Doom

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for this Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti pairing in Doom reveals a steep and fairly consistent performance curve as resolution climbs. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 113 FPS average. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 71.4 FPS, a reduction of roughly 37%. At 4K High, the average falls to 42 FPS, which is about 63% below the 1080p figure. This pattern strongly suggests the GPU is the dominant constraint at higher resolutions, as the pixel-count increase directly translates into a nearly proportional frame rate loss.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly telling. At 1440p High, the system is already below the 72 FPS threshold that many displays target, and at 4K High it slips under 45 FPS, which is marginal for a fast-paced FPS. The drop from 71.4 to 42 FPS represents a 41% reduction, which is close to the 2.25x pixel count difference between 1440p and 4K — but not quite. This slight deviation hints that the CPU is still contributing some headroom at 1440p, but by 4K, the GPU is almost certainly the bottleneck. For Low settings, the trend is similar: 151.9 FPS at 1080p, 98 at 1440p, and 54.9 at 4K. The 4K Low figure being higher than 4K High by 30% indicates that texture and shading complexity matter more than raw pixel count at this extreme resolution.

The data implies that for competitive play at 1080p, this combo has ample headroom, but for 4K gaming, the GTX 1660 Ti is clearly the limiting factor. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears to keep up even at lower resolutions where frame rates are high, since the FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p is not catastrophic — it scales roughly with pixel count, not with CPU-bound degradation.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is built on the Turing architecture with a TU116 chip, fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1500 MHz, which translates to 12 Gbps effective. For a 2016 game like Doom, this memory configuration is more than sufficient in capacity — 6 GB is ample for the textures and geometry at 1080p and even 1440p, but at 4K Ultra, the combination of high-resolution textures and shading effects could pressure the VRAM, though the measured 29.4 FPS at 4K Ultra suggests the core compute is the bigger issue rather than memory overflow.

The GPU's base clock is 1500 MHz with a boost of 1770 MHz. These clocks are moderate for the Turing generation, and the 1536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs define its raw throughput. The pixel rate is 84.96 GPixel/s and texture rate is 169.9 GTexel/s, which directly impacts fill-rate-bound scenarios. In Doom, which uses the id Tech 6 engine, the Vulkan API path (supported via the GPU's Vulkan 1.4 capability) can leverage these resources efficiently. The FP32 performance is 5.437 TFLOPS, which is modest by modern standards but adequate for this title's era.

Given that the GPU ranks at the 55th percentile among all GPUs in the database, its performance is mid-pack. The measured FPS at 1080p High (113) is strong for a game from 2016, but at 4K Ultra (29.4), the GPU is clearly overwhelmed. The gap between 4K Medium (48.7) and 4K High (42) is only 16%, suggesting that the GPU's shading units are saturated at this resolution regardless of the preset. The GPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 570X (0.4% slower) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (0.8% slower), indicating it sits in a specific performance tier — one that handles 1080p and 1440p well but struggles at 4K.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For 1080p, the measured data shows that Medium provides 132 FPS, which is 17% higher than High (113) and only 13% lower than Low (151.9). Given that Doom is a fast-paced FPS, the jump from High to Medium is likely imperceptible in visual quality on most displays, but the FPS gain is significant for maintaining a high refresh rate. Ultra at 1080p drops to 87.4 FPS, which is still playable but below the 100+ FPS that competitive players might prefer. Therefore, at 1080p, Medium is the sweet spot — it stays above 120 FPS, which is ideal for 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitors, while retaining reasonable visual fidelity.

At 1440p, the situation changes. Medium delivers 86.3 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play, but High (71.4) is also acceptable if visual quality is prioritized. Ultra falls to 56.2 FPS, which is borderline for a shooter. The data suggests that Medium is the best balance at 1440p, as it keeps the frame rate high enough for responsive gameplay without sacrificing too much detail. Low at 1440p yields 98 FPS, but the visual compromise is likely too severe for most players.

For 4K, none of the presets achieve a smooth 60 FPS. Ultra is the worst at 29.4 FPS, which is barely playable. Medium (48.7) and High (42) are closer, but both sit below 50 FPS, which is marginal for a game like Doom. Low (54.9) is the highest, but it still falls short of 60 FPS. Given the measured rows, 4K is not a viable option for this combo if smooth gameplay is the goal. The best recommendation is to stay at 1080p Medium or 1440p Medium, depending on the display's native resolution. The data does not support 4K gaming with this setup.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Doom?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 151.9, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is followed by 132 at 1080p Medium and 113 at 1080p High.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Doom?

