Doom

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a robust 1080p experience in Doom, but the data reveals a clear shift in system bottleneck as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 210.2 FPS, which drops to 156.8 FPS at High and 127.3 FPS at Ultra. This 82.9 FPS swing between Low and Ultra at 1080p indicates that the GPU is already under significant load from the game’s graphical features, yet the CPU is still capable of feeding it enough data to maintain triple-digit frame rates. Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern continues: Low yields 136.4 FPS, High 103.8 FPS, and Ultra 82.2 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 54.2 FPS, suggesting the GPU is becoming the primary limiter as pixel count rises. At 3840x2160, the story solidifies — Low produces 77 FPS, Medium 63.7 FPS, High 53.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 46.9 FPS. The delta from Low to Ultra here is just 30.1 FPS, a much tighter band that points to the RTX 2070 SUPER hitting its compute ceiling. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is steep: at High settings, the combo loses 103.6 FPS when moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, a 66% reduction. This scaling behavior is characteristic of a system where the GPU’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth become the decisive factors at higher resolutions, while the i5-12400’s 6 cores and 12 threads remain sufficient to avoid stalling the pipeline.

FAQ

Q: How does the combo perform at 1080p Ultra settings in Doom?

A: The combo achieves an average of 127.3 FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the frame rate remains high enough to suggest the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the combo delivers 136.4 FPS on Low settings and 82.2 FPS on Ultra. The 54.2 FPS gap indicates that the GPU is handling the increased graphical load, but the performance drop is less severe than at 4K.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER capable of 4K gaming with this CPU in Doom?

A: At 3840x2160, the combo produces 53.2 FPS on High settings and 46.9 FPS on Ultra. These results are playable but not ideal for high-refresh-rate displays, confirming that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K.

Q: How does the i5-12400’s core configuration affect Doom’s performance?

A: With 6 cores and 12 threads, the i5-12400 provides ample parallel processing power. Benchmark data shows a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935 and a single-core score of 2249, which supports the high frame rates seen at 1080p where CPU overhead is more relevant.

Q: What is the combo’s ranking among all tested configurations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 1019 out of 1681 tested combinations in Doom. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, reflecting its older GPU architecture relative to newer options.

Q: Does the GPU’s memory bandwidth influence the 4K results?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER’s 448.0 GB/s bandwidth and 8 GB GDDR6 memory are sufficient for 4K, but the 46.9 FPS at Ultra suggests that the memory subsystem and compute units are saturated, as evidenced by the narrowing performance gap between settings at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1019 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the 39th percentile of all tested pairings. This mid-pack ranking is influenced heavily by the GPU’s age and standing relative to current hardware. The RTX 2070 SUPER holds a percentile of 65 among all GPUs and an average benchmark score of 22206, which is only 0.5% below the NVIDIA RTX A400 (score 22307) and 2.3% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (score 22729). It sits 0.9% above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (score 22006) and 2.5% above the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (score 21670). On the CPU side, the i5-12400 ranks in the 77th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 19850, nearly identical to its nearest rivals — the Intel Core i7-9700 (19831, 0.1% faster) and the Intel Core i7-8700 (19894, 0.2% slower). The ranking in Doom reflects a balanced but not exceptional pairing: the CPU is strong enough to avoid holding back the GPU in most scenarios, but the GPU’s performance ceiling prevents the combo from climbing higher in the database. The data shows that this combo is competitive with older high-end systems, but it will trail modern GPU pairings that benefit from newer architectures.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four quality presets, providing a comprehensive view of the combo’s capabilities in Doom. At 1920x1080, the lowest tested resolution, the combo delivers 210.2 FPS on Low settings, 186.6 FPS on Medium, 156.8 FPS on High, and 127.3 FPS on Ultra. These numbers show a consistent decline as graphical fidelity increases, with the Ultra preset costing 82.9 FPS compared to Low. The 1080p results are all above 120 FPS, indicating a smooth experience for high-refresh-rate monitors. Moving to 2560x1440, the combo produces 136.4 FPS on Low, 120.4 FPS on Medium, 103.8 FPS on High, and 82.2 FPS on Ultra. The performance drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant — at High settings, the frame rate falls by 53 FPS, a 33.8% reduction. The 1440p results remain playable across all settings, with the lowest preset still exceeding 130 FPS. At 3840x2160, the combo’s limits become apparent: 77 FPS on Low, 63.7 FPS on Medium, 53.2 FPS on High, and 46.9 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-60 FPS figure in the dataset, underscoring the GPU’s struggle with 4K resolution. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 30.1 FPS, a much smaller margin than at 1080p (82.9 FPS), which indicates that the GPU is fully utilized and cannot compensate for the increased resolution. Across all resolutions, the High and Ultra presets show the largest absolute FPS gaps, while Low and Medium presets offer the best headroom for competitive play.

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 node. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide solid single-thread performance, which is critical for Doom’s engine. Benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935 and a single-core score of 2249, placing the CPU in the 77th percentile among all processors. The 3DMark results further illustrate its threading capabilities: a single-thread score of 910, a 4-thread score of 3012, and a max-thread score of 5890. These numbers indicate that the CPU scales well with additional threads, but Doom’s performance is more dependent on raw clock speed and IPC than on core count alone. The i5-12400’s 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for maintaining high frame rates at 1080p where the CPU is more involved. In the measured results, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the combo reaches 210.2 FPS — a figure that requires the CPU to process game logic and draw calls quickly. At higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, and the CPU’s contribution diminishes. The i5-12400’s performance aligns closely with its nearest rivals: it is 0.1% faster than the Intel Core i7-9700 and 0.2% slower than the Intel Core i7-8700, making it a middle-of-the-road option for gaming in this title. The 65 W TDP and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 and DDR5) round out a package that is capable but not exceptional for Doom’s demanding scenarios.