Doom

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER delivers a playable but resolution-sensitive experience in Doom, with the data showing a clear shift from CPU-friendly frame rates at 1080p to GPU-bound performance at 4K. This combination ranks 3168 out of 3712 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower half of the database, yet the measured results reveal that the hardware still handles the classic FPS title with respectable averages across most settings. The GTX 1660 SUPER, built on the Turing architecture with a TU116 chip, provides 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, while the i5-11400F brings six cores and twelve threads from Intel’s Rocket Lake architecture, and together they produce a frame rate curve that tells a story of diminishing returns as resolution climbs.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a steep drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, which is the hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario at higher pixel counts. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average frame rate hits 148 FPS, but this falls to 96 FPS at 2560x1440 and then to 52 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 65% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The pattern repeats across all settings tiers, indicating that the GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary bottleneck when pixel count rises, while the CPU has enough headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions.

Looking at High settings, the progression is 109 FPS at 1080p, 70 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K, which is a 65% decline from the lowest to highest resolution. Medium settings follow a similar trajectory: 129 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 45 FPS at 4K, a 65% drop. Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling, moving from 89 FPS at 1080p to 58 FPS at 1440p and then to 31 FPS at 4K, a 65% decrease overall. The consistency of this 65% reduction across all four settings presets strongly suggests that resolution scaling is purely a function of the GPU’s pixel throughput, not CPU or memory constraints.

The implication is that at 1080p, the system is partially CPU-bound, especially at Low settings where 148 FPS approaches the practical limit for many titles, but the i5-11400F’s 12 threads and 4.40 GHz boost clock keep it competitive. At 4K, the GTX 1660 SUPER’s 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 336.0 GB/s memory bandwidth become the limiting factors, as the data shows average frame rates dropping to 31-52 FPS depending on settings. The 4K Medium result includes a minimum of 38 FPS and maximum of 52 FPS, and the 1440p Medium result shows a minimum of 71 FPS and maximum of 96 FPS, while 1080p Medium spans 110 to 148 FPS, which provides a useful window into frame time consistency.

This scaling behavior indicates that players targeting 4K on this combo will need to accept Low settings for a 52 FPS average, which is smooth enough for Doom’s fast-paced combat, but High and Ultra settings at 4K fall below 40 FPS, which could feel sluggish. The 1440p results are the sweet spot for visual quality, with Ultra hitting 58 FPS and High reaching 70 FPS, while 1080p remains the most comfortable for high refresh rates, with even Ultra staying above 89 FPS. The data does not include minimum or maximum FPS for the Low, High, or Ultra presets at any resolution, so frame pacing analysis is limited to the Medium preset, but the available figures suggest consistent performance without extreme dips.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the dominant component in shaping Doom’s performance at higher resolutions, with its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s base clock of 1530 MHz and boost clock of 1785 MHz, combined with 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units, deliver a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s. These specifications translate into the measured frame rates, where the GPU’s 53rd percentile ranking among all tested GPUs and average benchmark score of 12986 place it in the mid-range tier, close to rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 580, which scores 12928 with a 0.4% delta, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile at 12940.

The VRAM capacity of 6 GB is sufficient for Doom at all tested resolutions and settings, as the game’s 2016 release date predates the texture-heavy demands of modern titles, and the data shows no signs of memory-related stuttering or performance collapse. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, which supports the observed frame rates at 4K, where the GPU’s compute resources, rather than bandwidth, appear to be the limiting factor. The 12 nm process node from TSMC, with 6,600 million transistors on a 284 mm² die, gives the GTX 1660 SUPER a transistor density of 23.2M per mm², and the 125 W TDP indicates a power-efficient design that pairs well with the i5-11400F’s 65 W TDP.

