Doom

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a performance profile in Doom that is heavily dictated by resolution, with the CPU proving more than capable at lower settings while the GPU becomes the primary constraint as pixel count rises. The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent scaling pattern across the three tested resolutions, revealing where the bottleneck shifts between the two components.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a dramatic reduction in frame rates, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly depending on the quality preset selected. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 292 at 1920x1080 to 189 at 2560x1440, a decrease of 103 frames, and then further down to 102 at 3840x2160. This represents a total reduction of 190 FPS, or roughly 65%, when moving from the lowest resolution to the highest. The pattern at Medium settings is similar, with averages of 254, 165, and 89 FPS across the same resolution steps, showing a drop of 165 FPS from 1080p to 4K. High settings produce 215, 139, and 75 FPS respectively, while Ultra settings yield 176, 114, and 62 FPS.

The scaling behavior indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only manages 102 FPS, which is a substantial reduction from the 292 FPS achieved at 1080p Low. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 40 FPS (102 versus 62), suggesting that the RX 6800 XT is working hard to fill the additional pixels regardless of the graphical complexity. Conversely, at 1080p, the differences between presets are more pronounced, with Low at 292 FPS versus Ultra at 176 FPS, a spread of 116 FPS. This larger delta at lower resolutions implies that the CPU has more headroom to feed the GPU, allowing the graphics card to operate closer to its full potential before hitting memory bandwidth or shading unit limits.

The data suggests that Doom is particularly sensitive to resolution scaling on this hardware combination. The frame rate drops are not linear — moving from 1440p to 4K costs more performance proportionally than moving from 1080p to 1440p. For instance, at High settings, the 1080p to 1440p transition loses 76 FPS (215 to 139), while the 1440p to 4K transition loses 64 FPS (139 to 75). This non-linear behavior points to the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth becoming saturated as the pixel workload increases, with the 512.0 GB/s bandwidth and 20.74 TFLOPS FP32 throughput proving adequate for 1440p but stretched at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Core i5-14400F and Radeon RX 6800 XT holds the 1158th position out of 3712 total combos for Doom. This places the configuration in the upper third of all tested systems, indicating that it delivers strong performance relative to the broader field. The rank reflects the synergy between the CPU and GPU, where the 10-core, 16-thread processor provides sufficient throughput to keep the graphics card fed across most scenarios.

The percentile data for the individual components provides context for this ranking. The CPU sits at the 83rd percentile among all processors, while the GPU achieves the 85th percentile among all graphics cards. The combination's rank in Doom, being slightly below both individual percentiles, suggests that the game's engine does not fully utilize the available hardware resources. The nearest rival comparisons for the CPU show it trading blows with the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (0.1% higher average score) and Intel Core i9-11900 (0.2% higher), while the GPU's closest competitors include the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile (1.5% higher score) and Intel Arc A550M (2.5% lower). These margins are small, indicating that the chosen components are well-matched in their respective performance tiers.

The rank of 1158 out of 3712 means that a substantial number of other combinations achieve higher frame rates in Doom, but the majority of tested setups fall below this configuration. This suggests that the i5-14400F and RX 6800 XT form a balanced pairing that avoids severe bottlenecks in either direction, allowing the game to run smoothly at high settings without the CPU holding back the GPU or vice versa.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 292 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At Ultra settings, the average drops to 176 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: The average FPS falls from 165 at 2560x1440 to 89 at 3840x2160, representing a loss of 76 frames per second.

Q: Does the RX 6800 XT have enough VRAM for Doom at 4K?

A: The card features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 256-bit bus and 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, which the data shows is sufficient to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, with the lowest preset averaging 102 FPS.

Q: Which settings preset provides the most consistent frame pacing at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 shows a minimum FPS of 140 and maximum of 189, with an average of 165, indicating a 49 FPS range between the recorded minimum and maximum.

Q: How does the CPU's core count affect performance in Doom?

A: The i5-14400F has 10 cores and 16 threads, which the benchmark results suggest is more than adequate for this title, as evidenced by the high frame rates even at 1080p where CPU overhead is typically higher.

