Doom

Doom’s 2016 engine is notoriously scalable, and the measured data for the Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER reflects that flexibility across a wide spectrum of resolutions and settings. The combination delivers high frame rates at every tested configuration, but the pattern of results reveals where the bottleneck shifts between the CPU and GPU. This analysis walks through the resolution scaling, answers common questions, examines the GPU’s specific role, contextualizes the combo’s rank among 1681 tested combinations, and provides precise settings guidance based on the measured rows.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial but not uniform across settings, indicating a classic transition from CPU-bound to GPU-bound behavior. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 385.7 at 1920x1080 to 140.9 at 3840x2160, a reduction of roughly 63%. This steep decline is expected because Low settings minimize GPU workload, allowing the CPU to push extremely high frame rates at lower resolutions; as resolution climbs, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the frame rate collapses toward the GPU’s ceiling.

The scaling becomes more moderate at higher settings. At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 241.3 at 1920x1080 to 83 at 3840x2160, a 66% decrease. Interestingly, the percentage drop is similar, but the absolute values are much lower, suggesting that at Ultra, the GPU is already heavily loaded even at 1080p. At Medium settings, the drop is from 347.1 to 124.7, a 64% reduction, while at High settings, it falls from 292.4 to 105.3, a 64% decline. These consistent percentages across all settings indicate that the GPU’s raw throughput is the dominant constraint when moving from 1080p to 4K, regardless of the preset.

The data also shows that the CPU is not a limiting factor at 1080p, even at Low settings where the frame rate reaches 385.7. This suggests the i5-14400F, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, has ample headroom to feed the RTX 4080 SUPER at lower resolutions. However, the gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (385.7 to 257.6, a 33% drop) is smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K (257.6 to 140.9, a 45% drop), reinforcing that the GPU’s workload scales non-linearly with pixel count. The limiting component at 4K is unequivocally the GPU, as the CPU’s performance ceiling is not reached until well above 300 FPS in this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 385.7 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This indicates the CPU and GPU can produce extremely high frame rates when the GPU workload is minimal.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 83. This is the lowest measured result, but it remains comfortably above 60 FPS, suggesting a smooth experience for most displays.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the frame rates range from 154.3 at Ultra to 257.6 at Low. The substantial spread indicates the GPU is still the primary constraint, as lowering settings yields significant gains, which would not happen if the CPU were limiting.

Q: What settings provide the best balance of quality and performance at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, High settings yield 292.4 FPS, while Ultra yields 241.3 FPS. The 51 FPS difference between High and Ultra suggests that High offers a meaningful performance advantage with only a modest visual step down from Ultra.

Q: How much faster is Low compared to Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Low (140.9 FPS) is approximately 70% faster than Ultra (83 FPS). This large delta highlights the heavy GPU cost of Ultra settings at high resolution.

Q: Does the combo rank high among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 110th out of 1681 tested combos, placing it in the top 7% of all CPU-GPU pairings tested for Doom. This indicates a very strong overall performance level.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant contributor to these frame rates, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for feeding the GPU’s 10240 shading units at 4K. The measured 4K results, ranging from 83 FPS at Ultra to 140.9 at Low, demonstrate that the memory subsystem and compute units are well-balanced for this game’s demands.

The GPU’s clock speeds are also relevant. The base clock of 2295 MHz and boost clock of 2550 MHz are relatively high, and the Ada Lovelace architecture’s efficiency allows the card to sustain these clocks under load. The pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s are directly reflected in the scaling: as resolution increases, the pixel fill rate becomes a limiting factor, which explains the consistent percentage drops across settings.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is not a constraint in Doom, as the game’s texture requirements are modest by modern standards. However, the high bandwidth ensures that even at 4K Ultra, the GPU is not starved for data. The benchmark results show the GPU’s percentile rank of 88 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT in the nearest rivals list. This data confirms that the RTX 4080 SUPER is a top-tier GPU, and its role in this combo is to provide a high performance ceiling that the i5-14400F can fully utilize at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined rank of this CPU-GPU pair is 110 out of 1681 tested combos, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all tested systems. This is a strong result, but it is not at the very top, suggesting that some combinations with higher-end CPUs or GPUs achieve higher frame rates. The CPU’s percentile rank of 88 and the GPU’s percentile rank of 88 are both high, but the combo rank of 110 out of 1681 indicates that the pairing is synergistic without being the absolute best.

The nearest rival CPUs in terms of average benchmark score are the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513, 0% delta), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446, 0.2% delta), AMD Ryzen 7 250 (32584, -0.2% delta), and Intel Core i7-13705H (32586, -0.2% delta). These results show that the i5-14400F is statistically tied with several other processors, meaning the CPU is not a differentiator in this combo’s ranking. The GPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (53489, 0.2% delta), AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (53414, 0.4% delta), AMD Radeon RX 7700S (52505, 2.1% delta), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (52086, 2.9% delta). The RTX 4080 SUPER is 2.9% ahead of the RTX 5070 Ti, which is a notable margin.

Given that the combo rank is 110 out of 1681, the data indicates that this pairing is in the top tier, but there is room for improvement. A more powerful GPU would likely push the combo higher, while a faster CPU would have minimal impact given the CPU’s headroom at 1080p. The rank reflects the GPU’s strong performance, but the CPU’s mid-range positioning prevents the combo from reaching the top 100.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, all settings are playable, with Low at 385.7 FPS and Ultra at 241.3 FPS. For competitive play or high refresh rate monitors, Low or Medium (347.1 FPS) are ideal, as they provide frame rates well above 300 FPS. For a balance of visual quality and performance, High at 292.4 FPS is the best choice, as it offers a significant step up from Medium while maintaining a frame rate above 290 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the same logic applies. Low (257.6 FPS) and Medium (223.7 FPS) are excellent for high refresh rate gaming, while High (189.8 FPS) and Ultra (154.3 FPS) are both above 144 FPS, making them suitable for 144Hz displays. The data shows that High is the sweet spot, as it provides a 35 FPS advantage over Ultra while still looking nearly as good.

At 3840x2160, the choices are more constrained. Ultra (83 FPS) is above 60 FPS but not ideal for high refresh rate gaming. High (105.3 FPS) is a better choice, as it provides a 22 FPS improvement over Ultra with a minor visual downgrade. Medium (124.7 FPS) and Low (140.9 FPS) are the best options for 4K gaming, especially for displays with 120Hz or 144Hz refresh rates. Given the data, Medium is recommended for 4K as it offers a substantial frame rate boost over High without the extreme visual compromises of Low.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across all combinations of resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are as follows: Low 385.7, Medium 347.1, High 292.4, and Ultra 241.3. The spread from Low to Ultra is 144.4 FPS, indicating that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution, and the CPU is not a limiting factor.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 257.6, Medium 223.7, High 189.8, and Ultra 154.3. The spread narrows to 103.3 FPS, showing the increased GPU load. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 33% for Low, 36% for Medium, 35% for High, and 36% for Ultra, indicating consistent scaling.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 140.9, Medium 124.7, High 105.3, and Ultra 83. The spread narrows further to 57.9 FPS, confirming that the GPU is the dominant constraint. The drop from 1440p to 4K is roughly 45% for Low, 44% for Medium, 45% for High, and 46% for Ultra. These consistent percentage drops across all settings underscore that the GPU’s rasterization and memory bandwidth are the primary determinants of performance at 4K, regardless of the preset chosen.