Doom

The Intel Core i5-14400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 combination delivers a highly capable Doom experience across all tested settings, with the data indicating that the Ultra preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, achieving an average of 94 FPS. For players prioritizing maximum smoothness on high-refresh-rate 1080p displays, the High preset at 1080p is the optimal choice, providing 178 FPS on average while still maintaining substantial visual quality over the Low preset.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates reveal a clear hierarchy in performance scaling across the four available presets. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves a commanding 241 FPS average, which is 35% higher than the High preset's 178 FPS and 66% higher than Ultra's 145 FPS. This suggests that the Low preset is severely CPU-bound at this resolution, as the GPU headroom is not being fully utilized. The Medium preset at 210 FPS offers a strong middle ground, delivering 18% more performance than High while presumably adding minor visual enhancements over Low.

However, the most compelling recommendation emerges at 1440p, where the Ultra preset maintains a 94 FPS average. This is particularly notable because the jump from High to Ultra at 1440p costs only 18% of the frame rate (115 FPS down to 94 FPS), yet likely provides the most complete visual experience the game offers. The 4K Ultra preset falls to 51 FPS, which dips below the 60 FPS threshold that most gamers consider essential for smooth play, making it less advisable for general use despite being technically playable.

For the best overall experience, the data strongly supports 1440p Ultra as the sweet spot. It provides a frame rate that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS, remains well above the 30 FPS minimum for playability, and delivers the highest fidelity preset at a resolution that balances sharpness with performance. The 1080p High preset remains a viable alternative for competitive play, offering 178 FPS which is ample for even the fastest 144Hz monitors, though it sacrifices the visual richness that Ultra provides.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7700's memory configuration plays a pivotal role in the observed performance. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit bus providing 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth, the card has ample resources for Doom's texture-heavy environments at all tested resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 51 FPS demonstrates that while the memory bandwidth is sufficient to feed the GPU, the raw compute power becomes the limiting factor at this extreme resolution. The GPU's 2560 shading units operating at a boost clock of 2459 MHz deliver 25.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is the primary driver behind the 4K Low preset achieving 85 FPS.

The GPU's clock behavior is instructive when analyzing the resolution scaling. At 1080p, the GPU is likely not working at maximum capacity, as evidenced by the diminishing returns between presets. The jump from Low (241 FPS) to Ultra (145 FPS) at 1080p represents a 40% performance drop, while the same preset transition at 4K only costs 40% as well (85 to 51 FPS), but from a much lower baseline. This indicates that at 4K, the GPU's shading units and texture units are fully saturated, and the 96 ROPs are being pushed to their limits with the 236.1 GPixel/s pixel rate.

The 40 ray tracing cores included in the RX 7700 are relevant for future titles, but Doom's 2016 engine does not utilize RT effects, so their presence does not influence these specific results. The GPU's 16 GB frame buffer proves particularly valuable at 4K, where the 74 FPS Medium result and 62 FPS High result show that memory capacity is not a bottleneck even at the highest resolutions. The card's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides sufficient bandwidth to communicate with the CPU without introducing transfer bottlenecks, as evidenced by the consistent scaling from 1080p through 4K.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1440p provides the best balance, with the Ultra preset achieving 94 FPS and the High preset hitting 115 FPS. At 1080p, frame rates exceed 145 FPS on Ultra, but the visual upgrade to 1440p is significant, and the performance remains well above playable thresholds.

Q: How does the 4K performance compare to lower resolutions?

A: At 4K, the Ultra preset drops to 51 FPS, which is 46% lower than the 1440p Ultra result of 94 FPS. The 4K Low preset at 85 FPS is playable, but the 4K Ultra result falls below the 60 FPS standard, making 4K a compromise for this combo.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the CPU becomes the primary limiter at 1080p. The difference between Low (241 FPS) and Ultra (145 FPS) at 1080p is 96 FPS, while the same preset comparison at 4K only yields a 34 FPS difference (85 vs 51). This suggests the CPU cannot feed the GPU fast enough at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the performance penalty for using Ultra vs High settings?

A: At 1080p, Ultra reduces average FPS by 18.5% compared to High (145 vs 178). At 1440p, the penalty is 18.3% (94 vs 115). At 4K, the penalty increases to 17.7% (51 vs 62). The relative penalty remains consistent across resolutions.

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

A: This combination ranks 1314th out of 2930 tested combos, placing it in the 55th percentile of all tested systems. This indicates it performs above the median but is not in the top tier of configurations tested for Doom.

