Doom

Doom (2016) running on an Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is a case study in overkill — in the best possible way. This is a shooter released in May 2016, meeting a CPU from November 2021 and a GPU from April 2023, and the benchmark data reflects that generational mismatch: every preset at every resolution tested clears the 60 FPS playable threshold, including Ultra at 4K. The i7-12700KF sits in the 85th percentile of all CPUs in the database, the RTX 4070 in the 81st percentile of GPUs, and together the combo ranks 860th out of 3712 tested configurations in this game. The numbers below are measured, not estimated.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Starting at 1920x1080, the pairing posts 314 FPS average on Low, 273 on Medium, 231 on High, and 189 on Ultra. The Medium run also captured frame boundaries: a minimum of 232 and a maximum of 314, meaning the slowest recorded frame still ran faster than the High-preset average. That is an unusually flat frame-time profile for any game, and it tells you the 1% lows are unlikely to dip into uncomfortable territory at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, averages settle to 203 FPS on Low, 177 on Medium, 150 on High, and 122 on Ultra. The Medium preset again logged a floor and ceiling of 150 and 204 respectively — the minimum equals the High-preset average almost exactly, which indicates the gap between presets is being driven by consistent render cost rather than sporadic spikes.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X and 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth keep the game afloat with room to spare: 110 FPS on Low, 96 on Medium, 81 on High, and 66 on Ultra. Even the heaviest preset at the heaviest resolution clears the 60 FPS threshold with a 6-frame cushion. Scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K costs roughly 40% of the frame rate, which is the steepest settings penalty in the dataset — but since the starting point is 110 FPS, the end result remains comfortably playable.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling between resolutions makes the division of labor clear. At Ultra, frame rates go 189 → 122 → 66 as you move from 1080p to 1440p to 4K. That near-proportional drop with pixel count — frame rate falling by about a third, then nearly half again — is the signature of GPU-bound behavior. Doom on this hardware is limited by the RTX 4070 at every resolution, not the i7-12700KF.

Consider the CPU's headroom. The i7-12700KF scores 4071 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 28838 multi-core, with 12 cores and 20 threads across its Alder Lake design and a 5.00 GHz boost clock. A 2016-era FPS engine simply doesn't demand that. Even at 1080p Low, where CPU limits would surface first, the pairing hits 314 FPS — if the processor were the constraint, raising the resolution wouldn't cut frame rates as sharply as it does. The data indicates the GPU is doing the heavy lifting: at 4K, four times the pixels of 1080p, Ultra runs at roughly a third of the 1080p frame rate.

The practical implication: upgrading settings costs GPU performance, not CPU performance. Users wanting more frames should look at the graphics side — the presets — while the processor will remain indifferent to whatever Doom asks of it.

Similar Performance Alternatives

On the CPU side, the i7-12700KF's rivals list is tightly clustered. The Intel Core i7-13700T averages within 0.1% of it, the Intel Core i5-13600T within 0.2%, the Intel Core 5 213PE within 0.2% in the 12700KF's favor, and the Intel Core i7-12700K within 0.2% as well. Any of these processors would deliver effectively identical Doom performance in this GPU-bound scenario — differences measured in fractions of a percent will vanish under GPU limits. The i7-12700K is the natural sibling, being the same silicon family without the frequency profile of the KF part.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4070's rivals are a more eclectic set. The NVIDIA Tesla P4 averages within 0.1%, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 within 0.4%, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile is 1.3% faster, and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 is 1.3% slower. Judged by average benchmark score — 37648 for the 4070 — these parts land in the same neighborhood, and swapping any of them in would produce broadly similar Doom results, with the RTX 4080 Mobile offering the (marginally) strongest alternative at 38135. Given how far above Doom's requirements this tier sits, all of them would clear 60 FPS at 4K Ultra.

The Verdict

Yes — emphatically. The verdict data shows every tested resolution and every preset clears the 60 FPS threshold:

• 1920x1080: all four presets playable; best settings are Ultra at 189 FPS average.
• 2560x1440: all four presets playable; Ultra averages 122 FPS.
• 3840x2160: all four presets playable; Ultra averages 66 FPS.

The correct way to run this game is maxed out. There is no scenario in the measured data where settings need to be lowered: even the worst result in the entire dataset — 4K Ultra at 66 FPS — beats the playable threshold. For high-refresh displays, 1440p Medium's 177 FPS average or 1080p Low's 314 FPS provide the ceiling of what this pairing can deliver. This is a game the hardware outclasses.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Doom at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes. The pairing averages 66 FPS at 3840x2160 on Ultra, above the 60 FPS playable threshold. Every other 4K preset runs faster still, up to 110 FPS on Low.

Q: What is the highest frame rate this combo achieves in Doom?

A: 314 FPS average, at 1920x1080 on Low settings. The 1080p Medium run recorded that same figure as its maximum frame rate, with a minimum of 232.

Q: Is the CPU or the GPU the limiting factor?

A: The GPU. Frame rates scale down sharply with resolution — 189 FPS at 1080p Ultra versus 66 FPS at 4K Ultra — which indicates the RTX 4070 is the bottleneck. The i7-12700KF, in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, has ample headroom for a 2016 title.

Q: How much performance do Ultra settings cost compared to Low?

A: At 4K, frame rates drop from 110 FPS on Low to 66 FPS on Ultra — roughly a 40% reduction. At 1440p the spread is 203 to 122, and at 1080p it is 314 to 189.

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

A: No meaningful change. The closest rivals — the Core i7-13700T, Core i5-13600T, Core 5 213PE, and Core i7-12700K — all average within 0.2% of the i7-12700KF's benchmark score, and the game is GPU-bound anyway.

Q: Does the frame rate ever dip below 60 FPS?

A: Not in the measured data. The lowest recorded figures are the 81 FPS minimums in the Medium runs at both 1440p and 4K, and the lowest average of any configuration is 66 FPS at 4K Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

Against the full field, this configuration ranks 860th out of 3712 tested combos in Doom — solidly in the top quarter, at roughly the 77th percentile. Given that the game is seven years older than the GPU and more than five years older than the CPU, that ranking is less about the pairing being exotic and more about it simply being far newer than what the title demands. Faster combos exist in the database, as the rank makes clear, but they would be chasing frame rates this setup already delivers in triple digits at 1440p. For Doom specifically, the i7-12700KF and RTX 4070 sit comfortably past the point of diminishing returns: ranked well, universally playable, and limited by nothing except the ambition of the settings slider.