Doom

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a performance profile in Doom that is heavily dictated by resolution and graphical settings. At 1080p, the combination produces extremely high frame rates, but the scaling pattern reveals a system that transitions from CPU-bound at lower settings to GPU-bound as resolution and fidelity increase. The data indicates a versatile pairing capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1440p and solid 4K performance, with the CPU's four cores proving sufficient to feed the GPU's massive throughput in this particular title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable drop as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly depending on the quality preset. At the High preset, the average frame rate falls from 219.4 FPS at 1920x1080 to 143 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 34.8%. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 78.3 FPS, which is 64.3% lower than the 1080p result. This steep decline at 4K is a strong indicator that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor, as the pixel throughput demand outstrips what the RTX 3080 can deliver.

The Low preset tells a different story about the system's bottleneck. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average frame rate reaches 299.6 FPS. This high number suggests the CPU is working near its limit, as the graphics load is reduced. The drop to 194.7 FPS at 2560x1440 is a 35% reduction, but the more telling figure is the 4K Low result of 102.4 FPS. This is only 65.8% of the 1080p Low score, a smaller relative decline than seen at High settings. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings (194.7 to 102.4 FPS, a 47.4% drop) confirms that even with minimal graphical work, the GPU's rendering capabilities at 4K become the decisive factor.

Analyzing the Medium and Ultra presets provides further insight. At Medium, the 1080p average is 261.6 FPS, dropping to 169.2 FPS at 1440p and 90 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset yields 183.6 FPS at 1080p, 115.3 FPS at 1440p, and 66.1 FPS at 4K. The consistent pattern across all presets is that the 1080p to 1440p transition costs roughly 35-40% of the frame rate, while the 1440p to 4K transition costs another 40-45%. This non-linear scaling is characteristic of a GPU that is increasingly saturated at higher resolutions, with the CPU overhead becoming a smaller fraction of the total frame time as resolution increases.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is the dominant component in this pairing, particularly at higher resolutions. Its benchmark data shows a Passmark G3D score of 25086 and an average benchmark score of 35787, placing it in the 80th percentile of all GPUs. In Doom, the GPU's role is evident in the frame rate differences between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution. At 4K, the spread is significant: 102.4 FPS at Low versus 66.1 FPS at Ultra, a 35.4% performance penalty for maxing out the graphics. This indicates that the GPU's compute resources are heavily utilized by the game's visual effects.

The RTX 3080's memory configuration is also relevant to these results. It features 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. At 4K with Ultra settings, this memory subsystem is likely under substantial load, as the game must store and stream high-resolution textures. The 66.1 FPS average at 4K Ultra suggests the GPU is managing this workload adequately but is approaching its limits. The base clock of 1440 MHz and boost clock of 1710 MHz, combined with the GA102 chip's 8704 shading units, produce a raw compute throughput of 29.77 TFLOPS FP32, which is what allows the card to maintain playable frame rates at 4K.

The GPU's thermal and power characteristics are not directly measured in the FPS data, but the 320 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate a high-power component. The performance gap between the High preset at 4K (78.3 FPS) and the Ultra preset at 4K (66.1 FPS) shows that the extra graphical features in Ultra consume a substantial portion of the GPU's headroom. This is consistent with a card that is being pushed to its limit at 4K, while at 1080p the RTX 3080 has ample spare capacity, as evidenced by the 299.6 FPS Low result.

FAQ

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

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 299.6 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 66.1, which is 64% lower than the 183.6 FPS seen at 1080p Ultra.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1440p High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the average frame rate is 143 FPS. The scaling from 1080p High (219.4 FPS) suggests a balanced load, but the 4K High result of 78.3 FPS indicates the GPU becomes the primary limiter as resolution increases.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 299.6 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 183.6 FPS, a difference of 116 FPS or 38.7% lower performance for Ultra.

Q: Does this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K across all settings?

A: Yes, the lowest 4K average is 66.1 FPS at Ultra settings, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K High, Medium, and Low presets all exceed 78 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark score relate to its in-game performance?

A: The i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13516, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs. In Doom, this is sufficient to support frame rates above 180 FPS at 1080p Ultra, indicating the CPU is not a significant bottleneck at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 536 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the upper third of all system configurations, which is a strong result given the CPU's relatively modest specifications. The ranking reflects the GPU's high performance, as the RTX 3080's Passmark G3D score of 25086 and 80th percentile ranking among all GPUs drive the system's capability in this game.

The combo's rank is more impressive when considering the CPU's position. The i3-12100F has a percentile rank of 72 among all CPUs, yet the system still achieves a top-third ranking in Doom. This suggests that the game is not heavily dependent on CPU threading beyond a certain point, and the RTX 3080 can compensate for the CPU's limitations. The data shows that at 1440p and 4K, the frame rates are primarily determined by the GPU, which is why the combo performs well despite the four-core CPU.

The ranking also indicates that there is headroom for improvement with a more powerful CPU. If paired with a higher-end processor, the 1080p frame rates might increase further, as the current 299.6 FPS Low result suggests the CPU is nearing its limit. However, the practical impact would be minimal at 1440p and 4K, where the GPU is the clear bottleneck. For most users, the current ranking represents a well-balanced system for Doom at high refresh rates and resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11912 and a single-core score of 1681, indicating strong single-thread performance relative to its core count. In Doom, this CPU demonstrates that it can keep up with the RTX 3080 at lower resolutions, but its influence wanes as the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

The CPU's role is most visible at 1080p with Low settings, where the average frame rate of 299.6 FPS suggests the processor is working near its maximum throughput. The 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and the 3DMark 4-thread score of 2859 provide context for this performance. At 1080p Low, the game's rendering load is light enough that the CPU's ability to issue draw calls and process game logic becomes the constraining factor. This is also evident in the 1080p Medium result of 261.6 FPS, which is lower than the Low result but still very high.

At higher resolutions, the CPU's workload does not increase proportionally with the GPU's. The 4K High result of 78.3 FPS is 64.3% lower than the 1080p High result, but this is almost entirely due to the GPU's pixel processing demands. The CPU's L3 cache of 12 MB shared and dual-channel memory support are sufficient for this game, as the frame rates remain high even at 1440p Ultra (115.3 FPS). The data suggests that the i3-12100F provides a solid foundation for the RTX 3080, but it does not hold the system back at resolutions above 1080p.