The GPU’s benchmark results show a PassMark G3D score of 12699 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 57102, which align with its mid-range positioning, but in Doom specifically, the measured FPS reveals that the card can push beyond 148 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that the game’s rendering engine is well-optimized for this hardware. The predecessor GeForce 10 series and successor GeForce 20 series frame the GTX 1660 SUPER’s place in NVIDIA’s lineup, but its Turing architecture with DirectX 12 (12_1) support ensures compatibility with Doom’s Vulkan and OpenGL 4.6 paths. The PCIe 3.0 x16 interface provides adequate bandwidth for the 6 GB frame buffer, and the dual-slot design with a single 8-pin power connector makes it a straightforward installation in most systems, though these physical attributes do not directly influence the measured frame rates.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 2560x1440 as the best balance, with High settings averaging 70 FPS and Ultra averaging 58 FPS, while 1080p offers higher frame rates up to 148 FPS at Low, and 4K drops to 31-52 FPS depending on settings.

Q: Does the GTX 1660 SUPER’s 6 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: No, the measured results at 3840x2160 show average frame rates from 31 FPS at Ultra to 52 FPS at Low, with no evidence of memory-related performance drops, indicating that 6 GB is adequate for this game.

Q: How does this combo compare to similar hardware in the database?

A: The combo ranks 3168 out of 3712 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the lower portion of the database, but the GPU’s nearest rivals include the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile with a 0.4% higher average score and the RX 580 with a 0.4% higher score.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the frame rates range from 89 FPS at Ultra to 148 FPS at Low, and the consistent 65% drop when moving to 4K indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides sufficient headroom at 1080p.

Q: What settings should be used for a 60 FPS target at 1440p?

A: High settings at 2560x1440 produce an average of 70 FPS, while Ultra drops to 58 FPS, so High is the recommended preset for maintaining 60 FPS, with Medium at 83 FPS offering additional headroom.

Q: Can this combo handle Ultra settings at any resolution?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 Ultra averages 89 FPS, and at 2560x1440 Ultra averages 58 FPS, but at 3840x2160 Ultra falls to 31 FPS, which is below typical playability thresholds for fast-paced FPS games.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo covers three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a comprehensive view of performance. At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver the highest average at 148 FPS, followed by Medium at 129 FPS with a minimum of 110 FPS and maximum of 148 FPS, then High at 109 FPS, and finally Ultra at 89 FPS. This ordering shows that even at the lowest resolution, the settings presets have a significant impact, with a 40% difference between Low and Ultra, which suggests that the GPU’s shading units and texture units are fully utilized as visual complexity increases.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 96 FPS for Low, 83 FPS for Medium with a range of 71 to 96 FPS, 70 FPS for High, and 58 FPS for Ultra. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 30-35% of performance across all settings, which aligns with the 1.78x increase in pixel count, indicating that the GPU is scaling predictably with resolution. The Medium preset’s minimum of 71 FPS at 1440p remains above the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that frame pacing is stable even under load, while the Ultra preset’s 58 FPS average is just below that mark.

At 3840x2160, the results show 52 FPS for Low, 45 FPS for Medium with a minimum of 38 FPS and maximum of 52 FPS, 38 FPS for High, and 31 FPS for Ultra. The 4K pixel count is 4x that of 1080p, yet the frame rates only drop to roughly one-third of the 1080p values, which indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are being pushed to their limits. The Medium preset’s minimum of 38 FPS at 4K could cause noticeable stuttering in fast-paced scenes, while the Low preset’s 52 FPS average is the only 4K configuration that approaches playable territory for competitive play.

