Doom

# Doom — Intel Core i5-11400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti delivers exceptional performance in Doom, with measured frame rates that scale predictably across resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the system produces 312 FPS on Low settings, while 4K Ultra still maintains 66 FPS, indicating a balanced configuration where neither component becomes a severe bottleneck. The data shows this combo ranks 963rd out of 3,712 tested combinations, placing it in the top 26% of all systems evaluated for this title. This pairing leverages a six-core, twelve-thread Rocket Lake processor with a GA102-based Ampere GPU to achieve high refresh rates across the board, though the scaling patterns reveal where each component's influence dominates.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with High settings, the system achieves 230 FPS, which drops to 149 FPS at 1440p and further to 81 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, followed by another 46% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The Low preset shows even more dramatic scaling: 312 FPS at 1080p, 202 FPS at 1440p, and 109 FPS at 4K — a 65% total drop from the lowest to highest resolution.

The scaling pattern strongly indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting component as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the 312 FPS result exceeds what most displays can refresh, suggesting the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU sufficiently at lower resolutions. However, the 4K Low result of 109 FPS — less than half the 1080p Low figure — demonstrates that pixel throughput demands grow faster than the CPU's ability to compensate. The RTX 3080 Ti's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth are being increasingly taxed at higher resolutions, and the frame rate deltas between presets shrink as resolution rises.

Between Medium and High settings at each resolution, the FPS differences are modest: at 1080p, 272 vs 230 (18% gap); at 1440p, 176 vs 149 (18% gap); at 4K, 95 vs 81 (17% gap). This consistent proportional difference suggests that the GPU's shading and texture units are handling the incremental load uniformly across resolutions. The Ultra preset, however, imposes a steeper penalty — at 4K, Ultra drops to 66 FPS, which is 31% below High, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces additional effects that disproportionately tax the GPU at higher pixel counts.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the primary driver of Doom's performance, particularly at 1440p and 4K resolutions. Its GA102 chip, built on Samsung's 8 nm process with 28,300 million transistors, operates at a base clock of 1365 MHz and boosts to 1665 MHz. The 12 GB GDDR6X memory runs at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) across a 384-bit bus, yielding 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory subsystem is crucial for Doom's high-texture environments, as the game's id Tech 6 engine streams large amounts of texture data.

The GPU's 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 ROPs provide substantial raw compute capability. The pixel rate of 186.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 532.8 GTexel/s translate directly into the high frame rates observed at lower resolutions. The FP32 throughput of 34.10 TFLOPS ensures that the GPU is rarely idle, even when pushing 312 FPS at 1080p Low. The data confirms that at 4K, the GPU's fillrate and bandwidth become the binding constraints — the 66 FPS Ultra result at 4K represents the system's practical ceiling for maximum visual fidelity.

The RTX 3080 Ti's benchmark scores reinforce its position relative to competitors. With a PassMark G3D score of 26,896 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,077, it outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 by 0.8% and trails the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB by 1.2% in average benchmark score. The GPU's 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it sits comfortably in the upper tier, which aligns with its measured Doom performance. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 192,697 and OpenCL score of 170,037 further demonstrate the GPU's compute capabilities that benefit Doom's rendering pipeline.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F plays a supporting but essential role in this configuration. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the Rocket Lake processor runs at a base clock of 2.60 GHz and boosts to 4.40 GHz. The 12 MB shared L3 cache and 80 KB L1 cache per core provide adequate capacity for Doom's game logic and physics processing. The CPU's 14 nm process node and 65 W TDP indicate a modest power envelope, yet the benchmark results show it can sustain high frame rates when the GPU is not the limiting factor.

At 1080p Low, the 312 FPS result demonstrates that the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently at lower resolutions. The 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,024 suggest strong per-core performance, which matters for Doom's main-thread-heavy workload. The multi-threaded scores — Cinebench R23 multi-core at 14,340 and PassMark multi-thread at 16,908 — indicate that additional threads are available for background tasks without compromising frame delivery.

The CPU's 71st percentile ranking among all CPUs places it above average, but its nearest rivals show how close the competition is. The AMD EPYC 7H12 is 0.3% faster, while the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U is 0.6% faster, and the Intel Core i5-12450H is 0.4% slower. These small deltas suggest that CPU performance differences have minimal impact on Doom's frame rates, as the game is predominantly GPU-bound at higher settings. The 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, delivered through dual-channel DDR4, is sufficient to avoid starving the GPU's 912.4 GB/s bandwidth, though the 1:17 ratio between CPU and GPU bandwidth highlights the GPU's dominance in data throughput.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing the Doom experience across different display capabilities. For 1080p displays, the High preset at 230 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors, while even Ultra at 188 FPS remains highly playable. The Medium preset at 272 FPS offers a significant frame rate advantage over High, with only 272 vs 230 FPS (18% difference), making it the optimal choice for competitive play on high-refresh 1080p panels. Low at 312 FPS provides the highest possible frame rate but sacrifices visual quality for marginal gains.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 149 FPS, which comfortably exceeds 144 Hz refresh rates. Ultra drops to 122 FPS, still above 120 Hz, while Low reaches 202 FPS for esports-style play. The Medium preset at 176 FPS splits the difference, offering a 46% improvement over Ultra while maintaining solid visual fidelity. For 4K displays, High at 81 FPS is the practical sweet spot, as it exceeds 60 FPS with headroom. Medium at 95 FPS provides a 17% improvement over High, while Ultra at 66 FPS remains just above 60 FPS but sacrifices 23% of the Medium preset's performance.

