Doom

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 delivers exceptional performance in Doom, a 2016 FPS title. The data shows this combination produces extremely high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, with the lowest average result being 88 FPS at 4K Ultra. This hardware pairing is clearly overkill for the game's engine, as even the most demanding preset at the highest resolution remains comfortably playable. The following analysis breaks down the measured performance data, providing recommendations for optimal settings and interpreting how each component contributes to the overall result.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the High preset at 2560x1440 offers the most balanced combination of visual fidelity and performance, delivering an average of 198 FPS. This frame rate is well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors, providing a smooth and responsive experience without the unnecessary performance cost of the Ultra preset. The data shows that High at 1440p maintains a significant margin above typical 144Hz displays, making it an ideal choice for competitive play where frame consistency matters.

If the user prioritizes maximum visual quality on a 4K display, the High preset at 3840x2160 is the recommended choice, producing an average of 107 FPS. This setting provides a substantial improvement over the Ultra preset, which drops to 88 FPS, while still delivering a highly detailed image. The performance gap between High and Ultra at 4K—a 19 FPS difference—is more pronounced than at lower resolutions, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional effects have a disproportionate impact on the GPU at higher pixel counts.

For users with 1080p displays, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the most sensible option, achieving 343 FPS on average. While the Low preset reaches 360 FPS and High hits 306 FPS, the Medium setting offers a better balance between visual enhancements and frame rate, especially considering the minimum FPS of 292 stays well above the refresh rates of any current monitor. The Ultra preset at 1080p, while still delivering 250 FPS, does not provide enough visual benefit to justify the 93 FPS drop from Medium.

At 4K resolution, the Medium preset is also a viable option, with an average of 127 FPS and a minimum of 108 FPS. This setting provides a higher frame rate than High while maintaining a playable minimum, making it suitable for gamers who prefer smoother motion over maximum detail. However, the 108 FPS minimum at 4K Medium is close to the 107 FPS average of High, suggesting that the Medium preset's lower graphical load allows the GPU to maintain more consistent frame times.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the high performance observed in Doom. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. This substantial memory bandwidth is crucial for handling the high-resolution textures and effects present in the game, particularly at 4K where the frame buffer demands are significantly higher. The data confirms this, as the performance scaling from 1080p to 4K shows the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The RTX 5080's core configuration includes 10,752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines. The boost clock of 2617 MHz allows these cores to operate at high frequencies, contributing to the impressive raw compute throughput of 56.28 TFLOPS. In Doom, which is not heavily dependent on ray tracing, these traditional rasterization resources are fully utilized, resulting in the high frame rates seen across all settings. The GPU's 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs further underscores its capability in this title.

The GPU's memory clock of 1875 MHz (30 Gbps effective) works in tandem with the 256-bit bus to achieve the 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. This is particularly relevant at 4K resolution, where the performance drop from 146 FPS at Low to 88 FPS at Ultra indicates that memory bandwidth and fill rate are being stressed by the higher-quality textures and post-processing effects. The RTX 5080's 112 ROPs provide a pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s, which is sufficient to handle the game's rendering requirements at 4K without becoming a limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination ranks 214th out of 3712 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the top 6% of all configurations. This ranking is impressive given the relative affordability of the CPU, which has a launch MSRP of $97. The high ranking is primarily attributable to the RTX 5080's exceptional performance, as the CPU's modest quad-core configuration does not bottleneck the GPU in this title.

The combo's rank of 214 out of 3712 indicates that most of the configurations ranked above it likely use more powerful CPUs, but the difference in actual frame rates is minimal due to the game's optimization. The data shows that the RTX 5080 is capable of driving frame rates well beyond what most displays can show, meaning that even with a more expensive CPU, the observable performance difference would be negligible in Doom. This makes the i3-12100F + RTX 5080 combination a highly efficient pairing for this specific game.

It is important to note that this ranking reflects the performance in Doom specifically. The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon 8060S with a deltaPct of 0.6%, have similar average benchmark scores, but the RTX 5080's 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs suggests it would perform well across a variety of titles. The combo's position at 214th out of 3712 demonstrates that the RTX 5080 is the primary driver of performance, while the i3-12100F provides sufficient support without being a significant limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptionally high across all settings. The Low preset achieves the highest average of 360 FPS, followed by Medium at 343 FPS, High at 306 FPS, and Ultra at 250 FPS. The Medium preset has a measured minimum of 292 FPS and a maximum of 395 FPS, showing a wide variance but always remaining well above any playable threshold. Even the Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, maintains an average of 250 FPS, indicating that the GPU is never stressed at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high, with the Low preset delivering 269 FPS on average. The Medium preset follows at 235 FPS, with a minimum of 199 FPS and a maximum of 270 FPS. The High preset achieves 198 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 162 FPS. The performance scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a consistent reduction of approximately 25-30% across all settings, which is expected as the pixel count increases by 77%. The minimum FPS of 199 at Medium 1440p indicates that the game remains smooth even during intense scenes.

