Doom

The pairing of an Intel Core Ultra 5 235 with Intel Arc B390 integrated graphics produces a strikingly lopsided result in Doom. The CPU itself sits in the 89th percentile of all processors in the database, but the Arc B390 lands in just the 9th percentile of all GPUs, and that gap defines the entire experience. Doom is a fast first-person shooter from 2016, yet the recorded data shows the integrated Xe3-LPG graphics struggling at higher resolutions. At 1080p the game is fully playable at every preset; at 1440p it clears the 60 FPS bar only at reduced settings; at 4K no preset reaches the threshold. The analysis below walks through each resolution and preset in detail.

Best Settings per Resolution

The playable threshold used throughout this database is 60 FPS average. Applying that bar to the measured results yields a clear settings ladder.

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which averaged 64 FPS. Every other preset clears the threshold by a wider margin: High at 78 FPS, Medium at 93 FPS, and Low at 107 FPS. Full visual detail is therefore available at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, Ultra drops to 41 FPS and High to 51 FPS, both below the line. Medium is the most demanding playable preset, averaging exactly 60 FPS. Low is the safer choice at 69 FPS if headroom for frame-time consistency is desired.

At 3840x2160, no preset qualifies. Low manages only 37 FPS, Medium 33 FPS, High 28 FPS, and Ultra 22 FPS. The verdict data confirms this: the list of playable settings at 4K is empty.

Similar Performance Alternatives

On the CPU side, the Core Ultra 5 235 benchmarks almost identically to several parts in the database. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, carries an average score within 0.1 percent of it, effectively a tie. The Intel Core i9-13900HX is similarly close at a delta of only -0.1 percent, and the AMD EPYC 4364P and AMD EPYC 7303 both sit within 0.2 percent. Any of these processors would deliver equivalent CPU-side performance, though none of them changes the story in Doom, because the recorded framerates are constrained elsewhere.

The GPU side is where alternatives matter. The Arc B390, with an average benchmark score of 1482, sits closest to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX at 1463 (a 1.3 percent gap), the NVIDIA GeForce 800M at 1460 (1.5 percent), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM at 1446 (2.5 percent), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 at 1443 (2.7 percent). Systems built around any of these graphics solutions would be expected to behave very similarly in Doom. The pattern is consistent: entry-level graphics hardware paired with a strong modern CPU.

For reference, the Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread Arrow Lake-S processor built on a 3 nm TSMC process, boosting to 5.00 GHz with a 65 W TDP, while the Arc B390 is an 80 W integrated Xe3-LPG solution with 1536 shading units fabricated on Intel's 3 nm node and system-shared memory.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are measured averages from the recorded dataset.

1920x1080:

| Preset | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|---|---|---|---|

| Low | 107 | not recorded | not recorded |

| Medium | 93 | 79 | 107 |

| High | 78 | not recorded | not recorded |

| Ultra | 64 | not recorded | not recorded |

2560x1440:

| Preset | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|---|---|---|---|

| Low | 69 | not recorded | not recorded |

| Medium | 60 | 51 | 69 |

| High | 51 | not recorded | not recorded |

| Ultra | 41 | not recorded | not recorded |

3840x2160:

| Preset | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|---|---|---|---|

| Low | 37 | not recorded | not recorded |

| Medium | 33 | 28 | 37 |

| High | 28 | not recorded | not recorded |

| Ultra | 22 | not recorded | not recorded |

Reading the scaling: moving from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly a quarter to a third of the framerate depending on preset, and moving to 4K roughly halves it again. The Medium 1080p average of 93 FPS falls to 60 at 1440p and 33 at 4K. Minimum and maximum values were captured at the Medium preset at each resolution, and they show meaningful swings: 79 to 107 at 1080p, 51 to 69 at 1440p, and 28 to 37 at 4K. The 1440p Medium minimum of 51 FPS is worth noting, since it sits well below the 60 FPS average, indicating dips below the smooth-play threshold during demanding moments.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Doom? Yes, at the right resolution, and only there.

At 1920x1080 the answer is an unqualified yes: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra all clear 60 FPS, with Ultra delivering 64 FPS on average. This is the resolution to play at, and full detail is on the table.

At 2560x1440 the answer is a qualified yes. Low (69 FPS) and Medium (60 FPS) are playable, but High and Ultra are not. Medium at exactly 60 FPS leaves no margin, so Low is the practical choice for consistent fluidity.

At 3840x2160 the answer is no. The best result is 37 FPS at Low, and the verdict data lists zero playable settings at this resolution. A gamer on a 4K display should render the game at a lower internal resolution rather than attempt native 4K output.

The overall picture is that of a powerful CPU held back by graphics hardware in the 9th percentile of all GPUs tested. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482, combined with the single measured GPU benchmark, places this combo firmly in entry-level graphics territory despite the processor's strength.

FAQ

Q: Can the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and Arc B390 run Doom at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only at 1920x1080 (all four presets) and 2560x1440 (Low and Medium). At 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS; the best is 37 FPS at Low.

Q: What is the best-looking way to play Doom on this system?

A: 1920x1080 at Ultra, which averaged 64 FPS. This is the highest preset at any resolution that stays at or above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How fast is Doom at 1080p on the lowest settings?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 averaged 107 FPS, the highest figure recorded for this combination.

Q: Is 1440p Medium actually smooth, given it averages exactly 60 FPS?

A: The data urges caution. The measured minimum at 1440p Medium is 51 FPS, meaning dips below 60 do occur. Low at 69 FPS average provides more headroom.

Q: How strong is the CPU in this pairing?

A: The Core Ultra 5 235 ranks in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769 and single-core score of 2085. Its nearest rivals are within 0.2 percent of its average benchmark score.

Q: How weak is the GPU?

A: The Arc B390 sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1482. Its closest comparables are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710, all within roughly 3 percent.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the full set of combinations tested for Doom, this CPU and GPU pairing ranks 3300 out of 3712, placing it in the bottom portion of the field. That ranking aligns with the component-level percentiles: a top-decile processor attached to bottom-decile graphics. The database contains 3712 tested combos for this game, and this configuration lands ahead of only a small fraction of them, which reflects that Doom performance at higher settings is decided almost entirely by GPU capability in this dataset.

CPU and GPU Roles

Doom on this combination is GPU-limited at every tested resolution. The evidence is in the scaling pattern. If the CPU were the bottleneck, raising the resolution would change little and framerates would plateau near the processor's ceiling. Instead, framerates fall steeply as pixel count rises: 1080p Ultra runs at 64 FPS, 1440p Ultra at 41 FPS, and 4K Ultra at 22 FPS. That progression tracks the growing pixel workload, a signature of graphics-bound behavior.

The preset scaling reinforces this. At 1080p, dropping from Ultra to Low lifts the average from 64 to 107 FPS, a large swing driven by reducing the render load on the 1536-shading-unit, 80 W integrated GPU. A CPU-bound configuration would show a much flatter curve across presets, since visual settings place comparatively light demands on the processor.

The Core Ultra 5 235 itself is more than adequate for the task. With 14 threads, a 5.00 GHz boost clock, a single-thread Passmark score of 4516, and a multi-thread score of 37816, it ranks in the 89th percentile of all CPUs and is effectively indistinguishable in average score from rivals like the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and Core i9-13900HX. Doom's framerates here are not constrained by it. The practical conclusion: anyone gaming on this pairing should spend any upgrade effort on graphics capability, not the processor, and should target 1080p with detail turned up, or 1440p with settings reduced, for the best recorded experience.