Doom

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers a decisive performance curve in Doom that clearly separates the capabilities of the CPU from the GPU. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 336.6 FPS, which drops to 204.3 FPS at Ultra—a substantial reduction, but one that still leaves headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors. Moving to 1440p, the average frames at High (161.2 FPS) remain above the 144 Hz threshold, while the Ultra preset still holds at 133.1 FPS. The most telling shift occurs at 4K, where the High preset yields 88.6 FPS and Ultra falls to 69 FPS. This scaling pattern—a 73% reduction in average FPS from 1080p Low to 4K Ultra—indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution climbs, while the CPU’s capacity is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a predictable but steep decline in frame rates as resolution increases. At 1080p, the combo is clearly CPU-bound at lower settings, with the Low preset hitting 336.6 FPS and Medium reaching 292.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 43.7 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High (251.3 FPS) is smaller, suggesting diminishing returns as the GPU begins to take on more work. At 1440p, the same pattern holds but with tighter margins: Low delivers 218.8 FPS, Medium 190 FPS, and High 161.2 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is 28.1 FPS, which is proportionally larger than at 1080p, where the same settings gap is 47 FPS.

The 4K results are where the GPU’s limits become apparent. Low at 4K produces 116.3 FPS, which is still playable, but Medium drops to 104.5 FPS and High to 88.6 FPS. Ultra at 4K bottoms out at 69 FPS. The scaling from 1440p High to 4K High shows a 45% performance loss, while the same resolution jump at Low costs 47% of the frame rate. This consistency across settings indicates that the RTX 5070’s rendering pipeline is the dominant constraint at 4K, with the CPU’s 10 cores and 16 threads providing ample headroom. For players targeting 4K, the data suggests that High settings are the practical ceiling for smooth gameplay, while 1440p offers the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate.

GPU Role

The RTX 5070’s specifications directly explain its behavior in Doom. With 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, the card delivers 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 4K textures but not unlimited. The boost clock of 2512 MHz and 6144 shading units drive the raw compute, and the FP32 throughput of 30.87 TFLOPS aligns with the frame rates observed. The GPU’s 80 ROPs handle pixel output, and the pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s correlates with the 4K performance ceiling. At 1080p, the GPU is underutilized, as evidenced by the 336.6 FPS at Low—a result that far exceeds what the CPU can consistently feed. At 4K Ultra, the 69 FPS average reflects the card’s limits under heavy load, with the 12 GB VRAM potentially becoming a factor at higher texture settings. The benchmark scores support this: the GPU’s Passmark G3D score of 29137 places it in the 83rd percentile, and its average benchmark score of 41687 is within 0.6% of the RTX 3090, which is a comparable high-end contender.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this CPU-GPU pairing ranks 368th out of 1681 combos for Doom, placing it in the top 22% of tested systems. This rank reflects a configuration that is well-matched for the game, with neither component dramatically outclassing the other. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 25236 puts it at the 82nd percentile among all CPUs, and its nearest rivals—the Intel Core i7-13620H (25201, +0.1%) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365, -0.5%)—show performance within a narrow band. The GPU, meanwhile, sits at the 83rd percentile with an average score of 41687, rivaled closely by the RTX 3090 (41441, +0.6%). The combination’s rank suggests that while it is not a top-tier enthusiast setup, it outperforms the majority of tested systems in this title, largely due to the GPU’s strength at 1440p and its ability to maintain playable frame rates at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Doom?

A: The data shows 1440p High delivers 161.2 FPS, which is above the 144 Hz refresh rate, while 4K High drops to 88.6 FPS. For a balance of smoothness and visual quality, 1440p is the sweet spot.

Q: Can this system handle 4K Ultra in Doom?

A: Yes, but barely. The measured average at 4K Ultra is 69 FPS, which is playable on a 60 Hz display but will not satisfy high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival?

A: The i5-13400F has an average benchmark score of 25236, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-13620H (25201) and 0.5% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365). These are effectively negligible differences.

Q: Is the GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: No. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 336.6 FPS, which far exceeds what the CPU can consistently feed. The CPU’s single-thread score of 960 in 3DMark suggests it is the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory configuration?

A: The RTX 5070 has 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is adequate for 4K but may constrain ultra-texture settings in memory-intensive scenes.

Q: How does the GPU rank among all tested GPUs?

A: The RTX 5070 is in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41687. It is 0.6% faster than the RTX 3090 (41441) and 0.7% slower than the AMD Radeon Pro 580X (41991).

Settings Recommendations

For the best measured experience, the data points to 1440p High as the optimal configuration. This preset yields 161.2 FPS, which is comfortably above the 144 Hz refresh rate, and the visual quality is only slightly below Ultra (133.1 FPS at 1440p). The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is 28.1 FPS, a 17% performance hit for what is typically a marginal visual improvement in Doom. At 1080p, High is also excellent (251.3 FPS), but the extra frames are wasted on most displays. For 4K users, High (88.6 FPS) is the recommended ceiling; Ultra (69 FPS) drops below the 70 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for smooth action. Medium at 4K (104.5 FPS) offers a better balance if the player prioritizes frame rate over texture quality. The Low preset, while delivering the highest frame rates (336.6 FPS at 1080p, 116.3 FPS at 4K), sacrifices too much visual fidelity for the GPU-bound scenarios at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides the computational backbone for this combo, and its specifications explain the frame rates at lower resolutions. With 10 cores and 16 threads, the CPU has sufficient parallelism for Doom’s engine, which is not heavily multithreaded. The base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz drive single-thread performance, which is critical for this game. The 3DMark single-thread score of 960 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3004 indicate strong per-core capability, which aligns with the 1080p Low result of 336.6 FPS—a figure that is CPU-limited. The multi-thread scores (Cinebench R23 multicore: 21279, Geekbench multicore: 10971) show that the CPU does not bottleneck in this title, as the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 1440p at High settings (251.3 to 161.2 FPS) is consistent with GPU-bound behavior. The CPU’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4/DDR5) provide adequate bandwidth for the GPU, and its 65 W TDP means it pairs well with the RTX 5070’s 250 W power draw without thermal throttling concerns. The CPU’s percentile rank of 82% and its near-tie with the Ryzen 5 5600X3D (within 0.5%) confirm that it is a capable mid-range part that does not hold back the RTX 5070 in Doom.