 8GB 5500 XT. The 6GB GeForce GPUs don't announced to endure though, with the RTX 2060 remaining stiff. Information technology's difficult to know if Nvidia isn't performing some trickery at the driver level, the difference betwixt AMD and Nvidia functioning with 6GB of VRAM seems too extreme.

When information technology comes to preset scaling we meet in one case once again that the Ultra, Nightmare and Ultra Nightmare settings are all very similar in terms of performance, as long as yous accept 8GB or more VRAM available. For a performance boost you'll demand to drop down to Medium, this resulted in an 8 to 10% increase in frame rate, while Low provided a farther v to 6% heave.

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

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

Smooth Gameplay

That's how the current generation of GPUs perform in Doom Eternal, at to the lowest degree those with 6GB of VRAM or more. For parts such every bit the 4GB 5500 XT or GTX 1650 series, nosotros'll have to test later to see how they perform along with a wide range of older GPUs.

Those of you gaming with a GTX 1060, or something of equivalent performance, the point of this exam is to requite yous an idea of what you will need to upgrade to, in social club to boost your operation past the desired amount, whether that boost is 30%, 40% or more.

For example, at 1440p the GTX 1060 averaged 50 fps with the ultra preset, a 65% boost tin can exist had with the GTX 1660 Super, pushing over 70 fps in our exam. And so, for around $230 that's a proficient manner to get strong 1440p performance. There'south besides dynamic resolution scaling which tin can boost performance dramatically, but how much this impacts visual quality, or at to the lowest degree how noticeably, will be an article for another twenty-four hour period.

Both AMD and Nvidia hardware performs exceptionally well in this title. As long equally you lot accept enough VRAM, y'all're good to become. In some preliminary testing we have noticed however that older hardware struggles on Doom Eternal, even with the "Low" quality preset, just we plan to follow up with that testing before long. That low preset yet looks pretty practiced, though on the other paw, at that place isn't a ton of extra performance to be gained by dropping from ultra to low. When nosotros tested this using a 5700 XT nosotros saw a mere 21% boost, which is zero considering nosotros're dropping the preset down 3 levels.

Doom Eternal destroys 2GB graphics cards using the everyman quality settings. To cite i example, the GTX 770 isn't able to deliver playable operation at 1080p, often dipping well below 30 fps. For now you can go by using a 6GB GTX 1060 or 8GB RX 580 at 1080p using the Ultra quality settings, and of course, there's also the dynamic resolution scaling to play around with for an actress boost if needed.