Doom

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers a benchmark profile in Doom that is dominated by the graphics card at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s 6-core/12-thread configuration proves sufficient to keep frame rates high at 1080p. The measured data shows a clear hierarchy: resolution scaling from 1440p to 4K produces a substantial performance drop, whereas the jump from 1080p to 1440p is comparatively modest, indicating where the system’s bottleneck shifts.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression across resolutions reveals a classic GPU-bound curve at higher settings. At Ultra settings, the average FPS falls from 205.6 at 1920x1080 to 131.6 at 2560x1440, a 36% reduction, and then to 70.4 at 3840x2160, a further 46.5% drop from the 1440p figure. This steep decline between 1440p and 4K is characteristic of a system where the RTX 5070’s rendering workload, not the CPU, is the limiting factor. The data indicates that at 4K Ultra, the GPU is struggling to maintain the high frame rates seen at lower resolutions, a typical sign of pixel-throughput saturation.

Conversely, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is less severe. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 249.7 to 163.2, a 34.6% decrease, which is proportionally smaller than the 4K drop. This suggests that at 1440p, the CPU still has enough headroom to feed the GPU, and the performance loss is primarily due to increased pixel count rather than a fundamental architectural limit. At Low settings, the trend is even more telling: the system produces 339.9 FPS at 1080p, 218.2 FPS at 1440p, and 116.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is still over 100 FPS, indicating that even when graphical load is minimized, the GPU remains the primary constraint, as the CPU cannot fully compensate for the 4K pixel throughput demand.

The data suggests that for competitive play at 1080p, this combo is exceptionally fast, with all settings above 200 FPS. However, the 4K Ultra result of 70.4 FPS is the lowest measured, and while playable, it shows a 70% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score. This wide spread confirms that Doom scales predictably with resolution, and the RTX 5070’s performance envelope is best utilized at 1440p, where it maintains over 130 FPS at Ultra without the extreme drop seen at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the dominant component in this pairing for Doom, as evidenced by the FPS data. The GPU’s 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s, which is sufficient to feed the game’s texture and geometry demands at all tested resolutions. The measured results show that at 1440p High, the combo reaches 163.2 FPS, and at 1080p High, it hits 249.7 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU’s 6144 shading units and 80 ROPs are well-utilized. The boost clock of 2512 MHz, coupled with a base clock of 2325 MHz, allows the card to maintain high throughput, though the exact clock behavior under load is not directly measured in this data.

The GPU’s role becomes more pronounced at 4K, where the average FPS drops below 100 for all settings except Low. At 4K Medium, the score is 101 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it falls to 70.4 FPS. This pattern indicates that the RTX 5070’s 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 performance is being fully taxed by the higher pixel count, and the 12 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor, as even the Ultra preset does not show a disproportionate drop compared to Medium. The GPU’s benchmark scores support this: a Passmark G3D score of 29137 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5077 place it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (deltaPct 0.6) and AMD Radeon Pro 580X (deltaPct -0.7). This proximity to the RTX 3090 in average benchmark scores suggests that the 5070’s performance in Doom is consistent with its synthetic test results, where it excels but is not an outlier.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p Ultra with this combo?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 205.6, which is above the 144Hz refresh rate common in gaming monitors, indicating a smooth experience.

Q: How does the 4K performance compare to 1440p?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 70.4, while at 1440p Ultra it is 131.6. This represents a 46.5% reduction, showing that 4K significantly taxes the GPU more than 1440p.

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

A: At 1080p Low, the system achieves 339.9 FPS, which is the highest score in the dataset. This high frame rate suggests the CPU is still able to keep up, but the GPU is likely the primary limiter, as the graphical load is minimal.

Q: Does the RTX 5070’s VRAM capacity affect the results?

A: The 12 GB GDDR7 memory appears sufficient for this game, as there is no anomalous drop in FPS when moving from Medium to Ultra at 4K (101 to 70.4 FPS), indicating that memory capacity is not a choke point.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 370th out of 1681 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the top 22% of all systems evaluated, which is a strong position for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU.

Q: How does the i5-12400F’s single-thread performance influence the FPS?

A: The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2332 indicate strong per-core performance, which is critical for Doom’s engine. This likely contributes to the high FPS at 1080p, where CPU overhead can become a factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 achieves a rank of 370 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the 78th percentile of all systems. This ranking is notable because it places this setup ahead of many configurations with more powerful CPUs, highlighting the RTX 5070’s strength in this title. The GPU’s 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs is higher than the combo’s overall rank, suggesting that the CPU is slightly holding back the full potential of the graphics card, but not significantly. The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19221, is close to the GPU’s percentile, indicating a balanced pairing.

The nearest CPU rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-8700K (deltaPct 0.1) and AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (deltaPct -0.7), show that the 12400F is in a tight performance cluster, meaning any gains from a CPU upgrade would be marginal. Similarly, the GPU’s nearest rivals, including the RTX 3090 (deltaPct 0.6) and Tesla M40 (deltaPct -0.5), suggest that the 5070 is competitively positioned. The data indicates that this combo’s rank is primarily driven by the GPU, as the CPU’s performance is sufficient to avoid being a major bottleneck in Doom, which is a well-optimized title for multi-threaded CPUs but still benefits from strong single-thread speed.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F plays a supporting role in this Doom configuration, but its characteristics are essential for achieving the high frame rates seen at 1080p. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the CPU is capable of handling the game’s multi-threaded workload, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16518 and a 3DMark max threads score of 5912. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz provides the single-thread speed necessary for Doom’s main game logic, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3481, both of which are strong for a desktop processor.

The CPU’s L3 cache of 18 MB (shared) and L2 cache of 1.25 MB (per core) help reduce memory latency, which is critical for a fast-paced FPS. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the system is not CPU-limited, as the lowest score at Low settings is 339.9 FPS, which is far above typical display refresh rates. However, at 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes, as the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with FPS dropping to 70.4 at Ultra. This is expected, as higher resolutions increase the GPU’s pixel workload, reducing the demand on the CPU to issue draw calls.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the 12400F’s performance is consistent. The Intel Core i7-8700K has a nearly identical average score (19210 vs 19221, deltaPct 0.1), indicating that the newer 12400F offers no significant advantage in synthetic tests, but its lower TDP of 65 W and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory make it a flexible choice. The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking shows it is above average, and its 3DMark 16-thread score of 5895 versus the max threads score of 5912 suggests good scaling across cores, which benefits Doom’s engine when multiple enemies and effects are on screen. Overall, the CPU provides a solid foundation, but the data confirms that the RTX 5070 is the star of this show, particularly at resolutions above 1080p.