Doom

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 delivers a playable but resolution-sensitive experience in Doom, with benchmark results indicating that the graphics card is the primary constraint at higher resolutions. This combination achieves a combo rank of 3397 out of 3712 tested configurations, placing it in the lower percentile of systems evaluated for this title, yet the data shows consistent performance gains as resolution decreases, revealing a clear path to smooth gameplay through settings and resolution adjustments.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a steep performance cliff when moving from 1080p to 4K, which strongly indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 580 is the limiting component at higher pixel counts. At 1080p with High settings, the system produces 75 FPS average, but this drops to 49 FPS at 1440p and further plummets to 26 FPS at 4K — a reduction of roughly 65% from 1080p to 4K at the same settings. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the Polaris 20 chip's compute resources are saturated by the increasing pixel workload.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically as resolution increases, which further confirms the GPU bottleneck. At 1080p, the spread from Low (102 FPS) to Ultra (62 FPS) is 40 FPS, whereas at 4K the same settings spread is only 14 FPS (36 FPS Low vs 22 FPS Ultra). When the GPU is already struggling at 4K, the additional shading work from Ultra settings has less relative impact because the card is already at its throughput ceiling, whereas at 1080p there is enough headroom for the settings to meaningfully alter the frame rate.

Intermediate resolution behavior reinforces this interpretation. At 1440p, the average FPS values of 66 (Low), 58 (Medium), 49 (High), and 40 (Ultra) show a nearly linear progression, suggesting that neither the CPU nor the GPU is completely dominant at this middle ground. The Intel Core i5-12400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, provides ample processing power for Doom's engine at 1440p, but the RX 580's 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 256.0 GB/s memory bandwidth begin to limit performance as resolution climbs. The 4K results, with averages all below 40 FPS, demonstrate that this configuration is not viable for 4K gaming in Doom, regardless of quality preset.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Doom with this CPU and GPU combination?

A: The measured data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all settings presets achieve playable frame rates, with averages ranging from 62 FPS at Ultra to 102 FPS at Low. At 1440p, only Low and Medium settings stay above 55 FPS (66 and 58 FPS respectively), while 4K results are all below 40 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928, which places it 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (score 12986) and 0.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (score 12940). It is 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon 740M (score 12870).

Q: Is the Core i5-12400F holding back the RX 580 in Doom?

A: Benchmark results indicate the CPU is not the primary bottleneck. The i5-12400F's multi-core performance (Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12380) and 12 threads provide sufficient headroom for Doom's engine. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K (from 75 to 26 FPS at High settings) are far more consistent with GPU limitations than CPU constraints.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the system achieves 66 FPS on Low settings and 40 FPS on Ultra settings, a difference of 26 FPS. Medium and High fall in between at 58 FPS and 49 FPS respectively, showing a clear trade-off between visual quality and performance.

Q: Does the RX 580's VRAM capacity affect performance in Doom?

A: The card features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. The measured FPS data shows consistent scaling across resolutions, with no sudden crashes or abnormal frame drops that would indicate VRAM capacity being exceeded at the tested settings.

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

A: This particular combo ranks 3397 out of 3712 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 8.5% of all configurations evaluated for this game. The ranking reflects the RX 580's age and its performance relative to newer GPUs in the test database.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 3397 out of 3712 tested configurations places this system firmly in the lower quartile of all combinations evaluated for Doom. This ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's position in the overall hierarchy — the RX 580 sits at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs, while the i5-12400F performs much better relative to its peers at the 73rd percentile among all CPUs. The disparity between these two percentile positions suggests that the graphics card is the weak link in this pairing, and the measured FPS data confirms this by showing that CPU-bound scenarios (low resolution, low settings) yield much better performance than GPU-bound scenarios (high resolution, high settings).

Compared to its nearest rivals in the database, the RX 580's average benchmark score of 12928 is competitive with newer mobile GPUs and older desktop cards, but this synthetic benchmark performance does not translate into top-tier Doom results. The GTX 1660 SUPER, which scores 0.4% higher on average, would likely produce noticeably better frame rates in Doom given its superior geometry processing capabilities, though the data does not include direct game comparisons. The i5-12400F, meanwhile, holds its own against the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (0% delta) and Intel Core 3 201E (-0.1% delta), showing that the processor is not the limiting factor in this configuration.

The ranking also reflects the age of the components. The RX 580 was released in 2017 and has been marked as end-of-life, while the i5-12400F is a 2022 release that remains in active production. This generational gap is evident in the performance scaling — the CPU has enough headroom for modern game engines, but the GPU's GCN 4.0 architecture, with its 2304 shading units and 32 ROPs, struggles with the demands of higher resolutions in Doom.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 102 FPS, Medium achieves 89 FPS with a minimum of 76 and maximum of 103, High reaches 75 FPS, and Ultra drops to 62 FPS. These numbers indicate that 1080p is well within the capability of this combo, with even Ultra settings maintaining a frame rate above 60 FPS, which is generally considered the baseline for smooth gameplay in a fast-paced FPS like Doom.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance penalty is significant but not prohibitive at lower settings. Low averages 66 FPS, Medium 58 FPS (min 49, max 66), High 49 FPS, and Ultra 40 FPS. The median settings (Medium) dip below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that players seeking 60+ FPS at 1440p would need to use Low settings, while those willing to accept 50-58 FPS can enjoy Medium or High presets.

