Doom

The Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination delivers a highly playable Doom experience at 1080p and 1440p, with the measured data showing that the High preset at 2560x1440 offers the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, hitting 75 FPS average. This pairing ranks 3068 out of 3712 tested combos for Doom, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database, yet the game’s well-optimized engine allows the hardware to outperform that ranking suggests. Benchmark results indicate that this setup is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides ample headroom even at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 150 FPS on Low settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Doom reveals a clear hierarchy across presets, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset produces an average of 95 FPS, which is smooth for most players, but the High preset jumps to 116 FPS while delivering nearly identical visual quality in most scenes. Given that the difference between High and Ultra is only 21 FPS, and the GTX 1070’s 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for both, High is the recommended preset for 1080p gaming. The Medium preset at 137 FPS and Low at 158 FPS are available for those prioritizing maximum refresh rates, but the visual degradation is substantial for a relatively modest FPS gain over High.

Moving to 2560x1440, the situation becomes more nuanced. The High preset delivers 75 FPS average, which is right at the threshold for smooth gameplay on a 60 Hz display and comfortably playable on a 75 Hz monitor. The Medium preset offers 89 FPS, a 19% improvement over High, but the visual differences in Doom’s fast-paced combat are less noticeable than at lower resolutions because the higher pixel density masks some texture and shadow quality gaps. For competitive play, Medium at 1440p is the sweet spot, as it maintains 89 FPS while still looking significantly better than Low, which hits 102 FPS. Ultra at 1440p drops to 61 FPS, which is borderline for a game that rewards high frame rates, so it is only recommended for players who prioritize image quality over responsiveness.

At 3840x2160, the GTX 1070 struggles to maintain playable frame rates regardless of preset. The Low preset achieves 55 FPS, which is barely playable but requires sacrificing almost all graphical features. Medium drops to 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS, while High falls to 41 FPS and Ultra to 33 FPS. None of these results are ideal for a fast-paced FPS, and the data suggests that 4K is not a viable resolution for this hardware combination in Doom. The best experience at 4K would be Low settings, but even then, the 55 FPS average will suffer from noticeable frame pacing issues during intense combat sequences.

The overall recommendation is to use High settings at 1080p for the best visual-to-performance ratio, or Medium at 1440p if the display supports higher refresh rates. The measured data shows that the GTX 1070’s performance scales predictably with preset changes, and the CPU is never the bottleneck in any configuration tested.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, based on the Pascal architecture with the GP104 chip, is the primary performance limiter in this Doom configuration. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1506 MHz and a boost clock of 1683 MHz, with 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s, which are modest by modern standards but sufficient for Doom’s id Tech engine. The GPU’s FP32 performance is 6.463 TFLOPS, and benchmark results show a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1082, placing the GTX 1070 at the 47th percentile among all GPUs in the database.

The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves adequate for Doom’s texture-heavy environments at 1080p and 1440p. At 4K, however, the memory bandwidth becomes a limiting factor, as the measured FPS drops from 116 at 1080p High to 75 at 1440p High and finally to 41 at 4K High. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU’s compute throughput, not VRAM capacity, is the primary constraint. The GTX 1070’s nearest rivals in the database include the AMD FirePro W5000 with an average score of 9803 and a delta of -0.2%, the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M at 9832 (-0.5%), the NVIDIA Tesla M10 at 9724 (+0.6%), and the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 at 9716 (+0.7%). These scores show that the GTX 1070 sits in a narrow performance band, with its average benchmark score of 9780 being essentially tied with its closest competitors.

The GPU’s 16 nm process node from TSMC and 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die contribute to its 150 W TDP, which is modest for the performance delivered. The 1x 8-pin power connector and suggested 450 W PSU indicate that this card is efficient for its era. In Doom specifically, the GPU’s DirectX 12 (12_1) support and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility allow the game engine to leverage modern rendering paths. The measured FPS data shows that the GTX 1070’s performance degrades sharply with resolution increases, confirming that it is a 1080p-class card that can handle 1440p with settings compromises, but not 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 provides more than enough processing power for Doom, and benchmark results indicate that it is never the bottleneck in this combination. This Alder Lake-S processor features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The 10 nm process node and 163 mm² die size house 18 MB of shared L3 cache, with 1.25 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core. The CPU’s performance in synthetic benchmarks is strong: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 15989 and single-core 2257, while Geekbench multicore reaches 8564 and single-core 1848. The 3DMark tests show scaling from 910 in single-thread to 5890 in max-threads, indicating good multi-threading efficiency.

The i5-12400’s percentile ranking of 72 among all CPUs places it above the majority of processors in the database, and its average benchmark score of 18683 is nearly identical to its closest rivals. The AMD EPYC 7643 scores 18697 (-0.1%), the Intel Core i7-1355U scores 18730 (-0.3%), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 scores 18811 (-0.7%), and the Intel Core i3-14100F scores 18519 (+0.9%). These delta values are all within 1%, showing that the i5-12400 is positioned in a tightly contested performance bracket. In Doom, the CPU’s 12 threads are more than sufficient, as the game’s engine scales well across multiple cores but does not require extreme thread counts.

