Doom

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers a dominant 1080p experience in Doom, but the data reveals a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080, the combination is purely GPU-limited at every settings tier, producing frame rates that range from 187.4 FPS on Ultra to a staggering 314.2 FPS on Low. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 40% performance penalty, which is consistent with a graphics card that has ample headroom and a CPU that is keeping pace without constraint. Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern holds, albeit with less absolute headroom, while at 4K the system transitions into a state where the GPU’s raw throughput becomes the primary governor, with the CPU’s role diminishing further.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable and steep decline as resolution increases, but the shape of that curve tells a specific story about system balance. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 314.2 FPS at 1080p to 202.9 FPS at 1440p—a 35% reduction—and then to 110.4 FPS at 4K, which is another 46% drop from the 1440p figure. This progression indicates that the RX 9070 XT is being pushed progressively harder by pixel count, and the CPU is never the limiting factor, even at the lowest settings where the frame rate exceeds 300 FPS.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is less dramatic in percentage terms but still significant: 187.4 FPS at 1080p falls to 123.2 FPS at 1440p (a 34% reduction) and then to 66.7 FPS at 4K (a 46% reduction). The fact that the 1080p-to-1440p and 1440p-to-4K percentage drops are nearly identical across Low and Ultra suggests the system is scale-bound by the GPU’s pixel throughput rather than any CPU-side stall. The 4K Ultra result of 66.7 FPS is the only measured point below the 84.1 FPS High preset at the same resolution, confirming that the GPU is the sole architect of performance degradation here.

The most telling metric is the delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, that delta is 126.8 FPS; at 1440p, it shrinks to 79.7 FPS; at 4K, it narrows to 43.7 FPS. This compression of the settings spread as resolution rises is the signature of a GPU that is becoming saturated, leaving less headroom for settings to matter. The data indicates that for users targeting 4K, the CPU is effectively a non-factor, while at 1080p the combo still delivers such high frame rates that the limiting component is unequivocally the graphics card.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark rows show that the "High" preset is the optimal balance of visual fidelity and frame rate across all three resolutions, but the reasoning differs by target display. At 1920x1080, High delivers 232.5 FPS, which is 45.1 FPS below Medium’s 273.5 FPS but still vastly above any practical refresh rate ceiling. The jump from High to Ultra costs 45.1 FPS (a 19% penalty) for what the data implies is a marginal visual gain, making Ultra a poor trade at 1080p unless the user has a 360Hz display and prioritizes pixel count over smoothness.

At 2560x1440, High produces 148.2 FPS, which is 28.5 FPS below Medium’s 176.7 FPS but 25 FPS above Ultra’s 123.2 FPS. This positions High as the sweet spot for 1440p high-refresh monitors, as it clears the 144Hz threshold with a small buffer. Medium is also viable at 176.7 FPS, but the data suggests High is the better experience per the measured rows because it offers a 20% improvement over Ultra while only sacrificing 16% relative to Medium. At 3840x2160, High’s 84.1 FPS is the only preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS; Medium trails at 96.9 FPS (which is actually higher than High, a quirk of the measured data), but Ultra drops to 66.7 FPS, which is still playable but leaves no headroom for dips.

The Low preset, while producing the highest frame rates, is not recommended at any resolution because the FPS gains over High are disproportionate to the visual quality loss—at 4K, Low’s 110.4 FPS is 26.3 FPS higher than High, but the game’s low-poly aesthetic benefits from higher settings. The verdict is clear: High is the default choice, with Medium as a fallback for 4K users who want to approach 100 FPS, and Ultra reserved for those who prioritize image quality over the last 20% of frame rate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications align perfectly with the measured results. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, the card has ample memory capacity and throughput for Doom at any resolution, which is supported by the fact that frame rates scale smoothly without any sudden collapses that would indicate VRAM exhaustion. The GPU’s boost clock of 2970 MHz and game clock of 2400 MHz provide the raw frequency headroom to drive the high FPS figures seen at 1080p and 1440p.

The card’s 4096 shading units and 128 ROPs are the architectural workhorses here, and the measured 48.66 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the engine behind the 314.2 FPS Low result at 1080p. At 4K Ultra, the 66.7 FPS figure is consistent with a GPU that is hitting its compute and memory bandwidth limits rather than being stymied by any CPU bottleneck. The RX 9070 XT’s percentile rank of 82 versus all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 39647 place it in the upper echelon, but the nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (39703 avg score, -0.1% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (39879 avg score, -0.6% delta)—are within a hair of its synthetic performance, yet the measured game FPS shows this card pulling far ahead in Doom specifically.

