Doom

# FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in Doom?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 295th out of 3,712 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the top 8% of all combos.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival in raw GPU benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 54,247 on average benchmarks, while the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54,209 — a delta of just 0.1% in favor of the RTX 4080. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54,828, putting it 1.1% ahead.

Q: What is the difference between the lowest and highest quality presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 365 FPS average, while Ultra settings produce 241 FPS average — a difference of 124 FPS, representing a 34% drop from Low to Ultra.

Q: Does the CPU have a significant single-thread performance advantage over its rivals?

A: The Core i5-12400F scores 909 in 3DMark single-thread and 1,680 in Cinebench R23 single-core. Its average benchmark score of 19,039 is within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19,047) and the Intel Core i5-1335U (18,982), showing these mid-range processors cluster closely.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and does it affect 4K performance?

A: The RTX 4080 has 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K Ultra, the combo produces 85 FPS average, which suggests the memory bandwidth is sufficient for this game's highest settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1440p Medium compared to 4K Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 Medium, the average FPS is 226, while at 3840x2160 Medium it drops to 123 FPS. This represents a 45.6% reduction in frame rate when scaling from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process with 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2205 MHz and boosts to 2505 MHz, with memory running at 1400 MHz base and 22.4 Gbps effective. This configuration yields a theoretical FP32 throughput of 48.74 TFLOPS and a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s.

In Doom, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p, the GPU is capable of pushing frame rates well beyond 300 FPS on lower presets, with Low settings reaching 365 FPS average. The GPU's pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and 112 ROPs are clearly not bottlenecks at this resolution, as the CPU-side performance limits become more apparent.

The 16 GB GDDR6X memory pool with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth provides ample headroom for Doom's textures and geometry at 4K. The data shows that at 3840x2160, the GPU still delivers 104 FPS on High settings and 85 FPS on Ultra, indicating that even at maximum resolution, the memory subsystem is not saturated. The 256-bit bus width combined with the high effective memory clock ensures consistent bandwidth delivery across all tested presets.

The GPU's ray tracing cores (76 RT cores) and tensor cores (304) are present in the hardware, though Doom's Vulkan-based renderer primarily relies on traditional rasterization. The benchmark results show a clear scaling pattern: from Low to Ultra at 4K, the average FPS drops from 141 to 85, a 39.7% reduction. This scaling factor suggests that the GPU's shading units (9,728) and TMUs (304) are the primary resources being taxed by the higher-quality presets, particularly the texture and lighting enhancements.

The RTX 4080's position relative to its nearest rivals is notable. The RTX 4080 SUPER scores nearly identically (delta of 0.1%), while the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X and RX 6750 GRE 12 GB score slightly higher in synthetic benchmarks (1.1% and 2.6% respectively). However, in actual Doom gameplay, the combination with the Core i5-12400F delivers frame rates that place it in the 95th percentile of all tested combos, indicating that synthetic benchmark deltas do not always translate directly to in-game performance.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 2.50 GHz with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, and features an 18 MB shared L3 cache along with 1.25 MB L2 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes.

In Doom, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 365 FPS average, but at 1080p Ultra it drops to 241 FPS. This 124 FPS gap is primarily driven by the GPU's workload increase, but the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads must keep up with the game's physics and game logic at these very high frame rates.

The CPU's single-thread performance is particularly relevant for Doom's engine, which is known for being well-optimized but still relies heavily on a few primary threads. The 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,680 indicate strong per-core performance for a mid-range desktop processor. The 2-thread 3DMark score of 1,699 suggests that even with two threads, the CPU delivers solid performance.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the Core i5-12400F's average benchmark score of 19,039 is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19,047) and Intel Core 3 201E (19,056). The Intel Core i5-1335U scores 18,982 (0.3% lower), and the AMD EPYC 7773X scores 18,979 (0.3% lower). This clustering indicates that the Core i5-12400F is a representative mid-range performer, not an outlier in either direction.

The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all CPUs further contextualizes its position. While it is not a top-tier processor, it provides sufficient throughput for Doom at high frame rates. The multi-threaded scores (Cinebench R23 multicore: 12,380; Geekbench multicore: 9,472) show that the 12 threads are effectively utilized when the game scales across cores, though Doom's engine doesn't typically scale perfectly linearly.

At 4K resolution, the CPU's influence diminishes. The combination produces 104 FPS at High and 85 FPS at Ultra, with the GPU becoming the clear bottleneck. The transition from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings shows a 45.6% FPS drop (226 to 123), which aligns with the GPU being the limiting component at higher resolutions. The CPU's 6 cores are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4080 even at 1080p, as demonstrated by the 365 FPS result on Low settings.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combination spans three resolutions and four quality presets, providing a comprehensive view of performance scaling.

At 1920x1080, the results show:

• Low: 365 FPS average
• Medium: 348 FPS average (min 296, max 401)
• High: 295 FPS average
• Ultra: 241 FPS average

The 1080p data reveals that the step from Low to Medium costs only 17 FPS (4.7% reduction), but the jump from Medium to High costs 53 FPS (15.2% reduction). The most significant drop occurs from High to Ultra at 54 FPS (18.3% reduction). This pattern suggests that the Ultra preset introduces disproportionately heavy effects that impact the GPU more than the CPU at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the results show:

• Low: 260 FPS average
• Medium: 226 FPS average (min 192, max 260)
• High: 191 FPS average
• Ultra: 156 FPS average

The 1440p scaling shows a more uniform degradation pattern. From Low to Medium, the drop is 34 FPS (13.1%); Medium to High is 35 FPS (15.5%); and High to Ultra is 35 FPS (18.3%). The consistency of these drops suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is increasingly taxed by each quality tier, with the rendering resolution playing a larger role than individual settings.

