Doom

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the Intel Arc B390 represents a peculiar combination in the Doom benchmark database: a mainstream desktop processor from 2022 mated to an integrated-class graphics solution from a future mobile platform. The data shows this pairing ranks 2580th out of 2930 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 12% of all system configurations, yet the measured frame rates reveal a playable experience at 1080p and a steep cliff as resolution climbs. This analysis breaks down exactly what the numbers say about this combo’s capabilities, its bottlenecks, and where it stands relative to other tested hardware.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank in Doom among all tested combinations?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400 + Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 2580th out of 2930 tested combos in Doom. That places it in the bottom 12.0% of all configurations, which is consistent with the GPU’s low benchmark standing. The CPU alone sits at the 72nd percentile among all tested CPUs, but the graphics solution drags the overall system ranking down substantially.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which puts it just 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% ahead of the GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% ahead of the GT 710 (1443). The GPU’s percentile versus all GPUs is 9, meaning it outperforms only about 9% of the tested graphics cards in that benchmark.

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo achieves in Doom, and at what settings?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 107 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The same resolution yields 93 FPS at Medium, 78 FPS at High, and 64 FPS at Ultra. At 2560x1440, the best result drops to 69 FPS at Low, while at 3840x2160 the maximum average is just 37 FPS, also at Low settings.

Q: Does the i5-12400 bottleneck the Arc B390 in Doom?

A: Benchmark results indicate the CPU is not the limiting factor in most scenarios. The i5-12400 delivers a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15989 and a single-core score of 2257, placing it at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs. In Doom, the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K follows the GPU’s expected curve: 107 FPS at 1080p Low falls to 69 FPS at 1440p and 37 FPS at 4K, a drop of 65% from the lowest resolution to the highest, which points to the graphics solution as the primary constraint.

Q: What are the CPU’s core and thread counts, and how do they relate to its benchmark performance?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400 has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 3DMark multi-threaded score reaches 5890 with max threads, while the single-thread score is 910. In PassMark, the multi-thread score is 18747 and single-thread is 3456. These figures show a balanced mainstream processor that provides ample throughput for Doom’s engine, which is not heavily multithreaded.

Q: Is the Arc B390’s memory configuration a factor in performance?

A: The Arc B390 uses System Shared memory, meaning it has no dedicated VRAM. Its memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent." This design choice means the GPU relies on the system’s main memory, which contributes to its modest performance profile. The GPU’s base clock is 300 MHz with a boost clock of 2500 MHz, and it contains 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the decisive component in this combo’s Doom performance, and the data makes that clear. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it at the 9th percentile among all tested GPUs, a figure that explains why the system ranks so low overall. Its nearest rivals are all legacy NVIDIA parts: the GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710, with delta percentages ranging from 1.3% to 2.7%. This positions the Arc B390 as a solution roughly equivalent to a basic entry-level discrete GPU from a decade ago, despite its modern Xe3-LPG architecture and 3 nm process node.

The GPU’s clock behavior is notable: a base clock of just 300 MHz and a boost of 2500 MHz. The boost clock is 8.3 times the base, indicating aggressive power management that likely ramps up under load. The memory configuration is system-shared, which means the effective bandwidth depends entirely on the host system’s memory subsystem. The i5-12400 supports dual-channel DDR4 or DDR5, but the exact bandwidth figure is not recorded in the data. The GPU’s compute resources are modest: 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, producing a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 7.680 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 15.36 TFLOPS via a 2:1 ratio.

In Doom, these specifications translate to a hard ceiling. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 107 FPS, which is playable, but the frame rate collapses as settings and resolution increase. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 22 FPS, a figure that is effectively unplayable for a fast-paced FPS. The GPU’s low ROP count and shared memory bandwidth are likely the primary culprits, as Doom’s rendering demands scale with both resolution and texture detail. The fact that the GPU’s percentile rank is 9 means that over 90% of tested graphics cards outperform it, which contextualizes why this combo struggles beyond 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame field shows a rank of 2580 out of 2930 tested combos in Doom. This places the system in the bottom 12% of all configurations, a position that reflects the GPU’s weak standing more than the CPU’s. The i5-12400’s percentileVsAllCpus is 72, meaning it outperforms 72% of tested processors, but the Arc B390’s percentileVsAllGpus is 9, so the graphics card lags behind 91% of tested GPUs. The combination of a strong CPU and a weak GPU creates a system where the GPU is the overwhelming bottleneck in GPU-bound scenarios like Doom at higher resolutions.

