Doom

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 pairing ranks 532nd out of 1,681 tested combos in Doom, placing it comfortably in the upper third of all configurations. This rank reflects a system that delivers high refresh rates across most settings, though it is not among the absolute elite for this title. The CPU sits at the 77th percentile among all processors, while the GPU reaches the 80th percentile among all graphics cards, suggesting a balanced pairing where neither component dramatically bottlenecks the other.

Looking at the CPU's synthetic benchmarks, the i5-12400F posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16,518 and a single-core score of 2,332, figures that place it within 0.1% of the Intel Core i7-8700K and 0.3% of the Intel Core i5-1335U, while trailing the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS by 0.7% and leading the AMD EPYC 7773X by 1.3%. The GPU's average benchmark score of 35,787 puts it 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Duo, 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon 880M, 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, and 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile. These margins are tight, indicating that this combo competes in a crowded performance tier.

# GPU Role

The RTX 3080 brings 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth to the render pipeline. Its base clock of 1440 MHz boosts to 1710 MHz, with memory running at 1188 MHz (effective 19 Gbps). The GA102 chip contains 8,704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, supported by 68 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s, with 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

For Doom, a fast-paced FPS from 2016, the GPU's raw rasterization throughput matters more than its ray tracing capabilities. The data shows that at 1080p, the GPU is largely the limiting factor only at higher settings; at Low settings the frame rate reaches 299.4 FPS, suggesting the CPU begins to approach its ceiling. At 4K, the GPU's workload increases substantially, and the frame rates drop to between 61.3 FPS at Ultra and 106.6 FPS at Low. The GPU's VRAM capacity of 10 GB is sufficient for this title at all tested settings, as Doom's texture demands are modest by modern standards. The memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s ensures that texture streaming at high resolutions does not become a choke point, as evidenced by the relatively smooth scaling from 1440p to 4K.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of which preset offers the best experience. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 223.4 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any high-refresh-rate monitor, while Ultra drops to 180.6 FPS — still excellent but with diminishing visual returns given the age of the game engine. Medium at 259.7 FPS and Low at 299.4 FPS push beyond what most displays can show, so those presets are only useful for extreme competitive play.

At 1440p, High produces 140.5 FPS, comfortably above the 120 Hz threshold and within range of 144 Hz displays. Ultra drops to 116.6 FPS, which remains playable but may not fully saturate higher refresh panels. Medium at 169.7 FPS and Low at 194.6 FPS offer headroom for those prioritizing smoothness over fidelity.

At 4K, the picture changes. High yields 81.1 FPS, which is smooth for a single-player experience but shy of high-refresh territory. Ultra falls to 61.3 FPS, right at the edge of 60 Hz displays. Medium achieves 91 FPS and Low reaches 106.6 FPS. For 4K owners, the High preset strikes the best balance, offering a 32% improvement over Ultra while maintaining visual quality that is largely indistinguishable in fast motion. For 1440p users, High is the sweet spot, delivering a 20.5% uplift over Ultra at 140.5 FPS versus 116.6 FPS.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

Starting at 1920x1080, the data shows a monotonic relationship between quality settings and frame rate. Low averages 299.4 FPS, Medium 259.7 FPS, High 223.4 FPS, and Ultra 180.6 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 39.7 FPS (13.3%), from Medium to High costs 36.3 FPS (14%), and from High to Ultra costs 42.8 FPS (19.2%). This indicates that Ultra imposes a significantly heavier load than High, likely due to advanced lighting and shadow effects in the Doom engine.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 194.6 FPS at Low, 169.7 FPS at Medium, 140.5 FPS at High, and 116.6 FPS at Ultra. The percentage drops between settings are 12.8% from Low to Medium, 17.2% from Medium to High, and 17% from High to Ultra. Compared to 1080p, the relative cost of each setting tier remains similar, but the absolute frame rates are lower across the board, reflecting the 78% increase in pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the averages fall to 106.6 FPS at Low, 91 FPS at Medium, 81.1 FPS at High, and 61.3 FPS at Ultra. The transition from Low to Medium costs 15.6 FPS (14.6%), Medium to High costs 9.9 FPS (10.9%), and High to Ultra costs 19.8 FPS (24.4%). The Ultra setting at 4K shows the largest relative penalty, suggesting that the combination of 4K resolution and Ultra quality saturates the GPU's resources. Notably, the gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 45.3 FPS, whereas at 1080p that gap is 118.8 FPS — the GPU's workload at 4K compresses the range of achievable frame rates.

# Resolution Scaling

The frame rate degradation from 1080p to 4K reveals important information about the limiting component in this system. At Low settings, the drop from 299.4 FPS at 1080p to 194.6 FPS at 1440p represents a 35% reduction, and then to 106.6 FPS at 4K a further 45.2% reduction. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is nearly proportional to the pixel count increase (2.25x pixels, 45.2% frame drop suggests a strong GPU bottleneck). However, at High settings, the drop from 223.4 FPS at 1080p to 140.5 FPS at 1440p is 37.1%, and to 81.1 FPS at 4K is 42.3%. The 4K-to-1080p ratio for High is 2.75x, meaning the GPU is the dominant constraint.

The CPU's role becomes apparent at 1080p Low, where 299.4 FPS approaches the practical limit for this processor in Doom. The i5-12400F's 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz are sufficient to feed the RTX 3080 at lower resolutions, but the data suggests the CPU begins to cap performance around 300 FPS in this title. At 4K, the GPU is unequivocally the bottleneck, as frame rates scale with pixel count rather than engine complexity.

The delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution is telling: at 1080p, Ultra is 39.7% slower than Low; at 1440p, Ultra is 40.1% slower; at 4K, Ultra is 42.5% slower. This consistency indicates that the GPU's rendering workload scales predictably with settings, and the CPU's contribution remains relatively constant across resolutions. For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, the 1080p Low preset at 299.4 FPS is the clear choice, while 4K users will find High at 81.1 FPS the most practical balance of visual fidelity and fluidity.