We find ourselves once again scorching the Earth (or, more specifically, our PC systems) along with the DOOM Slayer, fighting hordes of demons in our merry trek across the umbral planes. We all saw those Official System Requirements last week that broke us into a sweat just by looking at them, but is DOOM Eternal really that demanding? We aim to find out...

Before we do though, we just have to quickly talk about the graphics settings: there's the usual Low, Medium, High and Ultra, but joining us in this ravenous conquest are Nightmare and Ultra Nightmare settings. We tried to benchmark all those settings with different GPU's, but DOOM Eternal has an interesting feature: if you exceed the maximum VRAM then you can't apply your settings. That means that, as hard as we tried, some graphics cards just weren't capable of going above Ultra (and in some cases, High or even Low). So we've compiled the results below and included higher graphics options where we could apply them.

DOOM Eternal Graphics Settings

Check your PC can run DOOM Eternal System Requirements

DOOM Eternal Minimum System Requirements - (60FPS @ low 1080p)

• OS: Windows 7/10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i5 @ 3.3 GHz or better, or AMD Ryzen 3 @ 3.1 GHz or better
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 4 GB Video Memory
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 1050Ti (4GB), GTX 1060 (3GB), GTX 1650 (4GB) or AMD Radeon R9 280 (3GB), AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB) or RX 470 (4GB)
• HD: 50GB Available Hard Drive Space

DOOM Eternal Recommended System Requirements - (60FPS @ High 1080p)

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K or better, AMD Ryzen 7 1800X or better
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 6/8 GB Video Memory
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB), NVIDIA GeForce 970 (4GB), AMD RX 480 (8GB) Note : On GTX 970 only - set Texture Quality to Medium
• HDD: 50GB

DOOM Eternal Recommended 1440p System Requirements - (60FPS @ High 1440p)

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K or better, AMD Ryzen 7 1800X or better
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 8 GB Video Memory
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8GB), RTX 2060 (6GB) or AMD Radeon RX Vega56 (8GB)
• HDD: 50GB

DOOM Eternal Ultra System Requirements - (120FPS @ Ultra Nightmare 1440p / 60FPS @ Ultra Nightmare 4K)

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K or better, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or better
• RAM: 16 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 11+ GB Video Memory
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (11GB) or AMD Radeon VII (16GB)

DOOM Eternal benchmarks and frames per second analysis performed on Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 | Intel i9-9900K | 16GB

Average Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 FPS in DOOM Eternal

With the RTX 2080, one of the most powerful gaming graphics cards around today. The recommended specs for Ultra Nightmare and 60fps at 4K is the RTX 2080 Ti, but here we can see that the regular RTX 2080 version is solid. Whilst it's certainly gorgeous to look at in 4K, the extra frames you get at 1440p will be preferable to help keep your game of DOOM Eternal flowing and your shooting accuracy up.

DOOM Eternal benchmarks and frames per second analysis performed on Nvidia PNY GeForce RTX 2060 | Intel i7-5820K | 16GB

Average Nvidia PNY GeForce RTX 2060 FPS in DOOM Eternal

What's more interesting here is that RTX 2060 quite surprisingly under performs. We weren't expecting it to be anything like the RTX 2080, but it's definitely lower than we expected. That said, 1440p gaming is definitely acceptable with the 2060. Whilst this framerate in 4K would normally be okay for other games, here it's pretty much a no-go.

DOOM Eternal benchmarks and frames per second analysis performed on Nvidia MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti | Intel i7-3770K | 8GB

Average Nvidia MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti FPS in DOOM Eternal

The trusty 980 Ti is still going strong it seems, even outperforming the RTX 2060 in some cases. It seems that if you're going to be playing 1080p, you could probably push it to Nightmare settings. You may dip below 60fps at times, but it's certainly playable. 1440p users would probably benefit most at High settings, maybe Ultra if you're feeling daring. But once again, 4K is still playable, but not preferable here. There was an oddity in the 4K Low setting compared to the Medium 4K. We retested a couple of times in the same area with a similar result. So we put it down to an odd hardware bottleneck in just that particular testing area. 

DOOM Eternal benchmarks and frames per second analysis performed on Nvidia MSI GeForce GTX 1070 | Intel i7-5820K | 16GB

Average Nvidia MSI GeForce GTX 1070 FPS in DOOM Eternal

The Nvidia MSI GeForce GTX 1070 does a remarkable job at 1080p, even at 1440p on Ultra Nightmare settings. If you're looking to play in 1080p, you'll have a really good time in terms of performance. Its certainly worth noting that the GTX 1070 has 8GB of VRAM which allowed it to rise up to the Nightmare and Ultra Nightmare graphics settings. Take a look at our other Graphics Options article for details on specific option VRAM requirements.

DOOM Eternal benchmarks and frames per second analysis performed on Nvidia ASUS GeForce GTX 970 | Intel i7-3770K | 8GB

Average Nvidia ASUS GeForce GTX 970 FPS in DOOM Eternal

Ah, the GTX 970. I think we can all agree that when the recommended requirements for 60fps at 1080p said to set all the settings to Medium on a GTX 970, we all got a bit worried. But it's safe to say that the Nvidia ASUS GeForce GTX 970 does a pretty good job at 1080p. Whilst you may not be able to reach those Ultra settings due to the lower VRAM available, getting 80+fps on high at 1080p is such a relief and DOOM Eternal plays and looks great regardless on the GTX 970. Those of you with the 970 who were worried about their performance, don't, it's got this.

DOOM Eternal benchmarks and frames per second analysis performed on AMD MSI Radeon R9 380 | Intel i7-3770K | 8GB

Average AMD MSI Radeon R9 380 FPS in DOOM Eternal

Immediately you'll notice the lack of average fps numbers here. That's because the R9 380 only has 2GB of VRAM available and as we learned before, DOOM Eternal wouldn't allow us to set the quality settings any higher than Low. Unfortunately, if you have one of these cards, you're going to have a tough time at 1080p, let alone any higher resolution. However, DOOM Eternal is quite a reasonable looking game in Low graphics settings and with 47.5 avg FPS the R9 380 is still just about ok to play it. You can always lower the resolution below 1920x1080 to get some extra frame rates.

DOOM Eternal benchmarks and frames per second analysis performed on AMD XFX R7 370 | Intel i7-3770K | 8GB

Average AMD XFX Radeon R7 370 FPS in DOOM Eternal

Just like above, only worse, the R7 370 only has 1GB of VRAM available. Interestingly, we couldn't set the resolution any higher than 1440p even with Virtual Super Resolution enabled, but we wouldn't expect it to be anything good... Even at 1080p this card begins to struggle.

Conclusion

So, as you can see, DOOM Eternal is a pretty demanding game, but not quite as demanding as those original system requirements first made us thought. Thankfully, the still-popular GTX 970 handles DOOM Eternal well at 1080p. Whilst the RTX 2080 truly shines with the RTX 2060 close behind. And a GTX 1070 is definitely powerful enough to get the most out of DOOM Eternal in Ultra 1080p.

It seems that DOOM Eternal wants higher video memory GPU's. And at times the chaos on screen is pretty insane. Its during those times that the GPUs can really strain, in the later game. But the future is still optimistic for the majority of cards in 1080p gaming, as we face the latest instalment of the DOOM franchise. If you want that 1440p gaming experience or even 4K, it might be time to upgrade that dusty graphics card. Hopefully by now you will have a pretty good idea of how well your system will run DOOM Eternal when it comes out. If you want to maximise your performance, then we suggest checking out the Most Important Graphics Options article to see which options are the most demanding.