Q: Is the GPU the bottleneck at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS of 62 at 3840x2160 Ultra is the lowest recorded value, indicating that the RX 6800 XT's compute resources are fully utilized at this resolution and preset combination.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate of the display. At 1920x1080, all presets deliver frame rates well above 144 Hz, with even Ultra averaging 176 FPS. This means users with 1080p monitors can comfortably select Ultra for maximum visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness. The Medium preset at this resolution offers a balanced 254 FPS average with a minimum of 216, providing headroom for demanding scenes.

For 2560x1440, the High preset at 139 FPS is the best choice for high-refresh displays, as it maintains a frame rate that exceeds most 120 Hz and 144 Hz monitors while still delivering substantial graphical quality. The Ultra preset at 114 FPS remains viable for 120 Hz displays, but the 25 FPS difference between High and Ultra may not be worth the visual gain for competitive play. The Medium preset at 165 FPS is ideal for users prioritizing frame rate over quality, particularly for fast-paced action where higher FPS translates to smoother motion.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes considerably. The Low preset at 102 FPS is the only option that breaks the 100 FPS barrier, making it suitable for 4K displays with 120 Hz refresh rates. Medium at 89 FPS and High at 75 FPS are both playable but require either a 60 Hz display or a willingness to accept lower frame pacing. Ultra at 62 FPS is borderline, providing a playable experience but with noticeable stutter in intense scenes. For most 4K users, the Medium preset offers the best compromise between visual quality and performance, with the High preset being a reasonable choice for slower-paced exploration segments.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset for this combination across all tested configurations is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 292 FPS, Medium reaches 254 FPS with a minimum of 216 and maximum of 292, High produces 215 FPS, and Ultra delivers 176 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 116 FPS, showing significant scaling with graphical complexity.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 189 FPS, Medium averages 165 FPS with a minimum of 140 and maximum of 189, High reaches 139 FPS, and Ultra drops to 114 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 75 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is beginning to limit performance. The Medium preset's minimum of 140 FPS suggests that even the heaviest scenes remain smooth at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 102 FPS, Medium averages 89 FPS with a minimum of 76 and maximum of 103, High reaches 75 FPS, and Ultra drops to 62 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 40 FPS, the smallest of the three resolutions, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K. The Medium preset's minimum of 76 FPS is the lowest recorded value in the entire dataset, indicating that 4K Medium can dip below 80 FPS in demanding sequences.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F features 10 cores and 16 threads, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. The processor includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21645 and a single-core score of 3055, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 11268 and single-core score of 2058.

In Doom, the CPU's role becomes apparent when examining the frame rate differences across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 292 FPS average indicates that the processor can feed the GPU with enough draw calls to maintain very high frame rates. The 10-core, 16-thread configuration provides ample parallelism for the game's engine, which typically scales well with multiple threads. The 20 MB of L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for the game's level streaming and entity management.

The CPU's performance percentile of 83rd among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 32279, places it in the upper tier of consumer CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U with a 0.1% higher score and the Intel Core i9-11900 with a 0.2% higher score, while the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS trails by 0.2%. These close margins suggest that the i5-14400F is well-positioned for gaming workloads, and the Doom results bear this out — even at 1080p Ultra, the CPU maintains 176 FPS, showing that it does not become a limiting factor until well beyond typical refresh rates.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 21 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The GPU contains 4608 shading units, 288 texture mapping units, and 128 ROPs, along with 72 ray tracing cores. It operates at a base clock of 1825 MHz, a game clock of 2015 MHz, and a boost clock of 2250 MHz. The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at an effective speed of 16 Gbps across a 256-bit bus, yielding 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Doom, the GPU's capabilities are most evident at higher resolutions. The 20.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power and 648.0 GTexel/s texture rate provide substantial raw throughput, but the 4K results show that the card is pushed to its limits. The 62 FPS average at 4K Ultra represents a 65% reduction from the 176 FPS at 1080p Ultra, demonstrating the computational cost of rendering at four times the pixel count. The 512.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is sufficient for the game's texture streaming, but the 128 ROPs become a bottleneck at 4K where pixel fill rate is critical.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 85th among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 48477, places it in the high-end segment. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile with a 1.5% higher score and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 with a 3% lower score. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3689 and PassMark G3D score of 24980 provide additional context for its overall capabilities. In Doom specifically, the GPU demonstrates strong scaling from Low to High settings, but the Ultra preset incurs a significant performance penalty, suggesting that the game's Ultra settings include effects that are particularly demanding on the RDNA 2.0 architecture.