The rank of 2580 out of 2930 means there are 2579 combinations that score higher, and only 350 that score lower. This is not a flattering position, but it is consistent with the GPU’s synthetic benchmark performance. The nearest GPU rivals—GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, GT 710—are all parts that would be considered obsolete for modern gaming, yet the Arc B390 only edges them by 1.3% to 2.7% in 3DMark Steel Nomad. In Doom, the measured FPS aligns with that synthetic gap: the combo produces frame rates that are playable at 1080p but fall short of what most gamers would consider smooth at higher resolutions.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the AMD EPYC 7643 (18697, -0.1% delta), Intel Core i7-1355U (18730, -0.3% delta), AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 (18811, -0.7% delta), and Intel Core i3-14100F (18519, 0.9% delta). These scores are all within 1% of the i5-12400’s 18683 average, indicating that the CPU is a solid mid-range performer. However, in this combo, that CPU performance is largely wasted because the GPU cannot translate it into high frame rates at demanding settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings levels (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 107 FPS at Low, 93 FPS at Medium, 78 FPS at High, and 64 FPS at Ultra. The Medium setting shows a min FPS of 79 and a max of 107, indicating a range that stays comfortably above 60 FPS. The Low setting’s 107 FPS average is the best result in the entire dataset, suggesting that at 1080p with reduced detail, the system can maintain a smooth experience for Doom’s fast action.

At 2560x1440, the numbers drop significantly. Low settings yield 69 FPS, Medium produces 60 FPS (with min 51, max 69), High falls to 51 FPS, and Ultra drops to 41 FPS. The 1440p Medium result of 60 FPS is exactly at the threshold for smooth gameplay, but the min FPS of 51 shows that there are dips below that level. At High, the 51 FPS average is borderline, and Ultra at 41 FPS would be noticeable in a game that benefits from high frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal. Low settings produce 37 FPS, Medium 33 FPS (min 28, max 37), High 28 FPS, and Ultra 22 FPS. None of these averages reach 60 FPS, and even the best case (37 FPS at Low) is below the standard for a fluid FPS experience. The Ultra setting at 22 FPS is effectively unplayable. The data shows a clear pattern: the combo is viable at 1080p, acceptable at 1440p with reduced settings, and unsuitable for 4K gaming.

The missing min/max values for most entries (only Medium settings have them) suggest that the test methodology recorded full data for Medium, while other settings only captured averages. The Medium data points—79/107 at 1080p, 51/69 at 1440p, 28/37 at 4K—show that frame pacing is relatively stable, with the min typically around 75% of the max. This consistency is a positive sign, but it cannot compensate for the low absolute frame rates at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and revealing. At Low settings, the average falls from 107 FPS at 1920x1080 to 69 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 35.5% drop) and then to 37 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 46.4% drop from 1440p, and a 65.4% drop from 1080p). At Medium, the progression is 93 FPS at 1080p, 60 FPS at 1440p, and 33 FPS at 4K, representing a 64.5% total drop from 1080p to 4K. At High, 78 FPS at 1080p falls to 51 FPS at 1440p and 28 FPS at 4K, a 64.1% drop. At Ultra, 64 FPS at 1080p drops to 41 FPS at 1440p and 22 FPS at 4K, a 65.6% drop.

These scaling patterns indicate that the GPU is the limiting component. The pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, and the frame rates drop by roughly two-thirds, which is close to what would be expected if the GPU were fully saturated. The i5-12400, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is not the constraint here; its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15989 and single-core score of 2257 suggest it could push higher frame rates if paired with a stronger GPU. The fact that performance scales so predictably with resolution points to a GPU that is rendering each frame at its maximum capability.

The scaling also shows that settings have a consistent impact. Moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p reduces the average from 107 FPS to 64 FPS, a 40.2% drop. At 4K, the same settings change reduces from 37 FPS to 22 FPS, a 40.5% drop. This consistency across resolutions suggests that the GPU’s shading units and TMUs are the primary bottleneck, as both resolution and settings increase the workload on those units. The Arc B390’s 1536 shading units and 48 TMUs are simply not enough to handle Doom’s demands at high pixel counts.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide solid single-thread performance, as evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2257. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory, and its integrated graphics are UHD Graphics 730, though the Arc B390 is a separate GPU component in this combo.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-12400 demonstrates strong multi-threaded capability. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15989 and Geekbench multi-core score of 8564 place it at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs. The PassMark multi-thread score of 18747 and 3DMark max-thread score of 5890 further confirm that the CPU can handle heavy workloads. However, in Doom, the CPU’s role is secondary because the game’s frame rates are so low at higher resolutions that the CPU never becomes a bottleneck.

The nearest rival CPUs in average benchmark score are all within 1% of the i5-12400: the AMD EPYC 7643 at -0.1%, Intel Core i7-1355U at -0.3%, AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 at -0.7%, and Intel Core i3-14100F at +0.9%. This indicates that the i5-12400 is a typical mid-range performer, neither exceptionally fast nor slow relative to its peers. Its 65 W TDP and LGA 1700 socket make it a mainstream part, and its launch MSRP is $199, though this analysis does not discuss pricing further.

In the context of Doom, the CPU’s 12 threads provide enough parallelism for the game’s engine, which is not known for requiring extreme core counts. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 107 FPS, which is likely close to the GPU’s maximum rather than the CPU’s. If the Arc B390 were replaced with a more powerful GPU, the i5-12400 could probably push much higher frame rates, given its single-thread performance. But with the current graphics solution, the CPU’s capabilities are largely untapped, as the GPU saturates long before the CPU reaches its limits.