Doom

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-10400F compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-10400F has an average benchmark score of 14168, which places it 0.4% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7552 and 0.7% behind the AMD FirePro S10000 in the same class. It trails the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C by 0.8% and the Intel Core i5-8500 by 1.1%, showing this CPU sits in a very tightly contested performance band.

Q: What is the GPU's standing among all tested graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT holds the 76th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32619. It sits just 0.2% ahead of the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 and 0.4% behind the NVIDIA P104-100, while maintaining a 0.7% lead over the AMD FirePro S10000.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck this system in Doom?

A: The data shows the GPU is the primary limiter at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 267.7 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 60 FPS. The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking (among all CPUs) versus the GPU's 76th percentile suggests neither component is dramatically weak, but the scaling pattern indicates the graphics card governs performance as resolution increases.

Q: What is the best preset to use for a balance of quality and frame rate?

A: At 1080p, High settings deliver 209.4 FPS, which is only 22% below the Low preset's 267.7 FPS but offers substantially better visuals. At 1440p, High produces 137.2 FPS, keeping the experience well above 120 FPS. At 4K, High holds 70.9 FPS, which is playable, while Ultra dips to exactly 60 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Doom?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT ranks 636th out of 1681 tested combos in this game. That places it in the upper 38% of all configurations, a solid mid-to-upper tier result for a mainstream CPU paired with a high-end GPU.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the CPU support, and does it matter here?

A: The i5-10400F supports dual-channel DDR4 with a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. The GPU, by contrast, has 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth over a 256-bit bus. The large gap between CPU and GPU memory throughput is typical and does not appear to hinder this game's performance, given the high frame rates measured.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 32 chip fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's game clock is 2124 MHz, with a boost clock of 2430 MHz and a base clock of 1295 MHz. Memory runs at 2438 MHz, translating to 19.5 Gbps effective.

In Doom, the GPU's role is decisive. The measured FPS shows that settings changes have a larger impact than resolution changes until you reach 4K. At 1080p, going from Low to Ultra drops average FPS from 267.7 to 169.1, a loss of 36.8%. At 1440p, the same settings change drops performance from 184.1 to 109.8, a loss of 40.4%. At 4K, the drop is steeper: from 102 to 60, a loss of 41.2%.

The GPU's 76th percentile ranking among all GPUs is reflected in these results. The RX 7800 XT's 60 ray tracing cores and 3840 shading units provide the raw compute needed to push Doom well past 60 FPS at every resolution and preset combination tested. The 96 ROPs and 233.3 GPixel/s pixel rate help maintain fill-rate headroom even at 4K Ultra, where the combo still hits exactly 60 FPS.

The GPU's FP32 throughput of 37.32 TFLOPS is substantial for a card in this class. The 583.2 GTexel/s texture rate ensures that texture-heavy scenes do not become a bottleneck. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for Doom, which was released in 2016 and does not require the memory headroom that newer titles demand. The GPU's 263 W TDP and 600 W suggested PSU are typical for this performance tier.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. At High settings, the combo delivers 209.4 FPS at 1080p, 137.2 FPS at 1440p, and 70.9 FPS at 4K. This represents a 34.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 48.3% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 66.1%.

At Low settings, the pattern is similar but with higher absolute values: 267.7 FPS at 1080p, 184.1 FPS at 1440p, and 102 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 31.2%, and from 1440p to 4K is 44.6%. The total drop is 61.9%.

Ultra settings show the steepest relative decline. From 169.1 FPS at 1080p to 109.8 FPS at 1440p is a 35.1% drop, and from 1440p to 60 FPS at 4K is a 45.4% drop. The cumulative loss from 1080p to 4K is 64.5%.

These scaling percentages indicate that the GPU is the limiting factor as resolution increases. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads with a 4.30 GHz boost clock are sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p, but the gap between 1080p and 4K performance grows with each settings tier. At 1080p Low, the 267.7 FPS result suggests the CPU is still keeping up, but the 60 FPS at 4K Ultra shows the GPU is fully saturated.