The data does not include minimum or maximum FPS values for Low, High, or Ultra presets at any resolution, so the Medium preset provides the only frame time variability data, with 1080p ranging from 110 to 148 FPS, 1440p from 71 to 96 FPS, and 4K from 38 to 52 FPS. These ranges suggest that the GPU maintains relatively consistent frame times, with the spread between minimum and maximum roughly proportional to the average FPS, which is a positive sign for gameplay smoothness. The absence of data for other presets means that conclusions about stuttering or frame spikes must be drawn solely from the Medium results, but the available numbers indicate a well-behaved system.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER holds a rank of 3168 out of 3712 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the 15th percentile of all configurations in the database. This low ranking reflects the age and mid-range positioning of both components, as the CPU sits at the 71st percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 17177, while the GPU is at the 53rd percentile with an average score of 12986. The gap between the CPU’s higher percentile and the GPU’s lower percentile suggests that the graphics card is the weaker link in this pairing, which is consistent with the resolution scaling analysis showing GPU-bound behavior at 4K.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the database include the AMD EPYC 7H12 with an average score of 17120 (0.3% lower), the Intel Core i5-12450H at 17239 (0.4% higher), the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G at 17278 (0.6% higher), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U at 17074 (0.6% lower). These small deltas indicate that the i5-11400F is closely matched to several other processors, and its 71st percentile ranking means it outperforms a majority of CPUs, but in Doom, the frame rates are more dependent on the GPU. The GPU’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile at 12940 (0.4% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 580 at 12928 (0.4% higher), the NVIDIA Tesla M2090 at 13075 (0.7% higher), and the AMD Radeon 740M at 12870 (0.9% higher), all within a 1% range, indicating that the GTX 1660 SUPER sits in a tightly contested performance tier.

The combination’s rank of 3168 out of 3712 means that roughly 85% of tested combos perform better in Doom, which is expected given the GTX 1660 SUPER’s 53rd percentile GPU ranking and the game’s ability to scale with higher-end graphics cards. However, the measured FPS data shows that this combo still delivers playable performance at 1080p and 1440p, with 4K requiring Low settings for a 52 FPS average. The ranking does not factor in price or efficiency, so it reflects pure performance, and the data indicates that the CPU contributes less to the final frame rates than the GPU, as evidenced by the CPU’s higher percentile ranking and the GPU-bound scaling pattern.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F provides the computational foundation for this combo, with six cores and twelve threads from the Rocket Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 14 nm process with a die size of 276 mm². The base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, along with a 12 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth, give the processor enough throughput to avoid bottlenecking the GTX 1660 SUPER in Doom. The CPU’s benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14340 and singlecore score of 2024, a Geekbench multicore score of 7737, and a PassMark multithread score of 16908, place it at the 71st percentile among all CPUs, which is notably higher than the GPU’s 53rd percentile.

In Doom’s measured results, the CPU’s role becomes apparent at 1080p, where frame rates reach 148 FPS at Low settings, a level that requires the processor to feed the GPU with enough draw calls and physics updates to maintain such high output. The 12 threads handle the game’s multi-threaded rendering tasks efficiently, and the 4.40 GHz boost clock ensures strong single-thread performance for the main game loop. The CPU’s 3DMark scores, including 5619 for 16 threads and 868 for single thread, show a scaling pattern that suggests good parallel efficiency, which benefits Doom’s Vulkan API that can utilize multiple cores.

The 65 W TDP of the i5-11400F indicates that it does not generate excessive heat, allowing the GPU to operate without thermal throttling from shared cooling solutions, though the data does not include thermal measurements. The PCIe Gen 4 support with 20 lanes provides high bandwidth for the GPU, even though the GTX 1660 SUPER uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, which is backward compatible and sufficient for the 6 GB frame buffer. The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s is more than adequate for Doom’s asset streaming, and the 12 MB L3 cache helps reduce latency for frequently accessed data.

The nearest rival CPUs, such as the AMD EPYC 7H12 with a 0.3% higher average score and the Intel Core i5-12450H with a 0.4% higher score, demonstrate that the i5-11400F is competitive with a wide range of processors, but in Doom, the frame rate differences are minimal because the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 71 means it outperforms most processors in synthetic benchmarks, yet the combo’s overall rank of 3168 out of 3712 in Doom is dragged down by the GPU’s mid-range performance. This suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield larger frame rate gains than upgrading the CPU, particularly for players targeting 1440p or 4K, where the data shows the GTX 1660 SUPER struggling to maintain high averages.