Doom

The pairing of Intel’s Core i3-12100F with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5060 produces a compelling dataset for Doom, revealing a system where the GPU’s raw throughput is the primary driver of frame rates, though the CPU’s capabilities become visible at the highest settings. The measured frames per second (FPS) across resolutions and presets show a clear hierarchy, with the RTX 5060’s 8 GB of GDDR7 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth proving sufficient for the game’s demands, while the i3-12100F’s four cores and 12 MB of shared L3 cache keep pace without becoming a bottleneck in most scenarios.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is steep and consistent, indicating that Doom’s rendering load scales aggressively with pixel count. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the system averages 142.3 FPS, which drops to 92.3 FPS at 1440p and further to 50.9 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35.1% reduction in performance when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a 64.3% reduction from 1080p to 4K at the same preset. The pattern is similar across all settings, but the percentage drops are slightly larger at lower presets. For example, at Low settings, the 1080p score of 243.5 FPS falls to 159.2 FPS at 1440p (a 34.6% drop) and to 83.9 FPS at 4K (a 65.5% drop).

This scaling behavior strongly suggests that the limiting component is the GPU, as the RTX 5060’s pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s are being saturated by the increasing resolution. The CPU’s role is less pronounced; the i3-12100F’s single-thread score of 893 in 3dmark and multi-thread score of 4023 in 3dmark indicate it can feed frames quickly, but the data shows the GPU is the constraint. The gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p is 101.2 FPS (243.5 vs. 142.3), which is a larger absolute difference than the 75.3 FPS gap at 4K (83.9 vs. 50.9). This indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU’s compute resources are more heavily taxed by pixel shading, reducing the relative impact of settings changes.

The 1440p results are particularly telling. At High settings, the system delivers 118 FPS, which is 65.5% of the 1080p High score of 179.4 FPS. The 4K High score of 61.6 FPS is only 34.3% of the 1080p High figure. This nonlinear scaling, where the 4K result is disproportionately lower than the 1440p result, reflects the quadratic increase in pixel count. The RTX 5060’s 128-bit memory bus, paired with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, appears adequate for 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K, where the fill rate requirements outpace the available bandwidth. The data shows no signs of CPU limitation, as the i3-12100F’s 4.30 GHz boost clock and 8 threads provide sufficient headroom, even at 1080p where frame rates exceed 200 FPS.

FAQ

Q: How does the system perform at 1080p with High settings?

A: The average frame rate is 179.4 FPS, which places it well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This result is 26.2% higher than the 1440p High score of 118 FPS, demonstrating that 1080p is the sweet spot for this configuration.

Q: Is the RTX 5060 capable of 4K gaming in Doom?

A: At 4K with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 50.9, which is below the 60 FPS target. However, dropping to High settings at 4K yields 61.6 FPS, making it playable. The Low preset at 4K achieves 83.9 FPS, showing that the GPU has headroom if visual fidelity is reduced.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra presets?

A: The difference is substantial across all resolutions. At 1080p, Low delivers 243.5 FPS compared to Ultra’s 142.3 FPS, a 71.1% improvement. At 4K, the gap narrows to 39.4% (83.9 vs. 50.9 FPS), indicating that resolution scaling reduces the relative benefit of lower settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13516, which is 0.1% below the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX and 0.4% above the Intel Core i7-1250U. It also outperforms the Intel Core i7-7700K by 1.8%, showing it is a competitive mid-range processor.

Q: Does the GPU’s VRAM capacity affect performance in this game?

A: The RTX 5060 has 8 GB of GDDR7 memory, which the data shows is sufficient for Doom at all tested settings. The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is the more relevant factor, as the FPS drops align with the increasing memory pressure at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the best resolution for a 144 Hz monitor?

A: At 1440p with High settings, the system averages 118 FPS, which falls short of 144 Hz. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 159.2 FPS, exceeding the refresh rate. At 1080p, all presets except Ultra exceed 144 FPS, with Medium delivering 208.9 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured results. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2280 MHz and a boost clock of 2497 MHz, with a memory clock of 1750 MHz yielding 28 Gbps effective speed. This translates to 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, which is the raw processing power that drives pixel and texture calculations. The 3840 shading units and 120 TMUs handle the geometry and texture mapping, while the 48 ROPs are responsible for final pixel output. The GPU’s 73rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30109, places it in the upper mid-range tier.

