Doom

The Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT pairing delivers a fundamentally balanced experience in Doom, with the CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads providing ample headroom for the game's engine while the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. The processor, based on Raptor Lake architecture, operates with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, which positions it well above the threshold needed for high-refresh-rate gaming. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a single-thread score of 960 in 3DMark and a multi-thread score of 7307 at max threads, indicating strong per-core performance that Doom's id Tech engine can leverage effectively. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache further aids in reducing latency for game logic and asset streaming.

At 1080p, the data reveals a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher settings, while the CPU demonstrates its capability to push frame rates to extreme levels at lower graphical presets. The measured average of 189.8 FPS at Low settings versus 112.7 FPS at Ultra settings shows a 77.1 FPS spread that is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's rendering workload. The CPU's 3DMark 2-thread score of 1880 and 4-thread score of 3459 indicate that even lightly threaded scenes in Doom would not constrain the RX 5700 XT's output at these frame rates. This is consistent with the CPU's 82nd percentile ranking among all tested processors, placing it firmly in the upper tier for gaming workloads.

FAQ

Q: How does the i5-13400F's multi-threaded performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 25236 places it within 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365), while it is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13620H (25201) and 0.5% ahead of both the AMD EPYC 9474F (25103) and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (25099). This indicates the i5-13400F sits right at the median of its performance class.

Q: Is the RX 5700 XT's performance competitive with other GPUs in its price segment?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 24731 places it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (24763, deltaPct -0.1), and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Arc A350M (24647). It also leads the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile (24592) by 0.6% and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 (24519) by 0.9%, showing it holds a slight edge over these alternatives.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking and what does that mean for Doom?

A: The RX 5700 XT ranks in the 68th percentile among all GPUs, which is respectable but notably lower than the CPU's 82nd percentile. This gap suggests the GPU will be the limiting factor in most gaming scenarios, particularly at higher resolutions and settings where the rendering load increases.

Q: Can this combo achieve 144 FPS at 1080p?

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. The data shows 189.8 FPS at Low and 167.3 FPS at Medium, both exceeding the 144 Hz threshold. However, High settings yield 136.4 FPS and Ultra drops to 112.7 FPS, so demanding presets will fall short of 144 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The pairing ranks 1264th out of 1681 total combos tested, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This ranking reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning rather than any CPU deficiency, as the processor itself performs well above average.

Q: What is the difference in performance between the CPU's single-thread and multi-thread scores?

A: The CPU achieves a 3DMark single-thread score of 960 and a max-thread score of 7307, representing a roughly 7.6x scaling factor. This strong scaling indicates the 16 threads are effectively utilized, which benefits modern games that can distribute workloads across multiple cores.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT achieves a rank of 1264 out of 1681 tested combos in Doom, placing it at the 75th percentile of all pairings. This position is somewhat surprising given the individual component rankings—the CPU sits at the 82nd percentile while the GPU is at the 68th—but the overall combo ranking reflects the GPU's role as the performance ceiling for this game. The 417-combo gap between this pairing and the top quartile indicates that while the CPU is more than capable, the RX 5700 XT's rendering throughput limits what this system can achieve.

The discrepancy between component and combo rankings suggests that Doom's optimization favors systems with stronger GPUs, even if their CPUs are less powerful. A hypothetical pairing with a similarly-ranked CPU but a higher-tier GPU would likely rank significantly better, as the 13400F's 10 cores and 16 threads provide sufficient headroom for even the most demanding frame rates. The CPU's 3DMark 16-thread score of 7314 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21279 demonstrate that processor performance is not a limiting factor in this configuration.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 189.8 FPS on Low settings, 167.3 FPS on Medium, 136.4 FPS on High, and 112.7 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 77.1 FPS drop, which represents a 40.6% reduction in frame rate as graphical fidelity increases. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU's 9.754 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the primary constraint, as the CPU's 3DMark 2-thread score of 1880 would comfortably support frame rates above 200 FPS in less demanding scenes.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages fall to 125.9 FPS at Low, 105.2 FPS at Medium, 91.5 FPS at High, and 74.5 FPS at Ultra. The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces performance by 33.7% at Low settings and 33.9% at Ultra, demonstrating consistent scaling with pixel count. At this resolution, the GPU's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 256-bit bus become more significant factors, as the increased pixel workload requires greater memory throughput.

At 3840x2160, the system manages 63.3 FPS at Low, 61.0 FPS at Medium, 49.8 FPS at High, and 40.0 FPS at Ultra. The 4K results show a dramatic performance cliff, particularly at Ultra where the frame rate drops below 60 FPS. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 64 ROPs are clearly insufficient for maximum settings at this resolution, as the 40.0 FPS average represents a 64.7% reduction from the 1080p Ultra result.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that becomes progressively more GPU-bound as resolution increases. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (189.8 FPS) to 2560x1440 (125.9 FPS) represents a 33.7% drop, and further to 3840x2160 (63.3 FPS) a 66.6% drop from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline indicates that the RX 5700 XT's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, as the CPU's performance headroom remains largely untapped even at 4K.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is even more pronounced: 112.7 FPS at 1080p falls to 74.5 FPS at 1440p (a 33.9% drop) and then to 40.0 FPS at 4K (a 64.5% drop overall). The fact that the CPU's 3DMark max-thread score of 7307 and single-thread score of 960 show no signs of bottlenecking at any resolution confirms that the GPU is the sole constraint above 1080p. The 4K Ultra result of 40.0 FPS is particularly telling, as it suggests the GPU's 9.754 TFLOPS compute and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are exhausted by the 8.3 million pixel workload.

The pattern across all settings shows that resolution scaling is nearly linear, indicating that the GPU's architecture is being fully utilized without any CPU-imposed limits. The i5-13400F's 10 cores and 16 threads, combined with its 20 MB L3 cache, provide enough processing power to feed the GPU even at 4K, where the 49.8 FPS High setting result demonstrates that the system can approach playable frame rates but not maintain them at maximum quality. This analysis confirms that users seeking higher 4K performance would need to upgrade the GPU rather than the CPU, as the processor's 82nd percentile ranking indicates it has substantial headroom for future graphics card upgrades.