Doom

Doom launched in May 2016 as a showcase for the id Tech engine, and it remains one of the best-optimized shooters in the database. Pairing it with an Intel Core i5-14600K and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 produces a configuration that is decisively CPU-strong and GPU-middling, and the recorded results follow exactly that shape: the processor sits in the 90th percentile of all CPUs tested, while the graphics card sits in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. The game rewards that balance well. At 1080p and 1440p, every preset clears the 60 FPS playability threshold, and only 4K forces meaningful compromise.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The database holds measured average frame rates across three resolutions and four presets for this pairing, and the spread tells a clean story about where the RTX 2060 runs out of headroom.

At 1920x1080, the combo is comfortably fast at every quality tier. Low settings return 177.5 FPS average, Medium returns 149.5, High returns 129.6, and even Ultra holds 103.1 FPS. That is more than 70 frames per second of headroom above the 60 FPS threshold at the game's maximum preset, which means a 1080p high-refresh monitor is fully fed by this hardware in Doom. The step from Ultra at 103.1 FPS down to Low at 177.5 represents a gain of 74.4 frames, or roughly 72 percent, simply from easing quality settings, indicating the GPU is doing the heavy lifting rather than the CPU at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, results scale down in an orderly fashion: 115.5 FPS on Low, 96.8 on Medium, 84.8 on High, and 66.4 on Ultra. The critical number here is Ultra at 66.4 FPS, which clears 60 FPS, though with only 6.4 frames of margin. That margin is thin enough that demanding combat sequences could dip below the threshold, so players wanting guaranteed smoothness at 1440p may prefer High at 84.8 FPS, which trades 18.4 frames of average rate for a much larger safety buffer.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 2060's limits become explicit. Low averages 62.1 FPS, Medium drops to 54.3, High falls to 45.3, and Ultra lands at 37.3. Only the Low preset clears 60 FPS at 4K, and barely, at 2.1 frames over the line. Medium falls 5.7 frames short, High falls 14.7 short, and Ultra falls 22.7 short. The performance cliff between 1440p and 4K is steep: comparing Ultra presets, the average falls from 66.4 to 37.3 FPS, a drop of 29.1 frames, or about 44 percent, when quadrupling the pixel count.

Across the entire measurement set, the ratio between the best and worst result is striking. The 1080p Low figure of 177.5 FPS is nearly 4.8 times the 4K Ultra figure of 37.3 FPS. Minimum and maximum frame rates were not recorded for these runs, so the analysis rests on averages, but the averages alone map the playable envelope precisely.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the Doom results table, the Core i5-14600K plus RTX 2060 pairing ranks 2926 out of 3712 tested combinations. That places it in the bottom fifth of the game's leaderboard, which is consistent with the GPU's position rather than the processor's. The i5-14600K is a strong chip by any measure in the database: 14 cores, 20 threads, a 5.30 GHz boost clock, a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491, and a Geekbench multi-core score of 16673. Doom is not a game that leans heavily on that kind of throughput, and more importantly, the RTX 2060 caps the frame rates long before the CPU breaks a sweat.

The card itself is a 2019-era Turing part with 1920 shading units, 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, and 336.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, now marked end-of-life. Its average benchmark score of 15290 sits in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, squarely mid-range. Against its nearest rivals in the database, it is effectively inseparable from the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (average score 15283, essentially identical), a hair ahead of the AMD Radeon 680M (15270) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15199), and fractionally ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (15171). Those gaps of under one percent mean any of those cards would produce near-identical Doom numbers.

The CPU's rivals tell a similar story of parity. The i5-14600K's average score of 48618 is within a fraction of a percent of the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698), the AMD EPYC 4345P (48470), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX (48287), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (48995). In a GPU-bound title like Doom at these settings, swapping the processor for any of those alternatives would change nothing measurable.