The GPU’s pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s are the metrics that matter for a fast-paced FPS like Doom, and the data confirms that these are not being saturated until 4K Ultra. The 304W TDP and dual 8-pin power connectors indicate a power-hungry design, but the performance per frame is consistent with that investment, as the card never dips below playable thresholds in any measured configuration.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its highest frame rates across all settings. Low leads at 314.2 FPS, followed by Medium at 273.5 FPS, High at 232.5 FPS, and Ultra at 187.4 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 126.8 FPS, which is the largest of any resolution, demonstrating that the GPU has enough headroom to let settings dictate performance fully. Even at Ultra, the 187.4 FPS result is well above any standard 144Hz or 165Hz display refresh rate, making this resolution trivial for the combo.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but begin to show the GPU’s workload. Low produces 202.9 FPS, Medium 176.7 FPS, High 148.2 FPS, and Ultra 123.2 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 79.7 FPS, and the Ultra result finally dips below the 144Hz threshold, suggesting that 1440p Ultra requires a high-refresh display with adaptive sync to feel smooth. High’s 148.2 FPS is the standout here, clearing 144Hz with a small margin.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop significantly. Low yields 110.4 FPS, Medium 96.9 FPS, High 84.1 FPS, and Ultra 66.7 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is just 43.7 FPS, and the Ultra result is the only one that approaches the 60 FPS minimum for a playable experience. High is the strongest preset for 4K, as it provides 84.1 FPS with a 17.4 FPS buffer over Ultra, while Low’s 110.4 FPS is the only 4K result that exceeds 100 FPS, indicating that the GPU is still capable but the settings impact is muted by resolution pressure.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT combination ranks 426th out of 1681 tested combos for Doom, placing it in the top 25% of all systems in the database. This rank is impressive given that the CPU is a mid-range 11th-gen part, but the GPU is a high-end RDNA 4 card, and the data shows that the GPU carries the weight. The combo’s percentile position is not driven by the CPU, which sits at the 75th percentile versus all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 17181, but rather by the GPU’s 82nd percentile rank.

The rank of 426 out of 1681 means that roughly 75% of tested combos deliver lower frame rates in Doom, which validates the pairing as a strong choice for this specific game. However, the gap between this combo and the top of the chart is likely attributable to CPUs with higher single-thread performance, as Doom is a well-optimized title that can scale with faster cores. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (314.2 FPS) suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at all, so the rank is probably constrained by the GPU’s absolute limits at 4K, where the 66.7 FPS Ultra result pulls the average down relative to combos with stronger GPUs.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, and its role in Doom is to stay out of the way. The benchmark data shows no evidence of CPU limitation: at 1080p Low, the system hits 314.2 FPS, which would be impossible if the CPU were stalling on game logic or draw calls. The CPU’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support at 51.2 GB/s provide sufficient bandwidth for the GPU to feed, and the 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and multi-thread score of 5652 indicate a balanced part that is not a weak link.

The CPU’s percentile rank of 75 versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17181, places it near the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189 avg score, 0% delta) and Intel Core i7-1260P (17212 avg score, -0.2% delta). These rivals are not gaming-focused parts, yet the i5-11400F’s performance in Doom is sufficient to extract the GPU’s full potential up to 4K. The 65W TDP and 14nm process node are modest, but the boost clock of 4.40 GHz is the key spec for a game that relies on single-core speed, and the data confirms that this clock is adequate—the 1080p results would not be measurably higher with a faster CPU, as the GPU is already the limiting component at that resolution.

At 4K, the CPU’s role is even more passive, as the frame rate is governed by the GPU’s pixel throughput. The measured FPS differences between 1080p and 4K at the same settings (e.g., 232.5 FPS vs. 84.1 FPS at High) are entirely attributable to GPU workload, not CPU capability. The i5-11400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads are more than enough for Doom, and the data suggests that a weaker CPU would only start to matter if the frame rate exceeded 300 FPS consistently, which only happens at 1080p Low.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Doom?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the strongest, with all settings exceeding 187 FPS, but 2560x1440 at High (148.2 FPS) is the best balance for high-refresh displays, as 4K Ultra drops to 66.7 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any settings?

A: No. The 1080p Low result of 314.2 FPS and the consistent scaling across resolutions indicate the Intel Core i5-11400F is never the limiting component; the GPU is the bottleneck at all measured configurations.

Q: How much FPS does the Ultra preset cost compared to High?

A: At 1080p, Ultra is 45.1 FPS slower than High (187.4 vs. 232.5). At 1440p, the gap is 25.0 FPS (123.2 vs. 148.2), and at 4K, it is 17.4 FPS (66.7 vs. 84.1).

Q: Is 4K playable at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only at High (84.1 FPS) or Medium (96.9 FPS). Ultra at 66.7 FPS is above 60 but leaves minimal headroom, while Low reaches 110.4 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: It ranks 426th out of 1681 combos, placing it in the top 25% for Doom. This is driven by the GPU, which is at the 82nd percentile, while the CPU is at the 75th.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: Low produces 202.9 FPS, while Ultra produces 123.2 FPS, a difference of 79.7 FPS. This shows that the GPU has significant headroom at 1440p for settings changes.