Doom

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for Doom on the Intel Core i5-11400F with the Intel Arc B370 shows a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 96 FPS average, Medium drops to 84 FPS, High falls to 71 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 58 FPS. The Medium preset offers the best balance for most users at this resolution, as it retains 84 FPS while providing a meaningful visual upgrade over Low. The High preset, at 71 FPS, is still smooth for a fast-paced FPS, but the drop from Medium to High costs 13 FPS, which is a significant percentage loss for a modest visual gain.

Moving to 1440p, the pattern shifts. Low delivers 62 FPS, Medium 54 FPS, High 46 FPS, and Ultra 37 FPS. Here, the Low preset becomes the only option that consistently holds above 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for competitive play at this resolution. Medium at 54 FPS is playable but sits below the 60 FPS threshold that many players prefer for a game like Doom, where quick reactions matter. The gap between Low and Medium at 1440p is 8 FPS, which is smaller than the 12 FPS gap seen at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor as resolution increases.

At 4K, the situation is dire. Low averages 34 FPS, Medium 29 FPS, High 25 FPS, and Ultra 20 FPS. None of these are playable for a fast-paced shooter, but if forced to choose, Low is the only preset that approaches a playable framerate. The data shows that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming in Doom, regardless of settings. The single measured min/max range at 4K Medium (25-34 FPS) indicates frame pacing issues, with the minimum nearly matching the average of the Low preset.

For the best experience, the recommendation is 1080p Medium for a balance of quality and performance, or 1080p Low if prioritizing maximum smoothness. At 1440p, stick to Low. The Ultra preset is never recommended, as it costs 38 FPS compared to Low at 1080p, a 40% reduction, for diminishing visual returns.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Doom at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only at 1080p. The Low preset averages 96 FPS, Medium 84 FPS, and High 71 FPS. At 1440p, only the Low preset reaches 62 FPS. At 4K, no preset achieves 60 FPS; the best is Low at 34 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Low at 1080p?

A: Ultra averages 58 FPS versus 96 FPS for Low, a difference of 38 FPS. This represents a 40% reduction in average framerate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: Is the Arc B370 strong enough for 1440p gaming in Doom?

A: The data shows it is marginal. At 1440p Low, the combo averages 62 FPS, which is playable. However, Medium drops to 54 FPS, High to 46 FPS, and Ultra to 37 FPS. For consistent smoothness, 1440p requires Low settings.

Q: What is the frame time variance like at 4K Medium?

A: The measured range at 4K Medium spans from 25 FPS minimum to 34 FPS maximum. This wide variance indicates inconsistent frame pacing, which can feel stuttery even if the average of 29 FPS suggests otherwise.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance relate to Doom's requirements?

A: The i5-11400F scores 868 in 3dmark single-thread and 2024 in Cinebench R23 single-core. Doom is an older title that benefits from strong single-thread performance, and these scores suggest the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions, though the GPU becomes a bottleneck at higher settings.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra experience completely unplayable?

A: With an average of 20 FPS, yes. This is below the threshold for a responsive FPS experience. Even 4K Low at 34 FPS is barely playable, and the data suggests this combo should be avoided at 4K entirely.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and Intel Arc B370 ranks 2696 out of 2930 tested combos for Doom. This places it in the bottom 8% of all configurations, which is consistent with the GPU's low standing in the overall benchmark hierarchy. The Arc B370 has a percentile rank of 5 among all GPUs, meaning it outperforms only 5% of the database. Its average benchmark score is 1184, with nearest rivals including the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, 0.2% ahead), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, 0.5% ahead), AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, 0.7% ahead), and AMD FirePro M2000 (1168, 1.4% behind).

The CPU, by contrast, is far more capable. The i5-11400F ranks in the 71st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17177. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120, 0.3% behind), Intel Core i5-12450H (17239, 0.4% ahead), AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278, 0.6% ahead), and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17074, 0.6% behind). This massive discrepancy between CPU and GPU capability explains why the combo ranks so low: the GPU is severely underpowered relative to the CPU.

The ranking of 2696 out of 2930 suggests that most other combinations tested in this database deliver better performance in Doom. The data implies that pairing this CPU with a stronger GPU would yield significantly better results, as the CPU has headroom to spare. The low combo rank is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's limitations, not the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low 96 FPS, Medium 84 FPS, High 71 FPS, Ultra 58 FPS. The Medium preset has a recorded min/max range of 71 to 96 FPS, which interestingly matches the average of High and Low respectively. This suggests that Medium settings can experience frame dips down to the level of High's average, indicating some instability in the middle preset.

At 2560x1440, the averages drop to: Low 62 FPS, Medium 54 FPS, High 46 FPS, Ultra 37 FPS. The Medium preset ranges from 46 to 62 FPS, again mirroring the averages of High and Low at this resolution. This pattern repeats across both resolutions, showing that the Medium preset's variance spans the gap between Low and High.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 34 FPS, Medium 29 FPS, High 25 FPS, Ultra 20 FPS. The Medium preset's range is 25 to 34 FPS, matching High and Low averages. This consistent pattern across all three resolutions suggests that the Medium preset's frame pacing is directly bounded by the performance of the Low and High presets, which is a useful indicator of how the game scales with settings.