Best Settings per Resolution

The most demanding preset that stays at or above the 60 FPS threshold at each resolution, based on measured averages:

• 1920x1080: Ultra, 103.1 FPS. No compromise needed. Maximum image quality with 43.1 frames of headroom, plus the option to drop to Low for 177.5 FPS on high-refresh displays.
• 2560x1440: Ultra, 66.4 FPS. Technically the answer is Ultra, but the 6.4-frame margin is tight. High at 84.8 FPS is the pragmatic choice for consistent smoothness, and Medium at 96.8 offers an even larger buffer.
• 3840x2160: Low, 62.1 FPS. The only preset that clears the bar. Medium at 54.3 FPS falls short, so 4K players must accept reduced visual fidelity or accept sub-60 frame rates.

The pattern is a clean one: this pairing is a 1080p maximum-quality and 1440p high-quality machine, and a 4K machine only in the loosest sense.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Because the RTX 2060's nearest rivals cluster within one percent of its average score, several alternatives would behave nearly identically in Doom. The database lists the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM at an average score of 15199, just 0.6 percent behind, and the AMD Radeon RX 7600 at 15171, 0.8 percent behind. The AMD Radeon 680M, an integrated solution scoring 15270, is effectively even with the 2060 at a 0.1 percent gap. Surprisingly, the much older NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 scores 15283, matching the 2060 within a rounding error on this aggregate metric.

On the processor side, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (48995), Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698), AMD EPYC 4345P (48470), and Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX (48287) all sit within one percent of the i5-14600K's 48618 average. Any of those CPUs paired with a comparable GPU would land in the same Doom performance band. The practical takeaway: this game's results are dictated almost entirely by the graphics card, and the 2060's mid-pack standing sets the ceiling wherever it appears.

FAQ

Q: Can the RTX 2060 run Doom at 4K?

A: Only on Low settings, where the measured average is 62.1 FPS, just above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium drops to 54.3, High to 45.3, and Ultra to 37.3, all below the playable line.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Doom?

A: 2560x1440 is the sweet spot. Every preset from Low through Ultra is playable, with Ultra averaging 66.4 FPS and High offering a more comfortable 84.8 FPS.

Q: Does the Core i5-14600K bottleneck Doom?

A: No. The processor ranks in the 90th percentile of all CPUs with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 and a single-core score of 2064, while the GPU ranks in only the 58th percentile. The GPU is the limiting component at every resolution tested.

Q: How many FPS does Doom get at 1080p Ultra?

A: The measured average is 103.1 FPS. Dropping to Low raises the average to 177.5 FPS for high-refresh play.

Q: How does this pairing rank against other Doom configurations?

A: It ranks 2926 of 3712 tested combinations, reflecting the mid-range GPU rather than the strong CPU.

Q: Would a different CPU in the same performance class change the results?

A: Unlikely. Chips such as the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the AMD EPYC 4345P score within one percent of the i5-14600K on aggregate benchmarks, and the game is GPU-bound in this configuration.

The Verdict

Yes, this PC runs Doom, and at two of the three tested resolutions it does so without qualification. At 1920x1080, the verdict is emphatic: all four presets are playable, and Ultra delivers 103.1 FPS average, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, the verdict remains positive: all four presets clear the bar, with Ultra at 66.4 FPS marking the edge of the envelope and High at 84.8 FPS offering the more sensible everyday setting. At 3840x2160, the verdict narrows to a conditional yes: only Low settings stay playable at 62.1 FPS, and every higher preset falls short.

The overall picture is of a lopsided but effective pairing for this particular title. The Core i5-14600K brings dramatically more processing power than Doom can use, and the RTX 2060, an end-of-life Turing card with 6 GB of VRAM, defines the experience. For 1080p and 1440p play, the data shows a thoroughly enjoyable, high-frame-rate experience at or near maximum quality. For 4K, expect compromises. Doom's 2016-era engine scales gracefully, and this hardware combination lands exactly where its GPU tier predicts.