At 3840x2160, the system is clearly overmatched. Ultra averages only 22 FPS, High 26 FPS, Medium 31 FPS (min 27, max 36), and Low 36 FPS. Even the lowest settings fail to reach 40 FPS at this resolution, making 4K gaming impractical with this hardware. The frame time consistency, as evidenced by the Medium preset's minimum of 27 FPS versus its average of 31 FPS, shows that the GPU is working at its absolute limit, with little room for variance.

The progression across resolutions at High settings — 75 FPS at 1080p, 49 FPS at 1440p, and 26 FPS at 4K — follows a roughly linear scaling with pixel count, confirming that the RX 580's fill rate and shading throughput are the determining factors. The CPU, with its 4.40 GHz boost clock and 18 MB of shared L3 cache, has no trouble feeding the GPU at any of these resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580, built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, is the dominant factor in this combo's Doom performance. Its 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 193.0 GTexel/s texture rate set an upper bound on how much geometry and pixel shading work can be completed per frame. The card's 32 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s, which becomes the limiting factor at 4K where the system must fill over 8 million pixels per frame.

The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory operating at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective) provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth across a 256-bit bus. This memory configuration is sufficient for Doom at the tested settings, as the game's textures and geometry fit comfortably within the VRAM capacity, but the bandwidth becomes a constraint at higher resolutions where larger framebuffers and more texture fetches are required. The memory clock and bus width are consistent with the card's 2017 release, and the data shows that this memory subsystem cannot keep up with the demands of 4K rendering.

The card's boost clock of 1340 MHz, up from a base of 1257 MHz, provides a modest overclock headroom, but the measured FPS results suggest that this clock speed is insufficient for high-refresh-rate gaming at resolutions above 1080p. The GPU's percentile rank of 53 among all GPUs places it in the middle of the pack, and its nearest rivals — the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile and GTX 1660 SUPER — are all within 0.4% of its average benchmark score, indicating that this performance level is representative of a mid-range GPU from the 2016-2018 era.

The 14 nm process node and 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die contribute to the card's 185 W TDP, which requires a 450 W suggested PSU and a single 8-pin power connector. While these specifications are not directly tied to the Doom FPS results, they contextualize the card's performance ceiling — a power envelope that was competitive in 2017 but is now outclassed by more efficient architectures.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, Ultra settings are the clear recommendation, as the 62 FPS average stays above the 60 FPS threshold and provides the best visual quality without sacrificing smoothness. Players with 144 Hz monitors might prefer High settings at 75 FPS, which offers a meaningful frame rate advantage while still maintaining high visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, the data suggests that Medium settings provide the best balance, with 58 FPS average and a minimum of 49 FPS. This preset delivers near-60 FPS performance while retaining moderate visual quality. Low settings at 66 FPS are the only option for a locked 60 FPS experience, but the visual downgrade may not be worth the 8 FPS gain over Medium. High (49 FPS) and Ultra (40 FPS) are not recommended for 1440p gaming, as they fall below the 50 FPS threshold where frame pacing becomes noticeable in fast action sequences.

For 4K, the data is unambiguous — none of the settings achieve playable frame rates, with the best result being Low at 36 FPS and the worst being Ultra at 22 FPS. The recommendation is to avoid 4K entirely with this combocars, as even the lowest settings cannot maintain a consistent 30 FPS. Players with 4K displays should run the game at 1080p or 1440p resolution scaling, which would effectively mimic the measured 1080p or 1440p results.

The best overall experience, balancing visual quality and performance, is High settings at 1080p. This preset yields 75 FPS average, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS target, and the visual difference between High and Ultra in Doom is typically subtle enough that the 13 FPS gain from dropping from Ultra to High is worth the slight reduction in shadow and texture quality.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F plays a supporting role in this combo, providing more than enough processing power for Doom's engine. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the processor leverages Alder Lake architecture on a 10 nm process, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its multi-threaded performance is strong, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12380 and a Passmark multithread score of 19433, which places it at the 73rd percentile among all CPUs.

In Doom, the CPU's role is primarily to handle game logic, physics, and draw call submission. The i5-12400F's 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache ensure that frequently accessed game data stays close to the cores, reducing memory latency and keeping the GPU fed with draw commands. The 3dmark_16_threads score of 5895 and the max threads score of 5912 indicate that the processor scales well with multi-threaded workloads, which is beneficial for Doom's Vulkan-based rendering, though the game's engine is not particularly CPU-intensive by modern standards.

The fact that the FPS scales almost linearly with resolution — 75 FPS at 1080p dropping to 26 FPS at 4K at High settings — proves that the CPU is not the bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect to see a plateau in frame rates at lower resolutions, where the GPU has spare capacity but the CPU cannot issue commands fast enough. Instead, the data shows that reducing resolution from 1440p to 1080p yields a 53% FPS increase (49 to 75 FPS), which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario.

The nearest CPU rivals — the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS and Intel Core 3 201E — have average benchmark scores within 0.1% of the i5-12400F, and the i5-12400F outperforms the Intel Core i5-1335U by 0.3%. This indicates that the processor is competitive with other mid-range options from its generation, and its 65 W TDP makes it an efficient choice for a desktop system. The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking versus the GPU's 53rd percentile underscores that the RX 580 is the component holding back the system's overall Doom performance, not the processor.