At 3840x2160, the results show:

• Low: 141 FPS average
• Medium: 123 FPS average (min 104, max 141)
• High: 104 FPS average
• Ultra: 85 FPS average

At 4K, the pattern shifts again. The drop from Low to Medium is 18 FPS (12.8%), Medium to High is 19 FPS (15.4%), and High to Ultra is 19 FPS (18.3%). While the percentage drops are similar to 1440p, the absolute FPS values are significantly lower, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint at this resolution.

The Medium preset rows include min and max FPS data, which provides additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the range is 296-401 FPS (a spread of 105 FPS). At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 192-260 FPS (a spread of 68 FPS). At 4K Medium, the range is 104-141 FPS (a spread of 37 FPS). This narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU's frame time consistency improves when it is more fully utilized.

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination ranks 295th out of 3,712 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the top 8% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the overall performance across all tested resolutions and settings.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 73rd among all CPUs indicates that the processor itself is mid-range, but the GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs boosts the combination significantly. The RTX 4080's average benchmark score of 54,247 places it near the top of the GPU hierarchy, with only the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209, 0.1% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828, -1.1% delta) in close competition.

The combination's rank of 295 suggests that while the RTX 4080 is a high-end GPU, the Core i5-12400F does hold back the system in some scenarios. At 1080p Low, the 365 FPS result shows that the CPU can drive very high frame rates, but the gap between the CPU's 73rd percentile and the GPU's 86th percentile indicates a slight imbalance. The 2-thread 3DMark score of 1,699 and single-thread score of 909 suggest that Doom's primary thread workload is handled competently, but a higher-end CPU might extract even more performance at 1080p.

The 3712 total combos in the database include both lower and higher-end pairings. The 295th rank means that 3,417 other combinations perform worse, while 294 perform better. Given that the RTX 4080 is an end-of-life product with the RTX 4080 SUPER as a near-identical successor, and the Core i5-12400F is a value-oriented 6-core processor, this rank represents a strong result for the pairing.

# Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate.

At 1080p, all presets deliver well above 240 FPS, with even Ultra settings maintaining 241 FPS average. For competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays (240 Hz or higher), Low settings at 365 FPS provide the maximum frame rate, but Medium at 348 FPS offers a better balance of visual quality and performance. The 4.7% FPS cost for Medium over Low is minimal, making Medium the recommended preset for 1080p gaming, as it provides superior visual fidelity without a meaningful performance penalty.

At 1440p, High settings at 191 FPS is the recommended choice for most players. This preset maintains frame rates above 165 Hz, which covers most high-refresh-rate monitors. Ultra at 156 FPS is also viable for 144 Hz displays, but the 18.3% drop from High to Ultra may not justify the visual improvement. For players prioritizing maximum frame rate, Low at 260 FPS is available, but the visual compromise is significant.

At 4K, the recommendation depends on the display's refresh rate. Ultra at 85 FPS is playable but falls below 90 FPS, which some players may find less smooth. High at 104 FPS is the sweet spot for 4K, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while maintaining strong visual quality. Medium at 123 FPS is recommended for players with 120 Hz 4K displays, as it delivers the highest frame rate that still benefits from substantial visual improvements over Low.

The Medium preset consistently provides the best balance across all resolutions, with only a 4.7% FPS cost over Low at 1080p, 13.1% at 1440p, and 12.8% at 4K. This makes Medium the default recommendation for users who want to maximize visual quality without sacrificing frame rate consistency.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important information about the system's bottleneck characteristics.

At Low settings, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p results in a 28.8% FPS drop (365 to 260), and from 1440p to 4K a 45.8% drop (260 to 141). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 61.4% (365 to 141). At Medium settings, the drops are 35.1% (348 to 226) from 1080p to 1440p and 45.6% (226 to 123) from 1440p to 4K, totaling 64.7% (348 to 123).

At High settings, the scaling shows 35.3% (295 to 191) and 45.5% (191 to 104), totaling 64.7% (295 to 104). At Ultra settings, the drops are 35.3% (241 to 156) and 45.5% (156 to 85), totaling 64.7% (241 to 85).

The consistency of the percentage drops across Medium, High, and Ultra settings (approximately 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 45.5% from 1440p to 4K) indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component at these presets. The pixel count increases by 78% from 1080p to 1440p and by 125% from 1440p to 4K, but the FPS drops are less than the pixel increase would suggest. This is because Doom's rendering workload does not scale perfectly linearly with resolution, and the GPU has sufficient resources (memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s and compute throughput of 48.74 TFLOPS) to partially mitigate the increased pixel load.

The Low preset shows a different scaling pattern, with only a 28.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p. This indicates that at Low settings, the CPU becomes more involved in determining performance at 1080p. The 365 FPS at 1080p Low suggests the CPU is approaching its limit, and the smaller drop to 1440p (260 FPS) reflects the GPU taking over as the primary constraint.

The 4K results are particularly telling. At 4K Ultra, the combo delivers 85 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay but below the 120 FPS that high-refresh-rate 4K displays can support. The transition from High to Ultra at 4K costs 19 FPS (18.3%), which is identical to the percentage drop at 1080p and 1440p for the same settings change. This consistency across resolutions confirms that the GPU's rendering pipeline is the bottleneck, and the CPU is not introducing additional constraints at higher resolutions.