The fact that 1080p Low and 1080p High differ by only 58.3 FPS (21.8%) while 4K Low and 4K High differ by 31.1 FPS (30.5%) suggests that at 4K, the GPU's compute resources become the dominant constraint. The combination of 3840 shading units and 240 TMUs is tasked heavily at 4K, and the measured data reflects this.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of presets. For players targeting 144 Hz or higher refresh rates, the 1080p High preset delivers 209.4 FPS, which comfortably exceeds 144 Hz. The 1080p Medium preset hits 247.1 FPS, and Low reaches 267.7 FPS, but the visual tradeoff for these gains is significant. The High preset at 1080p is the sweet spot for competitive play.

At 1440p, the High preset produces 137.2 FPS, which is just shy of 144 Hz. For those with 144 Hz monitors, Medium at 158.2 FPS is the better choice, as it clears the refresh rate with headroom while still offering improved visuals over Low. The Ultra preset at 109.8 FPS is playable but does not take full advantage of high-refresh displays.

For 4K gaming, the High preset at 70.9 FPS is the recommended starting point. It provides a smooth experience on 60 Hz displays. The Medium preset at 85.1 FPS is also viable if you prefer a small FPS buffer. The Ultra preset at exactly 60 FPS is technically playable but leaves no margin for frame-time spikes, and the Low preset at 102 FPS sacrifices too much visual fidelity for the resolution.

The data suggests that the High preset is the most balanced across all three resolutions. At 1080p it delivers 209.4 FPS, at 1440p 137.2 FPS, and at 4K 70.9 FPS. No other preset maintains such consistent playability across the board. Medium is a close second, with 247.1 FPS at 1080p, 158.2 FPS at 1440p, and 85.1 FPS at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT combination ranks 636th out of 1681 tested combos in Doom. This places the setup in the upper 38% of all configurations, which is a strong result given the CPU's mainstream positioning. The CPU itself sits at the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 76th percentile among all GPUs.

The ranking suggests that this pairing is well balanced for Doom. The CPU's 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 4.30 GHz boost clock provides enough single-thread performance for this game's engine, while the GPU's 16 GB VRAM and high bandwidth ensure that graphics memory is never a limiting factor. The combo's rank of 636 indicates that many higher-end CPU and GPU pairings do outperform it, but the margin is not enormous given the GPU's strong showing.

Compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, the i5-10400F's 0.4% lead over the AMD EPYC 7552 and 1.1% deficit to the Intel Core i5-8500 are minor differences that do not meaningfully affect gaming results. The GPU's nearest rivals are similarly close in synthetic benchmarks, with a 0.7% spread across the top four contenders. This suggests that the combo's rank is driven more by the GPU's capabilities than the CPU's synthetic scores.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low averages 267.7 FPS, Medium 247.1 FPS, High 209.4 FPS, and Ultra 169.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 98.6 FPS, with each settings tier costing roughly 20-40 FPS depending on the step.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but drops noticeably. Low averages 184.1 FPS, Medium 158.2 FPS, High 137.2 FPS, and Ultra 109.8 FPS. The total spread is 74.3 FPS, and the relative drop from 1080p is 31.2% at Low and 35.1% at Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits. Low averages 102 FPS, Medium 85.1 FPS, High 70.9 FPS, and Ultra exactly 60 FPS. The spread narrows to 42 FPS, and the drop from 1440p is 44.6% at Low and 45.4% at Ultra. The 4K Ultra result of 60 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset.

The progression from 1080p to 4K at each settings tier is consistent: Low drops from 267.7 to 102 FPS, Medium from 247.1 to 85.1 FPS, High from 209.4 to 70.9 FPS, and Ultra from 169.1 to 60 FPS. The data shows that the combo is capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p, solid 1440p performance, and 4K at or above 60 FPS only at lower presets.