The step-down from Low to Medium at 1080p is 12 FPS (96 to 84). From Medium to High is 13 FPS (84 to 71). From High to Ultra is 13 FPS (71 to 58). These are nearly uniform drops, indicating that each quality level costs a similar amount of performance at 1080p. At 1440p, the drops are 8 FPS (62 to 54), 8 FPS (54 to 46), and 9 FPS (46 to 37). At 4K, the drops are 5 FPS (34 to 29), 4 FPS (29 to 25), and 5 FPS (25 to 20). The shrinking absolute differences at higher resolutions indicate that the GPU is becoming more saturated, and each settings step has less relative impact.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p shows a consistent performance penalty across all settings. At Low, the drop is from 96 to 62 FPS, a reduction of 34 FPS or 35%. At Medium, 84 to 54 FPS, a 30 FPS or 36% reduction. At High, 71 to 46 FPS, a 25 FPS or 35% reduction. At Ultra, 58 to 37 FPS, a 21 FPS or 36% reduction. This remarkably consistent ~35% penalty from 1080p to 1440p indicates that the scaling is resolution-bound, which is typical for a GPU-limited scenario.

Moving from 1440p to 4K, the penalties become even more severe. At Low, 62 to 34 FPS, a 28 FPS or 45% reduction. At Medium, 54 to 29 FPS, a 25 FPS or 46% reduction. At High, 46 to 25 FPS, a 21 FPS or 46% reduction. At Ultra, 37 to 20 FPS, a 17 FPS or 46% reduction. The consistent ~46% penalty from 1440p to 4K is even steeper than the 1080p to 1440p drop, suggesting that the GPU is hitting a wall as pixel count increases.

The overall scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is from 96 to 34 FPS, a 65% reduction. At Ultra, it's from 58 to 20 FPS, a 66% reduction. This suggests that the limiting component is overwhelmingly the GPU, as the scaling is nearly uniform regardless of settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see less penalty at lower settings where the CPU has more work to do relative to the GPU. The data indicates the opposite: the penalty is slightly higher at lower settings, which is consistent with a GPU that is completely saturated at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its cache configuration includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3. In Doom, a game from 2016, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The benchmark data shows that this CPU is more than capable for this task.

The CPU's benchmark scores indicate strong performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 14340 multicore and 2024 single-core. In Geekbench, it scores 7737 multicore and 1777 single-core. The 3dmark scores show scaling from 868 single-thread to 5652 max-threads, indicating that the 6-core/12-thread configuration scales well with multi-threaded workloads. The Passmark scores include 16908 multithread and 2981 single-thread.

Doom's engine benefits from both single-thread and multi-thread performance. The i5-11400F's single-thread score of 868 in 3dmark places it well above the minimum requirements for this era of game. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache provides ample space for game data, and the 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth over dual-channel DDR4 is sufficient for the game's needs.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this combo. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 96 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game, but at higher settings and resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The CPU's percentile rank of 71 versus the GPU's percentile rank of 5 makes this clear. If the CPU were the constraint, we would see less performance drop when increasing resolution, but the data shows consistent resolution scaling that points to the GPU.

The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are well-suited for Doom, which can utilize multiple threads for rendering and physics. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz provides strong single-thread performance, which is critical for the game's main game logic thread. The 65W TDP and 14 nm process node are not directly relevant to gaming performance, but they indicate the CPU is a mainstream desktop part from 2021.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is a mobile-class GPU based on the Panther Lake chip with Xe3-LPG architecture on a 3 nm process. It has 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs, with 10 ray tracing cores. The GPU runs at a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz. Its memory is system-shared, meaning it uses the CPU's DDR4 memory rather than dedicated VRAM, with bandwidth that is system-dependent.

The GPU's benchmark results are extremely weak. It scores 1184 in 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12, which places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all much older parts: the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, 0.2% ahead), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, 0.5% ahead), AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, 0.7% ahead), and AMD FirePro M2000 (1168, 1.4% behind). These are all GPUs from the early 2010s, indicating that the Arc B370's raw performance is comparable to hardware from over a decade ago.

In Doom, the GPU's limitations are evident from the measured FPS. At 1080p Low, it manages 96 FPS, but this drops to 58 FPS at Ultra. At 4K, even Low only achieves 34 FPS. The GPU's pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s are modest figures that explain the poor performance at high resolutions. The FP32 throughput of 6.144 TFLOPS is not sufficient for demanding 4K rendering in this game.

The system-shared memory is a significant bottleneck. With no dedicated VRAM, the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth. The CPU's 51.2 GB/s dual-channel memory bandwidth is shared, which means the GPU cannot access memory as efficiently as a dedicated card with its own VRAM. This likely contributes to the frame pacing issues seen at 4K Medium, where the min FPS of 25 is far below the average of 29.

The GPU's 25W TDP and IGP form factor indicate it is designed for integrated use in portable devices, not for desktop gaming. The data confirms this: the Arc B370 is not a gaming GPU by modern standards, and its performance in Doom reflects that. The combo rank of 2696 out of 2930 is a direct consequence of this GPU's limitations, as the CPU is clearly capable of much higher performance if paired with a more powerful graphics solution. The boost clock of 2400 MHz is high, but the low core count and system-shared memory architecture prevent it from delivering playable framerates at higher resolutions and settings.