DOOM: The Dark Ages PC Settings and Performance Review (2025)

In just a few days, the gates of hell will be opened once again and players will jump into the boots of the DOOM Slayer for id Software’s third title in its reboot series, DOOM: The Dark Ages. This new era of DOOM has been successful and lauded for numerous reasons, from its soundtrack to its iterative gameplay, but one area that DOOM and DOOM: Eternal most impressed was visuals.

The performance of id Software’s id tech has earned the studio regular accolades, dating back to the original DOOM in 1993. For DOOM: The Dark Ages, the studio is now onto id Tech 8 and the quality presentation and performance only continue. We’ve had a chance to play DOOM: The Dark Ages on our iBUYPOWER high-spec gaming rig to test the performance and visuals of the title, and needless to say, id tech 8 combined with the power of Nvidia’s RTX 50-series graphics cards are a match made in heaven.

Visually, DOOM: The Dark Ages is stunning. The scope and scale of id software’s latest builds on its predecessor with jaw-dropping vistas, unique locales, and incredible detail. You will want to play this game in the highest resolution possible, not just to get the most out of the game’s skyboxes, but to get an up-close and personal look at the demons in the game.

Game Rant iBUYPOWER Test PC Specs

But where DOOM: The Dark Ages truly shines is in its performance. This is a buttery-smooth experience, even in the face of demonic hordes or towering monstrosities in the distance. You want a consistent experience with an FPS like this, where fast, twitch motions are essential for survival. For The Dark Ages, id Software has also added a parry mechanic that uses the Doom Slayer’s shield to deflect certain attacks, and nailing that feeling of the last-second parry is only satisfying because of how well the game runs.

DOOM: The Dark Ages PC Settings

In keeping with the theming surrounding DOOM and its difficulty, id Software has broken the mold when it comes to graphics settings. While The Dark Ages features the usual Low, Medium, High, and Ultra tiering for graphics setttings like Shadow Quality, Reflections, and Water, the studio has taken things a step further. Beyond Ultra, there are an additional two quality settings: Nightmare and Ultra Nightmare.

DOOM: The Dark Ages Graphics Options

• Motion Blur: Off, On, On-Cinematic Only
• Motion Blur Amount: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Motion Blur Quality: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Shadow Quality: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Reflections Quality: Off, Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Lights Quality: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Particles Quality: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Decal Quality: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Water Quality: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Volumetrics Quality: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Texture Filtering Quality: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Geometric Quality: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Shading Quality: Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare
• Directional Occlusion: Off, Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare

If you are looking to push the visuals as far as they can go, Ultra Nightmare is the top tier, and it can push many rigs to their limits. Those PCs that can run the game at Ultra Nightmare, however, will experience DOOM: The Dark Ages in all its beauty, if you can call a game where you rip and tear demons to pieces beautiful.

DOOM: The Dark Ages Ray Tracing

Like Indiana Jones and The Great Circle (an id Tech 7 game), DOOM: The Dark Ages features ray tracing baked into the experience. It makes everything on the screen pop just a little more, from the glint on the Doom Slayer’s weapons to the slivers of hellish light slicing through windows.

DOOM: The Dark Ages supports both Ray-Traced Reflections and Ray-Traced Global Illumination, which work to create a realistic visual representation of the way light interacts on the screen. In the simplest terms, that results in an experience that is one of the more visually impressive games of the year, regardless of the environment.

It’s also worth mentioning that DOOM: The Dark Ages supports Nvidia Reflex, so worries about responsiveness or latency when taking advantage of the game’s frame-boosting tech are minimal. We experienced no issues in our testing.

DOOM: The Dark Ages DLSS Performance

When pushing the graphics settings to Ultra Nightmare and with the Ray Tracing baked in, DOOM: The Dark Ages can be a demanding game. id Tech 8 is flexible and agile enough that you are going to get a smooth experience with tweaking, but those who want to see how incredible the game can look (answer: very) can benefit from DLSS. Whether you’re in 1080p, 1440p, or 4K, the bump from DLSS is significant and some might say it’s essential for getting that high frame rate experience at the highest visual fidelity.

On our iBUYPOWER RDY Y70 TI B03 rig, the game still ran in the high 70s and low 80s in 4K without DLSS regardless of whether it was a more constrained, linear level or one of the new semi-open areas introduced for DOOM: The Dark Ages. There were also plenty of instances where frame rates were in the 90s to 100s, depending on the amount of detail on screen. Optimization on the game is good enough that, pre-release, the performance is extremely solid and is exactly what you want out of an FPS.

Of course, if you want to get into the 120s or 200s and still rock the 4K resolution at Ultra Nightmare then DLSS is going to make a huge difference. For Nvidia RTX 40 or 30-series owners, you can run DLSS Frame Generation 2x and bump things up considerably. On our Nvidia RTX GeForce 5090 rig, 2x Frame Generation took the game from around the 80s to 135+ FPS, a significant jump. For those who like to get into the 144 Hz sweet spot, DLSS is going to get you there.

And on the 50-series, being able to take advantage of DLSS 4 and its Multi-Frame Generation tech is where the game hits that level of performance that is aptly described as buttery. At 4K on our 5090, the performance with DLSS set to 4x jumped from those initial 80s to over 300 FPS. It’s a staggering leap and shows what DLSS MFG can offer 50-series owners. We also tested out DOOM: The Dark Ages on a rig with a 5080 where performance at 4K and Ultra Nightmare couldn’t quite reach 60 FPS with no DLSS, but with MFG, the frame rate blasted up to the 240s. Obviously, not everyone is going to be sold on DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Generation but what it can offer in terms of performance in the face of potentially-demanding games like DOOM: The Dark Ages is significant.

DOOM: The Dark Ages is another stellar release in the series. It’s well optimized, customizable, supports modern bells and whistles, and, most of all, it looks exceptional. Support for DLSS 4 is a huge boon when it comes to a game with Ray-Tracing, but the game’s settings offer plenty of ways to fiddle your way towards a frame rate that will be to your liking.

Game Rant tested DOOM: The Dark Ages on the iBUYPOWER RDY Y70 TI B03. iBUYPOWER offers a variety of customizable PCs that can meet any gamer's needs. Check out Game Rant's iBUYPOWER build here or head to iBUYPOWER for more PC gaming deals.

5Images

5Images

Follow

Followed

DOOM: The Dark Ages

FPS

Systems

8/10

Released

May 15, 2025

ESRB

m

Developer(s)

id Software

Publisher(s)

Bethesda Softworks

Engine

id Tech

Franchise

DOOM

• 
• 

Where to play

Close

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

• 
• 

Powered by

Expand Collapse

DOOM: The Dark Ages releases May 15, 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Game Rant was provided a PC code for this coverage.