Doom

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a commanding performance in Doom, a 2016 FPS title that remains highly competitive on modern hardware. The data shows a combination that excels across the board, though the scaling patterns reveal a system that is firmly GPU-bound at higher resolutions and increasingly CPU-limited at 1080p. The measured frame rates indicate that this pairing is capable of exploiting high-refresh-rate monitors at 1440p and delivering a smooth 4K experience, provided settings are managed intelligently. This analysis breaks down exactly what the numbers mean for a builder considering this setup.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K presents a clear picture of where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 298.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that figure to 193 FPS, a reduction of approximately 35%. The jump to 4K Low yields 103 FPS, which is another 47% decline from the 1440p result. This steep, consistent drop-off as resolution increases is the signature of a system where the RTX 3080 is the limiting component; the GPU is working progressively harder to fill more pixels.

The pattern holds across all settings. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 220.8 FPS at 1080p to 143.8 FPS at 1440p (a 35% decrease), and then to 78.7 FPS at 4K (a 45% decrease from 1440p). The scaling factors are remarkably consistent, suggesting that the CPU overhead is not changing the balance of the workload. The i5-12400, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears to have ample headroom to feed the GPU at every resolution tested. The data indicates that a user targeting 4K will see the RTX 3080's raw compute power take center stage, while at 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU's single-thread performance begins to matter more, though it never becomes a severe constraint.

Settings Recommendations

For a 4K display, the measured results point to High settings as the optimal balance. The High preset delivers an average of 78.7 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset, however, drops to 61.2 FPS at 4K, which is noticeably lower and leaves less margin for demanding scenes. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is a 17.5 FPS gap, a significant cost for what is often a marginal visual improvement in a fast-paced FPS. The Medium preset offers 93.4 FPS at 4K, but the jump from Medium to High only costs about 14.7 FPS, making High the superior choice for visual fidelity without sacrificing playability.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts. High settings yield 143.8 FPS, which is excellent for a 144Hz monitor. Ultra still provides 119.6 FPS, which is very playable and ideal for a 120Hz panel. The data suggests that at 1440p, a user can safely enable Ultra settings to maximize image quality, as the frame rate remains high. For 1080p, the story is different. All settings produce frame rates above 183 FPS, with Low hitting 298.4 FPS. This means the user can run Ultra at 1080p and still achieve 183.2 FPS, which is more than sufficient for even the fastest competitive monitors. The only scenario where lowering settings makes sense is if a user is chasing the absolute maximum frame rate for esports-level play, where the Low preset's 298.4 FPS at 1080p offers the highest possible refresh rate headroom.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured performance. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. This bandwidth is critical for Doom's texture-heavy environments, especially at 4K where the frame buffer demands are high. The GPU's 8704 shading units and boost clock of 1710 MHz contribute to the raw fill rate, with a pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s. These figures support the high frame rates observed, even at 4K with High settings.

The RTX 3080's benchmark scores corroborate its in-game performance. It posts a Passmark G3D score of 25086 and an average benchmark score of 35787, placing it in the 80th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (0.2% slower), the AMD Radeon 880M (0.4% faster), and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (0.9% slower). This indicates the RTX 3080 is positioned as a high-end card, and the game data reflects that standing. The GPU's 320 W TDP and suggested 700 W PSU are practical considerations for a builder, but the performance payoff is clear in the measured FPS. The 10 GB VRAM allocation is not a limiting factor in this title, as even the 4K Ultra preset does not appear to push the card into a memory bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a detailed view of the combo's performance. At 1080p, the average frame rates are 298.4 (Low), 260.0 (Medium), 220.8 (High), and 183.2 (Ultra). The spread from Low to Ultra is 115.2 FPS, showing that settings have a substantial impact at this resolution. At 1440p, the averages are 193.0 (Low), 171.1 (Medium), 143.8 (High), and 119.6 (Ultra). The spread narrows to 73.4 FPS, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor. At 4K, the averages are 103.0 (Low), 93.4 (Medium), 78.7 (High), and 61.2 (Ultra). The spread here is 41.8 FPS, demonstrating that the resolution is the primary constraint, and the settings have a smaller relative effect on the final frame rate.

The data shows a consistent relationship between settings. Moving from Low to Medium costs an average of 10% of the frame rate across all resolutions. Moving from Medium to High costs another 15-16%. The jump from High to Ultra is the most expensive, costing 17-20% of the frame rate. This non-linear scaling is typical of Doom's engine, where the Ultra preset includes computationally expensive effects that provide diminishing returns. The 4K Ultra result of 61.2 FPS is the only measured configuration that dips below the 60 FPS mark, making it the single point of concern for users with a 4K display.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a combo rank of 529 out of 1681 tested combinations in Doom. This places the setup in the top 31.5% of all tested configurations. The ranking is strong, but it is important to contextualize it. The combo is likely held back by the CPU in lower resolutions, while at 4K, it competes favorably with more expensive processors. The rank of 529 suggests that while this is a very capable pairing, there are many combinations with newer or higher-end CPUs that can extract slightly more performance from the RTX 3080, particularly in the 1080p and 1440p regimes.

The CPU's own benchmark data supports this interpretation. The i5-12400 has a Passmark single-thread score of 3456 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2249, which are respectable but not class-leading. Its multi-threaded Cinebench R23 score of 15935 is solid. In the context of Doom, which is a well-optimized engine that scales well with single-thread performance, the i5-12400's scores are adequate to prevent any major stutter, but they do not push the RTX 3080 to its absolute limits at 1080p. The combo's rank reflects this balance; it is a high-tier setup that delivers excellent results, but it is not at the very top of the leaderboard where more powerful CPUs reside.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. These clocks, combined with 18 MB of shared L3 cache, provide the necessary single-thread performance for Doom's game logic and draw call processing. The CPU's benchmark results show a Passmark multithread score of 18747 and a 3DMark max threads score of 5890. The CPU's percentile rank against all CPUs is 77, and its average benchmark score is 19850. Its nearest rivals in the database include the Intel Core i7-9700 (0.1% faster), the Intel Core i7-8700 (0.2% slower), and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (0.4% slower).

The data reveals that the i5-12400 is not the bottleneck in most scenarios. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as evidenced by the large FPS drops when resolution increases. However, at 1080p, the CPU's role becomes more pronounced. The measured 298.4 FPS at 1080p Low is a high number, but it is not as high as what a top-tier CPU like a Core i9 could potentially produce with the same GPU. The 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2249 indicate that the CPU is capable, but the 4.40 GHz boost clock is not extraordinary by modern standards. For a builder, this means the i5-12400 is a smart choice for 4K gaming, where the GPU does the heavy lifting, and it remains a strong option for 1440p. Only at 1080p with the lowest settings does the CPU start to show its limits, but even then, the frame rates are so high that it does not detract from the gaming experience. The pairing is well-balanced, with the CPU providing enough performance to keep the RTX 3080 well-fed in the majority of gaming scenarios.