A: The data shows that 4K performance is limited. The best 4K result is 54.9 FPS at Low settings, which is below the 60 FPS target. Ultra at 4K drops to 29.4 FPS, making 4K gaming impractical for smooth play.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 Ti compare to its nearest rival in the database?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti's average benchmark score is 13925, which is 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 570X and 0.8% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680. It trails the NVIDIA Tesla K10 by 0.7%.

Q: What is the CPU's benchmark percentile and what does it mean?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400 ranks at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19850. This places it above the Intel Core i7-9700 (by 0.1%) and below the Intel Core i7-8700 (by 0.2%).

Q: Is there a significant FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p at High settings?

A: Yes, the average FPS drops from 113 at 1080p High to 71.4 at 1440p High, a reduction of 36.8%. This suggests the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as resolution increases.

Q: Which preset at 1080p offers the best balance of performance and quality?

A: Medium at 1080p delivers 132 FPS, which is 17% higher than High (113) and only 13% lower than Low (151.9). This makes Medium the recommended preset for maintaining high frame rates without a major visual compromise.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, fabricated on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock is 2.50 GHz with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The CPU has 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. For a game like Doom, which typically utilizes fewer threads, the 6-core/12-thread configuration provides ample parallelism, and the high boost clock of 4.40 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance — a key factor for game logic and physics.

The CPU's benchmark results support its capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 15935 in multicore and 2249 in single-core. The 3DMark single-thread score is 910, which is modest, but the 4-thread score of 3012 and 8-thread score of 4745 indicate good scaling. The Passmark single-thread score is 3456, which is competitive for its generation. The CPU's average benchmark score is 19850, placing it at the 77th percentile, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core i7-9700 (0.1% faster) and Intel Core i7-8700 (0.2% faster).

In Doom, the CPU's role is evident in the FPS data at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 151.9 FPS, which is high enough that the CPU could become a bottleneck if the GPU were faster. However, the GTX 1660 Ti's mid-range performance (55th percentile) means the GPU is generally the limiting factor. The fact that 1080p High (113 FPS) is only 26% lower than 1080p Low (151.9 FPS) suggests that the CPU is not struggling — the GPU is handling the increased graphical load. The CPU's 12 threads likely prevent any frame pacing issues, contributing to stable averages across settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: Low 151.9, Medium 132, High 113, and Ultra 87.4. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with Ultra being 42% slower than Low. The gap between Medium and High is 14.4%, while the gap between High and Ultra is 22.7%, indicating that Ultra imposes a significant additional load.

At 2560x1440, the values are: Low 98, Medium 86.3, High 71.4, and Ultra 56.2. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is consistent — Low falls by 35.5%, Medium by 34.6%, High by 36.8%, and Ultra by 35.7%. This uniformity reinforces the GPU-bound nature of the system at these resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the values are: Low 54.9, Medium 48.7, High 42, and Ultra 29.4. The drop from 1440p to 4K is steeper: Low falls by 44%, Medium by 43.6%, High by 41.2%, and Ultra by 47.7%. The Ultra setting shows the largest percentage drop, suggesting that the combination of 4K resolution and Ultra details overwhelms the GPU's compute resources. The data across resolutions shows a clear pattern: the system is comfortable at 1080p, acceptable at 1440p with Medium or lower settings, and not viable at 4K for smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti ranks 1434 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the bottom 15% of all tested systems, which is a low position given the game's age and the hardware's capabilities. The low rank is likely due to the GTX 1660 Ti being a mid-range GPU from 2019, while many other tested combos may feature newer or higher-tier graphics cards.

The rank of 1434 out of 1681 means that only 247 combos perform worse. This is a significant finding — the CPU is modern (2022 release) and ranks at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, but the GPU drags the overall combo down. The GPU's 55th percentile ranking is below average, and when paired with a CPU that is above average, the combination still lands in the lower quartile of all tested systems for this game. This suggests that in Doom, the GPU is the primary determinant of the combo's rank, and the CPU's strength does not compensate for the GPU's limitations.

The data implies that if a user were to upgrade the GPU while keeping the i5-12400, the combo rank would improve substantially. However, as measured, this pairing is best suited for 1080p gaming at Medium to High settings, where it performs admirably, but it is not competitive with higher-tier GPU combos at higher resolutions.