Doom

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 delivers a solid 1080p experience in Doom, but the data clearly shows that 4K Ultra settings are not viable, with the combo ranking in the 1430th position out of 1681 tested combinations. The sweet spot for this hardware is 1440p High, where it maintains a smooth 74.5 FPS average, while 1080p Low reaches 155 FPS, indicating the GPU is the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions. The benchmark results show a GPU that sits at the 51st percentile among all tested graphics cards, while the CPU performs at the 73rd percentile, reinforcing that the GTX 1070 is the limiting factor in this pairing.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in Doom?

A: The measured data shows that 2560x1440 with High settings provides the best balance, achieving 74.5 FPS average. This is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while higher settings like Ultra drop to 59.7 FPS at the same resolution.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Doom?

A: No, 4K results are poor. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only reach 53.4 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 34.8 FPS. The GPU does not have enough headroom for 4K, as the frame rates fall below playable levels across all presets.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1070 has an average benchmark score of 12331, putting it 0.7% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 and 1.4% ahead of the GTX 1650 SUPER, but 1.3% behind the GTX 880M. It ranks at the 51st percentile among all GPUs.

Q: What is the CPU's performance profile relative to other processors?

A: The i5-10400F scores 14168 on average benchmarks, placing it at the 73rd percentile. It is 1.1% ahead of the Intel Core i5-8500 and 1.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546, but 0.8% behind the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in Doom?

A: The data suggests the opposite. The CPU ranks higher (73rd percentile) than the GPU (51st percentile), and the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a steep drop, indicating the GPU is the limiting component, not the processor.

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

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 155 FPS average, while Ultra produces 92.4 FPS. This represents a 62.6 FPS drop, or approximately 40% lower performance, when moving from the lowest to the highest preset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. Its base clock is 2.90 GHz with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, and it features 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10297 and a single-core score of 1453, while Geekbench reports 5783 multicore and 1454 single-core points.

In the context of Doom, the CPU's role is less critical than the GPU, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4748 and max-thread score of 4735 indicate that the processor can handle the game's threading demands without becoming a bottleneck. The PassMark multithread score of 12115, combined with a single-thread score of 2541, shows balanced performance that supports the GPU effectively.

The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 14168, places it just 0.4% above the AMD EPYC 7552 and 0.8% below the Ryzen 3 7320C. This positioning suggests that the i5-10400F provides ample compute power for a game like Doom, which is known for its optimization. The measured FPS data reinforces this, as the frame rates are consistently high at 1080p and 1440p, only collapsing at 4K where the GPU's limitations become apparent.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the best experience. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 137.6 FPS average, which is 17.4 FPS lower than Low (155 FPS) but 45.2 FPS higher than Ultra (92.4 FPS). The High preset at 114 FPS sits between Medium and Ultra, offering a visual quality improvement over Medium with only a 23.6 FPS penalty.

For 2560x1440, the High preset at 74.5 FPS is the recommended choice, as it stays above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Medium at 86.3 FPS is also viable, but High provides better visual fidelity for only an 11.8 FPS reduction. The Ultra preset at 59.7 FPS is borderline, dipping below 60 FPS, which may cause noticeable stutter on standard 60 Hz displays.

At 3840x2160, no preset is recommended for consistent gameplay, as even Low settings only reach 53.4 FPS average. The best 4K option, Medium at 48.3 FPS, falls well below playable levels. For users with 1080p or 1440p monitors, the High preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with the data showing that Ultra settings provide diminishing returns for a significant FPS cost.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ranks 1430th out of 1681 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the bottom 15% of all systems tested. This ranking is primarily driven by the GPU's performance, as the GTX 1070 sits at the 51st percentile among all graphics cards, while the CPU is significantly stronger at the 73rd percentile.

The low combo ranking is somewhat expected given the age of the GPU, but the actual in-game performance at 1080p is still competitive. The 1080p High average of 114 FPS shows that this system can handle the game well at mainstream resolutions, even if it doesn't rank highly against modern hardware. The combo's position in the rankings reflects the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions, where the 4K results drag down the overall assessment.

Compared to other combos, the data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor. The i5-10400F's performance is solid, with its nearest rival being the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, which scores 0.8% higher on average. The GPU, on the other hand, is only 0.7% faster than the Quadro K4200 and 1.7% faster than the Tesla K20Xm, showing that it is a mid-range performer that struggles in demanding scenarios like 4K gaming.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is based on the GP104 chip using the Pascal architecture, built on a 16 nm process at TSMC. It features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, with a base clock of 1506 MHz and a boost clock of 1683 MHz.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s, with a texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s. In synthetic benchmarks, the GTX 1070 scores 13498 in Passmark G3D and 47490 in Geekbench OpenCL, but its DirectX 12 score is notably low at 48, which may impact performance in modern titles. The GPU's 51st percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 12331 place it in the middle of the pack.

In Doom, the GPU's 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for the game's textures, as the measured FPS drops are not indicative of memory limitations. The 150 W TDP and single 8-pin power connector suggest this is a power-efficient card, but the performance data shows it struggles at 4K. The GPU's role is clearly the primary bottleneck in this combo, as the frame rates scale dramatically with resolution, dropping from 155 FPS at 1080p Low to just 34.8 FPS at 4K Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 155 for Low, 137.6 for Medium, 114 for High, and 92.4 for Ultra. The 1080p results show a clear progression, with Low being 17.4 FPS faster than Medium, 41 FPS faster than High, and 62.6 FPS faster than Ultra. The gap between Medium and High is 23.6 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 21.6 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS values drop to 102.4 for Low, 86.3 for Medium, 74.5 for High, and 59.7 for Ultra. The 1440p results show a similar pattern, with Low being 16.1 FPS faster than Medium, 27.9 FPS faster than High, and 42.7 FPS faster than Ultra. The gap between Medium and High is 11.8 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 14.8 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are 53.4 for Low, 48.3 for Medium, 42.1 for High, and 34.8 for Ultra. The 4K results show a compressed range, with Low being 5.1 FPS faster than Medium, 11.3 FPS faster than High, and 18.6 FPS faster than Ultra. The gap between Medium and High is 6.2 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 7.3 FPS, indicating that the GPU is severely limited at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 155 at 1080p to 102.4 at 1440p and 53.4 at 4K, representing a 65.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 92.4 FPS at 1080p to 59.7 FPS at 1440p and 34.8 FPS at 4K, a 62.3% reduction.

The scaling behavior reveals that the GPU is the limiting component. The frame rate drops by approximately one-third when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and then another half when moving from 1440p to 4K. This pattern is consistent with a GPU that has limited fill rate and compute resources, as the pixel count increases from 2.07 million at 1080p to 8.29 million at 4K, a 4x increase that the GTX 1070 cannot handle.

The CPU's strong performance, evidenced by its 73rd percentile ranking, means that it is not the cause of the FPS drop. The i5-10400F's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at all resolutions, and the benchmark data shows that the CPU has headroom to spare. The steep FPS decline at higher resolutions is entirely attributable to the GTX 1070's 51st percentile performance, confirming that this combo's 4K limitations are a GPU issue, not a CPU issue.