At 3840x2160, the performance decreases more significantly, but remains playable. The Low preset averages 146 FPS, Medium averages 127 FPS with a minimum of 108 FPS and maximum of 146 FPS, High averages 107 FPS, and Ultra averages 88 FPS. The transition from 1440p to 4K results in a further 45-50% reduction in frame rates, which aligns with the 2.25x increase in pixel count. The Ultra preset at 4K, with 88 FPS, is the only setting that drops below 100 FPS, but it remains fluid on most displays. The Medium preset's 108 FPS minimum is noteworthy, as it ensures no significant frame drops even in action-heavy sequences.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the limiting component in this configuration. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS across all settings drops by approximately 25-30%. For example, at High settings, the frame rate goes from 306 FPS at 1080p to 198 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 35%. This scaling is more than proportional to the pixel count increase of 77%, suggesting that the GPU is still capable of handling the additional load without becoming fully saturated.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is more pronounced, with the average FPS dropping by approximately 45-50%. At High settings, the frame rate goes from 198 FPS at 1440p to 107 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 46%. This steeper decline indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck at 4K, as the increased pixel count demands more from the rasterization and memory subsystems. The RTX 5080's 960.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient, but the sheer number of pixels at 4K begins to strain the GPU's processing capabilities.

The data suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this game. At 1080p, where CPU overhead is typically more significant, the frame rates are extremely high, reaching 360 FPS at Low settings. The Intel Core i3-12100F, with its 4 cores and 8 threads, provides enough single-thread performance to keep up with the GPU's output at lower resolutions. However, as the resolution increases, the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck, as evidenced by the larger performance drops from 1440p to 4K compared to 1080p to 1440p. This indicates that the RTX 5080 is the component most responsible for the observed frame rates.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Doom with this combo?*

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 at High settings provides an excellent balance, with an average of 198 FPS. This resolution offers a significant visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining frame rates well above 144Hz, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors.

*Q: Can this combination handle 4K gaming in Doom?*

A: Yes, the RTX 5080 is capable of 4K gaming in Doom. At 4K High settings, the average FPS is 107, and at Medium settings it reaches 127 FPS with a minimum of 108 FPS. Even the Ultra preset, while demanding, produces an average of 88 FPS, which remains playable.

Q: How does the CPU affect the performance in this game?

A: The Intel Core i3-12100F has 4 cores and 8 threads with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. In Doom, the CPU does not appear to be a bottleneck, as frame rates scale consistently with resolution, suggesting the GPU is the primary limiting factor, especially at higher resolutions.

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

A: At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 360 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 250 FPS, a difference of 110 FPS. This represents a 30% reduction in performance for the Ultra preset, but both settings deliver frame rates far above what any monitor can display.

*Q: Is the RTX 5080's 16 GB of VRAM sufficient for Doom?*

A: Yes, the 16 GB of GDDR7 memory is more than sufficient. The game's maximum memory usage is not specified, but the performance at 4K Ultra, which is the most demanding scenario, shows no signs of memory-related stuttering, with an average of 88 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: This combination ranks 214th out of 3712 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the top 6% of all configurations. This high ranking is primarily due to the RTX 5080's exceptional performance, which drives frame rates to very high levels.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F, despite being a budget-oriented processor with a launch MSRP of $97, plays a crucial supporting role in this configuration. Its 4 cores and 8 threads, based on the Alder Lake architecture, operate at a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. In Doom, these specifications are sufficient to feed the RTX 5080 without causing a bottleneck, as evidenced by the high frame rates at all resolutions.

The CPU's single-thread performance is particularly important for this game. The i3-12100F achieves a 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674, indicating strong per-core capabilities. This is critical because Doom's engine relies heavily on single-threaded performance for game logic and draw call processing. The data confirms that the CPU can handle these tasks efficiently, as the frame rates at 1080p, where CPU overhead is most impactful, reach up to 360 FPS.

The CPU's L3 cache of 12 MB (shared) and support for dual-channel memory contribute to its overall performance. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4051 and the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11860 show that the CPU can handle multi-threaded workloads reasonably well for a quad-core part. In Doom, which is not heavily threaded, this capability is more than adequate. The CPU's 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that it performs better than the majority of processors, but it is the GPU that ultimately determines the frame rates in this game.

The i3-12100F's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score, such as the Intel Core 3 N355 (0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-9500 (0.3% delta), show similar performance levels. However, the combination with the RTX 5080 ensures that the CPU does not become a limiting factor, allowing the GPU to operate at its full potential. In summary, while the RTX 5080 is the star of this configuration, the i3-12100F provides a solid foundation that does not hinder performance in Doom.