Q: Is the 16 GB VRAM sufficient for Doom at maximum settings?

A: Yes, the 16 GB frame buffer is more than adequate. The 4K Ultra preset, which is the most demanding configuration, still achieves 51 FPS average, and the 624.1 GB/s memory bandwidth ensures no VRAM-related stuttering is evident in the measured FPS data.

How This Combo Ranks

The measured performance places this configuration at rank 1314 out of 2930 tested combinations, positioning it squarely in the upper-middle tier of all systems benchmarked for Doom. This ranking is particularly noteworthy given the hardware's specifications. The Intel Core i5-14400F achieves an 83rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the Radeon RX 7700 sits at the 58th percentile among GPUs. This combination of a high-performing CPU with a mid-range GPU produces a system that is well-balanced for this particular title.

The CPU's benchmark scores provide context for its role in this ranking. The i5-14400F's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21645 and single-core score of 3055 indicate strong processing power that prevents CPU bottlenecking at most settings. The nearest CPU rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (0.1% higher average score) and Intel Core i9-11900 (0.2% higher), show that the i5-14400F is competitive with notably more expensive processors. On the GPU side, the RX 7700's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, posts a 1.7% higher average benchmark score, yet the measured Doom performance demonstrates that real-world gaming results can differ from synthetic benchmarks.

The ranking of 1314 out of 2930 suggests that approximately 45% of tested combinations outperform this setup. However, this statistic must be interpreted carefully. The combo's 1440p Ultra result of 94 FPS is a strong performance metric that would satisfy most gamers, and the 1080p High result of 178 FPS is exceptional. The ranking likely includes many systems with significantly more expensive GPUs, making this combo's position a signal of its efficiency rather than a criticism of its capability.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling across resolutions reveals a classic pattern of GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions and CPU-bound behavior at lower resolutions. From 1080p to 1440p, the Ultra preset drops from 145 FPS to 94 FPS, a 35.2% reduction. From 1440p to 4K, the same preset drops from 94 FPS to 51 FPS, a 45.7% reduction. This accelerating decline as resolution increases indicates that the GPU is becoming progressively more saturated.

The Low preset tells a similar story. At 1080p, it achieves 241 FPS, dropping to 156 FPS at 1440p (35.3% reduction) and then to 85 FPS at 4K (45.5% reduction). The consistency of these percentage drops across presets suggests that the scaling is primarily resolution-driven rather than settings-driven. However, the absolute differences reveal the limiting component: at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 96 FPS, while at 4K, it is only 34 FPS. This compression of the settings gap at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases.

The data indicates that the CPU's ceiling is approximately 241 FPS, as evidenced by the 1080p Low result. This is consistent with the i5-14400F's 10 cores and 16 threads, which provide ample processing power for Doom's engine. The GPU's ceiling is higher than the CPU's, as shown by the 4K Low result of 85 FPS, which is likely limited by the GPU's shading units rather than memory bandwidth. The 16 GB VRAM and 624.1 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient even at 4K, so the GPU's compute capability is the primary constraint at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows consistently high performance across all presets. The Low preset achieves an average of 241 FPS, representing the absolute maximum throughput of this system. The Medium preset delivers 210 FPS average with a minimum of 179 FPS and maximum of 242 FPS, showing tight frame pacing. The High preset produces 178 FPS average, and the Ultra preset provides 145 FPS average. All 1080p results exceed 144 FPS, making this resolution suitable for the fastest gaming monitors available.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but with more distinct separation between presets. Low achieves 156 FPS average, Medium delivers 136 FPS with a minimum of 116 FPS and maximum of 156 FPS, High provides 115 FPS, and Ultra maintains 94 FPS. The 1440p results are particularly notable because even the Ultra preset stays above 90 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay on standard 144Hz monitors. The Medium preset's minimum of 116 FPS indicates reliable performance without significant frame drops.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more demanding on the GPU. The Low preset achieves 85 FPS average, which is playable. Medium delivers 74 FPS average with a minimum of 63 FPS and maximum of 85 FPS, showing the first signs of potential frame dips below 60 FPS. High provides 62 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 51 FPS average. The 4K results demonstrate that while the RX 7700 can handle 4K gaming, it requires modest settings to maintain consistent 60+ FPS performance. The Medium preset at 4K, with its 63 FPS minimum, represents the best option for those prioritizing frame rate stability at this resolution.