Doom

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 produces an outlier result in Doom: the CPU is pinned at the 77th percentile among all processors, while the GPU sits at the 89th percentile among all graphics cards. Yet in this specific title, the combination ranks 79th out of 1,681 tested combos, placing it in the top 4.7% of all systems. That ranking is driven almost entirely by the GPU’s brute force, as the data shows the 12400F’s single-threaded performance—a 3dmark_single_thread score of 909—is sufficient to keep the RTX 5080 fed at every resolution tested.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS curve from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound workload with an unusual amount of headroom at the low end. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 365.5 FPS average; at 3840x2160 with the same Low preset, it drops to 147.9 FPS—a reduction of 59.5%. That is a steep falloff, but it is not the steepest in the dataset. The gap between 1080p Low and 1440p Low is 88.0 FPS (277.5 vs 365.5), while the gap between 1440p Low and 4K Low is 129.6 FPS (147.9 vs 277.5). The scaling is roughly linear with pixel count, which indicates the RTX 5080’s memory bandwidth—960.0 GB/s across a 256-bit bus—is being fully utilized at higher resolutions.

The more telling signal is the spread between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, the delta between Low (365.5 FPS) and Ultra (254.2 FPS) is 111.3 FPS, a 30.4% performance hit for max settings. At 1440p, that delta shrinks to 109.4 FPS (277.5 vs 168.1), a 39.4% hit. At 4K, the delta is 56.3 FPS (147.9 vs 91.6), a 38.1% hit. The fact that the Ultra penalty grows from 1080p to 1440p but stabilizes at 4K suggests the CPU is not the bottleneck—if it were, the percentage gap would widen monotonically as resolution drops. Instead, the data shows the RTX 5080’s shading units (10,752) and texture units (336) are the limiting factor at Ultra settings, not the 12400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 79 out of 1,681, this system sits in the 95.3rd percentile of tested configurations in Doom. That is a remarkable position for a CPU that, on average, scores 19,221 in the benchmark suite—just 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-8700K (19,210) and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i5-1335U (19,167). The 12400F’s nearest rivals on the CPU side are all within a 2% band: the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS scores 19,364 (0.7% higher), and the AMD EPYC 7773X scores 18,979 (1.3% lower). None of those processors would meaningfully change the outcome here.

The GPU’s nearest rivals tell a different story. The RTX 5080’s average benchmark score of 59,188 is 1.6% above the Intel Arc A570M (58,239) and 2.5% above the Intel Arc A580 (57,756), but 1.9% below the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326). Those are all mobile or workstation parts, which underscores how far ahead the 5080 is in raw rasterization. In Doom specifically, the 5080’s 56.28 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput and 293.1 GPixel/s pixel rate translate directly into the frame rates measured here. The combo rank is high because the game is old enough (released 2016-05-12) that its engine does not stress the CPU’s memory subsystem or cache hierarchy—the 12400F’s 18 MB of shared L3 cache is more than adequate.

GPU Role

The RTX 5080’s role in this combo is unambiguous: it is the sole driver of performance. The GPU’s 16 GB of GDDR7 memory never becomes a constraint at any measured setting, even at 4K Ultra where the average FPS is 91.6. The memory clock runs at 1875 MHz (30 Gbps effective), delivering that 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. For a game like Doom, which is a fast-paced FPS with high texture throughput, that bandwidth is the key enabler for the 4K results.

The boost clock of 2617 MHz on the 5080 is the highest single clock in this pairing, and it matters most at 1080p. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo hits 365.5 FPS—a number that is likely constrained by the CPU’s frame submission rate rather than the GPU’s rendering ceiling. The 12400F’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz and its passmark_single_thread score of 3,481 are respectable, but they are not in the same league as the 5080’s compute density. The GPU’s 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores are irrelevant for Doom (which has no ray tracing), but the 112 ROPs and 336 TMUs are directly responsible for the fill-rate-heavy scenes typical of the game’s arena combat.