The memory subsystem plays a critical role. The 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for Doom’s textures and buffers at 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the high frame rates. However, at 4K, the bandwidth becomes a constraint, particularly at Ultra settings where the average FPS drops to 50.9. The pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s are also being pushed to their limits, as the 4K resolution requires four times the pixel fill rate of 1080p. The GPU’s 5 nm process node and 21,900 million transistors on a 181 mm² die enable these clocks and throughput, but the thermal design power of 145 W suggests it operates within a moderate power envelope.

The GPU’s benchmark scores corroborate its gaming performance. In passmark_g3d, it scores 20891, which is 0.0% different from the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and 0.5% above the NVIDIA Tesla M60. The passmark_directx_12 score of 77 is notably lower than the directx_11 score of 200, which may reflect driver optimizations or test methodology, but the actual game results do not show a corresponding deficit. The geekbench_vulkan score of 116626 is strong, aligning with Doom’s Vulkan API support. This GPU consistently delivers playable frame rates at 1440p High (118 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (142.3 FPS), making it a capable choice for this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience, balancing frame rate and visual quality. For 1080p displays, the Ultra preset delivers 142.3 FPS, which is above the 120 FPS threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors and only 20.3% lower than the High preset’s 179.4 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p achieves 208.9 FPS, offering a significant boost for competitive play, but the visual fidelity trade-off is substantial. Given that the Ultra preset maintains a high average FPS, it is the recommended choice for 1080p, as the performance penalty relative to High is modest (37.1 FPS) compared to the graphical improvements.

At 1440p, the High preset is the optimal choice, delivering 118 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS standard and suitable for 120 Hz displays. The Ultra preset drops to 92.3 FPS, which is still playable but introduces a 21.8% performance penalty for marginal visual gains. The Medium preset at 1440p offers 135.7 FPS, but the difference between High and Medium is only 17.7 FPS, making High the better value for the visual upgrade. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 159.2 FPS, but this sacrifices too much quality for the frame rate increase.

For 4K, the High preset is the only viable option for smooth gameplay, averaging 61.6 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 50.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and may result in noticeable stutter in fast-paced scenes. The Medium preset at 4K offers 73.5 FPS, which is an improvement, but the visual downgrade from High is noticeable. The Low preset at 4K reaches 83.9 FPS, but this is not recommended as the lower fidelity undermines the purpose of 4K resolution. The data indicates that High settings at 4K provide the best balance, with the RTX 5060’s 8 GB VRAM and bandwidth handling the load without dropping below 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset reveals a consistent pattern across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS of 243.5, followed by Medium at 208.9, High at 179.4, and Ultra at 142.3. This represents a 41.5% spread between the lowest and highest presets. The 1440p results show a similar ordering: Low at 159.2 FPS, Medium at 135.7 FPS, High at 118 FPS, and Ultra at 92.3 FPS. The absolute differences between presets narrow at higher resolutions, with the Low-to-Ultra gap shrinking from 101.2 FPS at 1080p to 66.9 FPS at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the ordering remains consistent: Low at 83.9 FPS, Medium at 73.5 FPS, High at 61.6 FPS, and Ultra at 50.9 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap at 4K is 33 FPS, which is the smallest absolute difference across all resolutions. This trend indicates that the GPU’s compute and memory resources are the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, reducing the impact of settings changes. The relative performance between resolutions is also telling. The 1080p High score of 179.4 FPS is 51.9% higher than the 1440p High score of 118 FPS, and 191.2% higher than the 4K High score of 61.6 FPS.

The combination’s overall rank in the game is 827 out of 1681 combos, placing it in the top half of tested configurations. The CPU’s synthetic benchmarks support its capability, with a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 11912 and a single-core score of 1681. The GPU’s passmark_gpu_compute score of 10899 indicates strong compute performance, which is relevant for Doom’s particle effects and physics. The measured FPS data shows that this system is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K performance being acceptable only at lower presets. The i3-12100F’s 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13516, confirms it does not hold back the RTX 5060 in this title.