The data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the 272 FPS result with a minimum of 231 FPS indicates consistent frame delivery. At 1440p Medium, 176 FPS with a 150 FPS minimum ensures smooth gameplay even during demanding scenes. At 4K Medium, the 95 FPS average with an 81 FPS minimum keeps the experience fluid on 60 Hz displays with room for V-sync headroom. High settings remain viable for those prioritizing visual fidelity, but Ultra should only be considered at 1080p where 188 FPS still provides an excellent experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F + RTX 3080 Ti combination ranks 963rd out of 3,712 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the 74th percentile of all systems evaluated. This ranking reflects the strong GPU performance offset by the mid-range CPU, which allows higher-end processor pairings to achieve slightly better results at lower resolutions. The combo's position in the upper quartile indicates that it outperforms the majority of systems tested, though it sits below configurations with flagship CPUs.

The GPU's 83rd percentile ranking versus all GPUs is the primary driver of this combo's strong showing. The CPU's 71st percentile ranking is slightly below the GPU, suggesting that in CPU-bound scenarios at 1080p, a faster processor could extract additional performance. However, the measured FPS data shows minimal CPU bottlenecking, as the 312 FPS result at 1080p Low approaches the practical limits of the id Tech 6 engine. The 4K results, where the GPU dominates, place this combo in a stronger relative position, as the RTX 3080 Ti's 12 GB memory capacity and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth are well-matched to Doom's requirements.

Compared to other tested configurations, this combo sits in the top 26% overall, which is respectable but not elite. The ranking implies that roughly 2,749 tested combos perform worse, while 963 perform better. This distribution suggests that systems with the RTX 3080 Ti paired with higher-core-count CPUs (such as Ryzen 9 or Core i9 parts) would rank higher, particularly at 1080p where CPU performance matters more. At 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes, and this combo's ranking likely improves relative to its overall position.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1440p High at 149 FPS offers the best balance of resolution and visual quality, while 1080p Medium at 272 FPS maximizes frame rates for competitive play. For 4K, High at 81 FPS is the recommended preset.

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

A: At 1080p, Ultra delivers 188 FPS vs 230 FPS for High — an 18% reduction. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 122 FPS from 149 FPS — an 18% reduction. At 4K, Ultra falls to 66 FPS from 81 FPS — a 19% reduction.

Q: Is this system capable of 4K gaming on a 60 Hz display?

A: Yes. At 4K High, the system achieves 81 FPS, which exceeds 60 Hz. Even 4K Ultra at 66 FPS stays above the 60 FPS threshold, providing a smooth experience on standard 60 Hz monitors.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i5-11400F's average benchmark score of 17,177 is 0.3% below the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17,120), 0.4% above the Intel Core i5-12450H (17,239), and 0.6% above the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17,278).

Q: What is the GPU's performance relative to its nearest competitors?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti's average benchmark score of 41,187 is 0.8% above the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40,870), 1.2% below the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB (41,707), and 2% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (40,377).

Q: Does the system maintain minimum frame rates above 60 FPS at all settings?

A: The measured minimum FPS data is only available for Medium settings. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 81 FPS; at 1440p Medium, 150 FPS; at 1080p Medium, 231 FPS. All exceed 60 FPS, indicating consistent performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the system delivers an average of 81 FPS on High settings. Lowering to Medium increases the average to 95 FPS with a measured minimum of 81 FPS and maximum of 110 FPS. Low settings produce 109 FPS average, while Ultra reduces performance to 66 FPS average. The 4K results show a 43 FPS spread between Low (109 FPS) and Ultra (66 FPS), representing a 65% performance difference between the lowest and highest presets.

At 2560x1440, High settings yield 149 FPS average, with Medium achieving 176 FPS (minimum 150, maximum 202). Low settings reach 202 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 122 FPS. The 1440p results demonstrate an 80 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, with the Medium preset's minimum of 150 FPS ensuring smooth gameplay on 144 Hz displays.

At 1920x1080, High settings deliver 230 FPS average, while Medium produces 272 FPS (minimum 231, maximum 313). Low settings achieve 312 FPS average, and Ultra maintains 188 FPS. The 1080p data shows a 124 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, with even the Ultra preset exceeding 144 Hz refresh rates. The Medium preset's 231 FPS minimum guarantees consistent frame delivery above 200 FPS for the majority of gameplay.