Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination in Doom reveals a clear scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo produces 279.2 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at Ultra drops that to 180.9 FPS, a reduction of roughly 35%. Stepping up to 3840x2160 at Ultra yields 96.5 FPS, which is approximately 47% lower than the 1440p result. This progressive decline indicates that the rendering workload scales heavily with pixel count, as expected for a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings grows substantially at higher resolutions. At 1080p, Low produces 360.7 FPS while Ultra delivers 279.2 FPS — a difference of about 81.5 FPS. At 1440p, that spread widens to 117.3 FPS (298.2 Low versus 180.9 Ultra). At 4K, the spread becomes 67.5 FPS (164 Low versus 96.5 Ultra). Interestingly, the 4K spread is narrower than the 1440p spread, suggesting that at 4K the GPU is more fully saturated even at Low settings, leaving less headroom for settings-based gains.

The limiting component shifts as resolution climbs. At 1080p, the CPU's role becomes more prominent; the i5-12400's 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz can only feed frames so quickly. The 360.7 FPS ceiling at Low settings hints at a CPU-imposed cap. At 4K, the RTX 5090's massive shading capability — 21,760 shading units with a 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth — becomes the bottleneck, as evidenced by the 116.9 FPS at High settings. The data shows diminishing returns from lower settings at 4K, where even dropping from High to Low only gains 47.1 FPS, compared to a 81.5 FPS gain at 1080p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 belongs to the Core 12th Gen Alder Lake family, built on a 10 nm process. Its 6 cores and 12 threads operate at a base clock of 2.50 GHz, boosting to 4.40 GHz. This processor sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 19,850. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-9700 (19,831, deltaPct 0.1), the Intel Core i7-8700 (19,894, deltaPct -0.2), and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (19,928, deltaPct -0.4). These deltas are all within 0.4%, indicating that the i5-12400 performs essentially on par with those chips in aggregate benchmarks.

In Doom specifically, the CPU's influence is visible in the 1080p results. The 360.7 FPS at Low settings stands as the highest measured value across all configurations, yet it is only 14.2 FPS higher than the Medium setting's 346.5 FPS. This compression at the top end suggests the CPU is approaching its frame delivery limit. The single-thread score of 910 in 3DMark and 2,249 in Cinebench R23 indicates strong per-core performance for a 2022 release, which matters for a game like Doom that relies on responsive frame pacing. The L3 cache of 18 MB shared across cores provides adequate data locality for the game's geometry and texture streams.

The interesting wrinkle is that the 4K Low result (164 FPS) is actually lower than the 1440p Low result (298.2 FPS) by 134.2 FPS. This demonstrates that even at Low settings, the GPU workload at 4K dominates, and the CPU is not the limiting factor there. The data suggests the i5-12400 can sustain well over 300 FPS in this title at lower resolutions, but the RTX 5090's output at 4K keeps the system below that threshold.

Settings Recommendations

For 3840x2160, the data indicates that High settings at 116.9 FPS provides a balanced experience. Ultra drops to 96.5 FPS, which is still playable but sacrifices 20.4 FPS for marginal visual gains. Medium at 138.1 FPS offers the best raw speed increase, but the jump from Medium to High costs 21.2 FPS, suggesting High is the sweet spot for fidelity without severe performance loss. Low at 164 FPS is available for competitive play, but the visual compromise is substantial given the 4K resolution.

At 2560x1440, High settings at 216.3 FPS is the recommended choice. Ultra at 180.9 FPS still provides excellent smoothness, and the 35.4 FPS penalty may be acceptable for those prioritizing image quality. Medium at 258.5 FPS and Low at 298.2 FPS are both above 240 Hz refresh rate territory, making them suitable for high-refresh displays. The data shows that at 1440p, the RTX 5090 has enough headroom that even Ultra settings remain well above typical display refresh rates.

For 1920x1080, every setting exceeds 279 FPS. The Ultra setting at 279.2 FPS is perfectly viable and delivers the highest visual quality without dropping below the 240 FPS threshold. Low at 360.7 FPS represents the absolute maximum frame rate, but the difference between Ultra and Low is 81.5 FPS, which is relatively minor in percentage terms (about 29% higher). Given that all settings clear 240 FPS, the recommendation is to use Ultra for the best experience.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 39th out of 1,681 tested combos in Doom. That places it in the top 2.3% of all configurations in the database for this game. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's 77th percentile standing and the GPU's 94th percentile among all parts. The RTX 5090's high percentile is the primary driver of this strong ranking, as the GPU's passmark G3D score of 39,650 and average benchmark score of 84,306 demonstrate its top-tier compute capability.

The combo's position at 39 suggests that only 38 other pairings achieve higher average FPS in Doom. Given that the i5-12400's nearest rivals are all within 0.4% in aggregate scores, the ranking likely hinges more on the GPU tier than the specific CPU model. The data indicates that while the CPU is competent, the RTX 5090 is the standout component, with its nearest rivals including the RTX 5090 D (84,241, deltaPct 0.1) and RTX 5050 Mobile (84,171, deltaPct 0.2). These tiny deltas mean that swapping the CPU within the same GPU tier would produce minimal rank movement.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Doom at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes, the Ultra preset at 3840x2160 produces an average of 96.5 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, though it is the lowest measured setting in the dataset.

Q: What is the highest frame rate achievable with this hardware?

A: The maximum measured average is 360.7 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 1440p, the fastest result is 298.2 FPS (Low), and at 4K it is 164 FPS (Low).

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest competitors?

A: The i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19,850, which is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-9700 (19,831, deltaPct 0.1), the Intel Core i7-8700 (19,894, deltaPct -0.2), and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (19,928, deltaPct -0.4).

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the data suggests a CPU influence, as the spread between Low (360.7 FPS) and Ultra (279.2 FPS) is 81.5 FPS, but the ceiling at Low indicates the i5-12400 may be limiting absolute maximum frame output.

Q: What settings provide the best experience at 1440p?

A: High settings at 216.3 FPS offer a strong balance, but Ultra at 180.9 FPS is still well above standard refresh rates. Medium at 258.5 FPS and Low at 298.2 FPS are available for higher-refresh displays.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This CPU-GPU pairing ranks 39th out of 1,681 combos in Doom, placing it in the top 2.3% of all tested systems for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings produce 360.7 FPS, Medium produces 346.5 FPS, High produces 327.5 FPS, and Ultra produces 279.2 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with the largest single-step drop occurring between High and Ultra at 48.3 FPS. The smallest step is between Low and Medium at 14.2 FPS, indicating diminishing returns from lowering settings once past Medium.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low at 298.2 FPS, Medium at 258.5 FPS, High at 216.3 FPS, and Ultra at 180.9 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 39.7 FPS, from Medium to High is 42.2 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 35.4 FPS. These fairly uniform steps suggest a balanced scaling curve at this resolution, with no single setting transition causing a disproportionate penalty.

At 3840x2160, the data shows: Low at 164 FPS, Medium at 138.1 FPS, High at 116.9 FPS, and Ultra at 96.5 FPS. The reductions are 25.9 FPS from Low to Medium, 21.2 FPS from Medium to High, and 20.4 FPS from High to Ultra. The narrowing gaps at 4K indicate that the GPU is becoming the primary constraint, and each settings tier yields smaller absolute gains as the resolution increases. Comparing across resolutions at the same setting, the 1080p to 1440p drop at Ultra is 98.3 FPS (from 279.2 to 180.9), while the 1440p to 4K drop at Ultra is 84.4 FPS (from 180.9 to 96.5). This consistent scaling underscores the GPU-heavy nature of Doom at higher resolutions.