Doom

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers a dramatic performance curve in Doom, but the shape of that curve reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions and increasingly CPU-bound as resolution drops. The data shows a massive 122.5 FPS swing between 1080p Low and 4K Ultra settings, indicating that the game scales aggressively with both resolution and graphical fidelity. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 382 FPS, but this drops to 340.7 FPS at High, 365.7 at Medium, and 275.1 at Ultra. The step from 1080p High to 1440p High is a 34.8% reduction in frame rate, while the jump from 1440p High to 4K High costs another 46.7% of performance. This scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p, the i5-13400F is approaching its ceiling, as the gap between Low and Medium settings is only 16.3 FPS, whereas at 4K, the gap between Low and Medium opens up to 15.8 FPS, indicating the GPU is handling the load more gracefully.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data paints a clear picture of where the bottleneck lies in this pairing. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 340.7 to 218.3, a reduction of 122.4 FPS or roughly 35.9%. This is a substantial hit, but not as severe as the move from 1440p to 4K, where the frame rate falls from 218.3 to 116.4, a further 46.7% decline. This pattern indicates that the RTX 5090 is the primary limiting factor at 4K, as its rendering workload increases exponentially with pixel count. However, at 1080p, the data reveals a different story: the difference between Low (382 FPS) and Medium (365.7 FPS) is only 16.3 FPS, and the jump to High (340.7 FPS) costs just 25 FPS more. This compression of performance across settings at 1080p suggests the CPU is starting to hold back the GPU, as the i5-13400F cannot feed frames fast enough to fully utilize the RTX 5090's capabilities at lower resolutions. At 4K, the settings spread is much wider: Low produces 158.6 FPS, Medium 142.8, High 116.4, and Ultra drops to 96 FPS. This wider spread confirms that the GPU is the dominant constraint at 4K, with each settings tier adding meaningful rendering overhead.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the i5-13400F and RTX 5090 achieves a combo rank of 30 out of 1,681 tested combos for Doom. This places it in the top 1.8% of all tested systems, which is exceptional given the CPU's mid-range positioning. The rank reflects that the GPU's raw power more than compensates for the CPU's limitations in this particular title. The i5-13400F itself sits at the 82nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25,236, while the RTX 5090 ranks at the 94th percentile among GPUs with an average score of 84,306. The combination of a top-tier GPU with a solid mid-range CPU yields a result that outperforms the vast majority of tested systems, though it falls short of the absolute top tier. The nearest CPU rivals provide context: the Intel Core i7-13620H scores 25,201 (0.1% behind), the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D scores 25,365 (0.5% ahead), and the AMD EPYC 9474F scores 25,103 (0.5% behind). These minuscule deltas show that the i5-13400F is squarely in the middle of its performance class, yet the combo rank of 30 demonstrates that Doom is highly responsive to GPU power.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 is the undisputed star of this pairing, and its specifications explain why it dominates Doom's performance metrics. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This massive memory allocation is more than sufficient for Doom, which was released in 2016 and does not require modern VRAM capacities. The GPU's clock speeds are equally impressive: a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, which allow it to sustain high frame rates across all tested configurations. The 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is the primary driver of the high FPS numbers, particularly at 4K where the GPU must process pixel data for over 8 million pixels per frame. The RTX 5090's 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306, places it near the top of the GPU hierarchy. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D (0.1% ahead) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (0.2% ahead), showing that the desktop 5090 is essentially matched by only its closest variants. The GPU's 5 nm process node and 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die contribute to its exceptional performance, though these architectural details matter less than the raw output seen in the measured FPS data.

FAQ

Q: Does the RTX 5090 bottleneck the i5-13400F in Doom?

A: At 4K, no — the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as evidenced by the wide FPS spread across settings (96 FPS at Ultra vs 158.6 at Low). At 1080p, yes, the CPU becomes the constraint, shown by the compressed performance gap between Low (382 FPS) and Medium (365.7 FPS) settings.

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

A: The data shows 1440p High produces 218.3 FPS, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on modern monitors. 4K High yields 116.4 FPS, which is still playable but less smooth. For maximum frame rates, 1080p Low achieves 382 FPS, but the CPU limits further gains.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: It ranks 30th out of 1,681 tested combos, placing it in the top 1.8% of all systems tested for Doom. This is an outstanding result for a CPU that sits at the 82nd percentile among all processors.

Q: Is the i5-13400F a good match for the RTX 5090?

A: The combo rank suggests yes for Doom specifically. The CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads with a 4.60 GHz boost clock are sufficient to keep up with the GPU at most settings, though the 1080p data shows the CPU limiting performance at lower resolutions.

Q: What settings should I use for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: At 4K, High settings provide 116.4 FPS, which is significantly better than Ultra's 96 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 20.4 FPS, a 17.5% reduction, making High the better choice for maintaining higher frame rates.

Q: How does the i5-13400F compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D scores 0.5% higher, while the Intel Core i7-13620H scores 0.1% lower and the AMD EPYC 9474F scores 0.5% lower. These differences are negligible in real-world gaming performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across all resolution and settings combinations. At 1080p, the combo achieves its highest frame rates: Low produces 382 FPS, Medium 365.7 FPS, High 340.7 FPS, and Ultra 275.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 106.9 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between High and Ultra (65.6 FPS). At 1440p, performance remains strong but noticeably lower: Low hits 295.9 FPS, Medium 257.5 FPS, High 218.3 FPS, and Ultra 180.1 FPS. The total spread here is 115.8 FPS, with the High to Ultra drop costing 38.2 FPS. At 4K, the numbers become more moderate: Low produces 158.6 FPS, Medium 142.8 FPS, High 116.4 FPS, and Ultra 96 FPS. The spread at 4K is 62.6 FPS, showing that the GPU is working harder and settings changes have a more pronounced effect. Across all resolutions, the data shows a consistent pattern: Low to Medium settings have a relatively small FPS impact, Medium to High has a moderate impact, and High to Ultra has the largest impact. This suggests that Ultra settings introduce rendering effects that are disproportionately expensive relative to their visual benefit in Doom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F plays a supporting role in this pairing, but its specifications dictate the upper bounds of performance at lower resolutions. The CPU features 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. It has 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, which helps with game data access patterns. The 65 W TDP indicates this is a power-efficient chip, yet it still manages to feed the RTX 5090 effectively at most settings. The CPU's benchmark scores show balanced performance: Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21,279 and single-core score of 3,004, with Geekbench multicore at 10,971 and single-core at 2,301. The 82nd percentile ranking among all CPUs reflects its position as a strong mid-range option. The 1080p data reveals the CPU bottleneck: at Low settings (382 FPS), the GPU is waiting for instructions, as evidenced by the small 16.3 FPS gap to Medium settings. This indicates the CPU's single-thread performance is the limiting factor at frame rates above roughly 380 FPS. The nearest rivals show the CPU is well-matched: the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D is 0.5% faster, while the Intel Core i7-13620H is 0.1% slower, making these effectively equivalent in synthetic benchmarks. For Doom specifically, the CPU's 10 cores are more than sufficient, as the game's engine scales well with multi-core processors, but the single-thread performance dictates the ceiling at high frame rates.