Doom

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-10400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 in Doom produces a fascinating study in bottleneck dynamics. The data shows a system where the GPU’s immense raw power is frequently held in check by the CPU’s older architecture, yet the frame rates remain exceptionally high across all tested configurations. This analysis breaks down the measured performance, revealing how resolution and settings shift the balance of responsibility between the two components.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data illustrates a clear and expected trend: performance degrades as resolution increases, but the rate of that degradation reveals the system's primary limiter. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 266 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops the average to 230 FPS, a reduction of 36 FPS (approximately 13.5% slower). Scaling up to 4K Low further reduces the average to 156 FPS, which is a substantial 74 FPS (approximately 32%) drop from the 1440p result.

This pattern becomes more pronounced at higher settings. With Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 222 FPS at 1080p to 173 FPS at 1440p, and then to 94 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K at Ultra is 79 FPS (approximately 45.7% lower), which is a significantly larger relative decline than the 32% drop seen at Low settings. This indicates that as the resolution and graphical load increase, the GeForce RTX 4090's capabilities are being taxed more heavily, and the scaling behavior becomes more GPU-bound.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the system is largely CPU-limited, as the RTX 4090 is capable of far higher frame rates than the i5-10400F can feed it. The relatively small difference between Low (266 FPS) and Ultra (222 FPS) at 1080p, a gap of only 44 FPS, supports this; the CPU is the bottleneck, preventing the GPU from being fully utilized regardless of the graphical settings. In contrast, the larger performance gap between Low and Ultra at 4K (156 FPS vs. 94 FPS, a difference of 62 FPS) shows that at this resolution, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and its performance is more sensitive to the quality settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, armed with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. Its AD102 chip, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, contains 76,300 million transistors and operates at a base clock of 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz. This hardware configuration allows the card to achieve a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s, figures that are more than sufficient for a 2016 title like Doom.

The 24 GB VRAM capacity is far beyond what this game requires, even at 4K Ultra settings. The data shows that the average FPS at 4K Ultra is 94, which is a playable frame rate, but the GPU's memory allocation is not the constraint. Instead, the card's raw compute power, estimated at 82.58 TFLOPS FP32, is what drives performance. The benchmark results show the RTX 4090 achieves a Passmark G3D score of 38194, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 60347 is nearly identical to the Intel Arc Pro A60's 60326 (a delta of 0%), and it sits slightly below the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M's 61896 by 2.5%.

In this game, the GPU's role is to provide a high ceiling for frame rates. The data shows that at 1440p High, the combo hits an average of 207 FPS, and at 1080p High, it reaches 239 FPS. These scores demonstrate that the GPU is not the limiting factor at these resolutions. The RTX 4090 is performing well, but the CPU is preventing it from reaching its full potential, as evidenced by the relatively small performance delta between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for this combo at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS for the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination at 2560x1440 resolution with High settings is 207 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the combo at 1080p Low compared to 4K Ultra?

A: At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 266, while at 4K Ultra, it is 94. This represents a performance advantage of 172 FPS (approximately 183% higher) for the 1080p Low setting.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS is 94, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: Is there a significant difference between the FPS at 1080p High and 1440p High?

A: Yes, the data shows a drop from 239 FPS at 1080p High to 207 FPS at 1440p High. This is a difference of 32 FPS (approximately 13.4% lower at the higher resolution).

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 186 and the maximum FPS is 252, with an average of 219 FPS.

Q: How does the combo's performance at 4K Medium compare to 4K High?

A: At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 136, while at 4K High, it is 115. The Medium setting provides a higher average frame rate by 21 FPS (approximately 18.3% faster).

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combinations for Doom, this specific pairing of the i5-10400F and RTX 4090 holds a rank of 565 out of 3712 total combos. This places it within the top 15.2% of all tested systems for this game, which is a strong showing given the CPU's age. The high ranking is primarily attributable to the RTX 4090's exceptional performance, but the i5-10400F's results hold the combo back from a higher position.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 14185 places it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals being the Intel Xeon 6756E (scoring 14163, a 0.2% delta) and the Intel Core 7 160UL (scoring 14232, a -0.3% delta). This indicates that the i5-10400F is a mid-range performer among all CPUs. The GPU, in contrast, is a top-tier part, scoring in the 88th percentile, with its nearest rival, the Intel Arc Pro A60, having a delta of 0%. The gap between the CPU's and GPU's relative standings is the reason the combo does not rank higher.

The rank of 565 suggests that while the RTX 4090 can push frame rates to very high levels, the system is not among the absolute fastest for Doom. Combos with newer, higher-performing CPUs would likely achieve higher frame rates, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU bottleneck is most apparent. The data implies that the combo is more competitive at 4K, where the GPU's workload is heavier and the CPU's limitations are less impactful on the final frame rate.

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. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 12 MB shared L3 cache. This configuration yields a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10283 and a single-core score of 1451. Its Passmark multi-thread score is 12115, and its single-thread score is 2541.

In the context of Doom, the CPU's role is to handle game logic and physics, and its performance is critical for high frame rates. The data shows that the i5-10400F is a significant bottleneck when paired with the RTX 4090. At 1080p, the average frame rates are high (239 FPS at High, 266 FPS at Low), but they do not scale as much as the GPU's potential would suggest. The difference between 1080p Low (266 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (222 FPS) is only 44 FPS, which is a modest 16.5% drop. This indicates that the CPU is hitting its limit, preventing the GPU from fully flexing its muscles even at lower graphical settings.

The CPU's 3DMark scores provide insight into its threading capabilities. Its 16-thread score is 4748, while its single-thread score is 688. The multi-threaded scores (4748 for 16 threads, 4735 for max threads) are close, suggesting that the 6-core/12-thread configuration is well-utilized, but the single-thread performance is the limiting factor for a game like Doom, which often relies on a few primary threads. This is why the frame rates plateau at 1080p; the CPU's single-core speed is insufficient to feed the RTX 4090 data any faster.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is the complete measured FPS data for this combo, organized by resolution and settings.

1920x1080:

• Low: Average FPS is 266.
• Medium: Average FPS is 254, with a minimum of 216 and a maximum of 292.
• High: Average FPS is 239.
• Ultra: Average FPS is 222.

At 1080p, the spread between Low and Ultra is 44 FPS. The data shows that the CPU is the primary limiter here, as the frame rates do not increase dramatically when settings are lowered, indicating that the GPU is not being fully utilized.

2560x1440:

• Low: Average FPS is 230.
• Medium: Average FPS is 219, with a minimum of 186 and a maximum of 252.
• High: Average FPS is 207.
• Ultra: Average FPS is 173.

At 1440p, the spread between Low and Ultra is 57 FPS. The average frame rates are lower than at 1080p, showing the increased load on the GPU. The gap between Low and Medium is 11 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 34 FPS, showing that the Ultra setting has a more pronounced performance cost.

3840x2160:

• Low: Average FPS is 156.
• Medium: Average FPS is 136, with a minimum of 115 and a maximum of 156.
• High: Average FPS is 115.
• Ultra: Average FPS is 94.

At 4K, the spread between Low and Ultra is 62 FPS. The average frame rates are significantly lower, and the GPU is now the clear bottleneck. The drop from Low to Medium is 20 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 21 FPS, showing a more consistent scaling pattern as the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The minimum FPS of 115 at 4K Medium indicates that even the lows are above 60 FPS, which is a strong result for a 4K gaming scenario.