The measured FPS data supports the conclusion that the CPU is not limiting performance. At 1080p Low, the combination achieves 158 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra it drops to 95 FPS. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively constant across settings changes, but instead it scales significantly with GPU load. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz provides strong single-thread performance, which is critical for Doom’s frame rendering, and the 18 MB L3 cache helps with data locality. The processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus, and its PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes ensures adequate bandwidth for the GPU. The i5-12400’s launch MSRP is $199, and it includes integrated UHD Graphics 730, but the discrete GTX 1070 handles all rendering duties in this configuration.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combinations for Doom, the Intel Core i5-12400 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ranks 3068 out of 3712 total combos. This places it in the 17th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning that roughly 83% of tested combos deliver higher average FPS in this game. The ranking seems harsh given the playable frame rates achieved, but it reflects the fact that Doom is a highly optimized title that runs well on a wide range of hardware, so many older or lower-end GPUs also achieve solid performance. The GTX 1070’s 47th percentile ranking among all GPUs and the i5-12400’s 72nd percentile among CPUs suggest that the GPU is the limiting factor for this combo’s overall position.

The combo’s rank of 3068 indicates that it is not competitive with modern mid-range or high-end configurations, which typically feature GPUs with significantly higher compute throughput. However, the measured data shows that this pairing still delivers 95 FPS at 1080p Ultra and 75 FPS at 1440p High, which are respectable numbers for a game released in 2016. The ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU’s age, as the GTX 1070 was released for the GeForce 10-series and is now end-of-life. The CPU, by contrast, is a current-generation part that holds up well, but its contribution to gaming performance is secondary to the GPU in this title.

The delta between this combo’s performance and the top-ranked configurations is substantial, as the 4K Ultra result of 33 FPS shows. At lower resolutions, the combo performs closer to the median, but the database ranking aggregates results across all tested settings and resolutions, pulling the rank down due to the 4K results. For players with 1080p or 1440p displays, the combo ranks effectively higher than its overall position suggests, as the measured FPS at those resolutions is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which confirms that the GTX 1070 is the limiting component. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 116 FPS, which drops to 75 FPS at 1440p High (a 35% reduction) and further to 41 FPS at 4K High (a 45% reduction from 1440p). The scaling is not perfectly linear, which is typical for GPU-bound scenarios where pixel count increases disproportionately affect fill-rate-limited workloads. The GTX 1070’s pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s are the primary constraints at higher resolutions.

Looking at the Low preset, the scaling is similar: 158 FPS at 1080p, 102 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop), and 55 FPS at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). This consistency across presets indicates that the resolution scaling is independent of settings, which is expected for a GPU-bound scenario. The Medium preset shows 137 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p, and 48 FPS at 4K, with the 1080p to 1440p drop being 35% and the 1440p to 4K drop being 46%. The Ultra preset follows the same trend: 95 FPS at 1080p, 61 FPS at 1440p, and 33 FPS at 4K.

The fact that the CPU’s performance is unchanged across resolutions, while the GPU’s workload increases with pixel count, means that the FPS drops are entirely attributable to the GPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain similar at 1080p and 4K, but the data shows a 2.8x difference between 1080p Low (158 FPS) and 4K Low (55 FPS). This resolution scaling analysis suggests that players with 1440p monitors should use Medium or High settings, while 4K gaming is not recommended unless they are willing to accept Low settings and frame rates below 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured FPS data for Doom with the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 158 FPS, with no minimum or maximum recorded. The Medium preset averages 137 FPS, with a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 158 FPS. High settings produce 116 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 95 FPS. All 1080p results are above 90 FPS, making this resolution the most comfortable for the hardware.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 102 FPS average, which is still very smooth. Medium averages 89 FPS, with a minimum of 75 FPS and a maximum of 102 FPS. High settings result in 75 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 61 FPS. The 1440p results show that even Ultra is technically playable, but the 61 FPS average leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. The Medium preset’s minimum of 75 FPS ensures consistent performance, making it the safest choice for 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 55 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 50 FPS. Medium averages 48 FPS, with a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 55 FPS. High settings drop to 41 FPS, and Ultra averages 33 FPS. The 4K results are all below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that this resolution is not suitable for competitive or fast-paced gameplay with this hardware. The minimum FPS values are not recorded for most settings, but the Medium preset’s 41 FPS minimum at 4K shows that frame pacing can become erratic under load.

Across all resolutions, the data shows that the GTX 1070’s performance scales predictably with both resolution and settings. The 1080p results are universally good, with even Ultra exceeding 90 FPS. The 1440p results are playable with settings compromises, and the 4K results are only marginal on Low. The CPU’s role is minimal, as evidenced by the consistent FPS scaling that follows GPU load rather than CPU utilization. For the best experience, players should target 1080p High or 1440p Medium, as these configurations offer the best balance of visual quality and frame rate based on the measured data.