At 4K, the GPU’s pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s becomes the binding constraint. The measured 4K Ultra result of 91.6 FPS is exactly what the math suggests: 4K has 8.3 million pixels, and at 293.1 GPixel/s, the theoretical maximum is roughly 35 FPS per billion pixels—but the 112 ROPs are clearly handling the workload efficiently. The 4K High result of 112.5 FPS, which is 22.8% higher than Ultra, shows that the game’s Ultra preset includes effects that disproportionately hit the ROPs, not just the shaders.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a full spectrum of playable results. Low settings produce 365.5 FPS, Medium drops to 346.9 FPS (a 5.1% reduction), High falls to 315.6 FPS (a 13.7% reduction from Low), and Ultra bottoms out at 254.2 FPS (a 30.4% reduction from Low). The step from High to Ultra is the largest single drop at 61.4 FPS, which indicates the Ultra preset adds a significant shading load. All four 1080p results are far above any display refresh rate commonly in use, so the CPU is the only component that could limit the experience—and it does not.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low produces 277.5 FPS, Medium drops to 241.8 FPS (12.9% lower), High falls to 201.8 FPS (27.3% lower), and Ultra drops to 168.1 FPS (39.4% lower). The High-to-Ultra gap at 1440p is 33.7 FPS, smaller than the 1080p gap but still the largest step in the resolution’s ladder. The 1440p Low result of 277.5 FPS is 88.0 FPS below the 1080p Low result, a 24.1% reduction that aligns with the pixel count increase from 2.1 million to 3.7 million.

At 3840x2160, the results become more stratified. Low produces 147.9 FPS, Medium drops to 128.9 FPS (12.8% lower), High falls to 112.5 FPS (23.9% lower), and Ultra drops to 91.6 FPS (38.1% lower). The Low-to-Ultra spread at 4K is 56.3 FPS, which is the smallest absolute spread across all resolutions—but the percentage hit is nearly identical to 1440p. This consistency confirms the GPU is the bottleneck across the board; the CPU’s performance is irrelevant at 4K because the 5080 is always the first component to saturate.

Settings Recommendations

The data points to a clear recommendation: High settings at 1440p or Ultra at 1080p deliver the best balance of visual quality and frame rate. At 2560x1440 High, the combo produces 201.8 FPS, which is 33.7 FPS above the 1440p Ultra result of 168.1 FPS. The visual difference between High and Ultra in Doom is typically marginal—the Ultra preset often adds post-processing effects that are imperceptible at high motion. For competitive play, 1440p High at 201.8 FPS is the sweet spot: it clears the 144 Hz threshold by a wide margin and still has 33.7 FPS of headroom before dropping to the Ultra preset.

For 4K users, the choice is between High and Medium. The 4K High result of 112.5 FPS is 16.4 FPS above the 4K Medium result of 128.9 FPS—wait, the data shows the opposite: 4K High is 112.5 FPS and 4K Medium is 128.9 FPS. The Medium preset is actually 16.4 FPS faster than High. Given that High is only 23.9% below Low at 4K, and Medium is only 12.8% below Low, the Medium preset is the pragmatic choice for 4K gaming on a high-refresh-rate display. It delivers 128.9 FPS, which is above the 120 Hz threshold, while High falls below it at 112.5 FPS.

At 1080p, the recommendation is Ultra without hesitation. The 254.2 FPS result at 1080p Ultra is still 26.2 FPS above the 1440p High result, and it is only 30.4% below the 1080p Low result. For esports-style play at 1080p, even the Ultra preset leaves enough headroom for a 240 Hz monitor. The Medium preset at 1080p (346.9 FPS) and Low preset (365.5 FPS) are only useful for extreme refresh-rate displays (360 Hz or higher), and the 5.1% gap between Medium and Low is not worth the visual degradation.

The worst choice in the entire measured set is 4K Ultra at 91.6 FPS. It is the only result below 100 FPS, and it is 20.9 FPS below the 4K High result. For a game like Doom, which rewards consistent frame pacing, dropping from 112.5 FPS to 91.6 FPS is a 18.6% penalty for settings that are unlikely to be visible during combat. The data unequivocally supports 4K Medium (128.9 FPS) as the highest playable preset at that resolution, with 1440p High (201.8 FPS) as the overall best combination of resolution, fidelity, and performance.