Doom

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers an exceptionally strong performance profile in Doom, with the data indicating that the system is capable of high refresh rate gaming across all tested resolutions. The benchmark results show a clear progression of frame rates that scale predictably with both resolution and graphical settings, positioning this combo as a top-tier contender for the title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates reveal a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 314 FPS, which drops to 203 FPS at 1440p and further to 110 FPS at 4K. This represents a scaling factor where performance decreases by roughly 35% when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and another 46% when stepping up to 4K. The progression indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the Intel Core i5-14600K provides sufficient headroom at lower resolutions.

The gap between settings widens as resolution increases, which is a hallmark of GPU-limited scenarios. At 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 44 FPS (110 vs 66), whereas at 1080p, that same settings gap expands to 125 FPS (314 vs 189). This behavior confirms that the graphics card's compute resources are being saturated at 4K, making the CPU's role less prominent. The data shows that 1440p represents the sweet spot for this combination, where the average frame rates remain above 120 FPS even at Ultra settings, suggesting that the GPU can maintain high performance without being fully bottlenecked.

How This Combo Ranks

In the comprehensive database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Core i5-14600K with the Radeon RX 9070 XT achieves a rank of 895 out of 3,712 combos in Doom. This places the system in the top 24% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the balanced nature of this setup, where neither component severely bottlenecks the other in this particular title.

The CPU itself holds a percentile ranking of 90 among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 48,618. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing include the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (scoring 48,698, a 0.2% delta) and the AMD EPYC 4345P (scoring 48,470, a 0.3% delta), indicating that the i5-14600K sits right at the edge of a performance cluster. Meanwhile, the GPU's percentile ranking of 55 among all graphics cards is notably lower, with an average benchmark score of 13,543. This discrepancy between CPU and GPU percentiles suggests that the processor has more headroom than the graphics card in this pairing.

The combination's rank of 895 suggests that while many higher-end GPU configurations outperform it, the system still delivers excellent playable performance. The data indicates that the bottleneck in this setup is clearly the GPU, as the CPU's strong synthetic scores position it well above the 90th percentile, allowing the graphics card to operate near its full potential.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture using a 4 nm process at TSMC, featuring the Navi 48 chip with 53,900 million transistors. Its memory configuration includes 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 2518 MHz, or 20.1 Gbps effective, which supports the high frame rates observed in the benchmark data.

Clock speeds for this GPU are notable: a base clock of 1660 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2970 MHz. The substantial boost clock headroom helps explain the strong performance at 1080p, where the GPU can run at higher frequencies without thermal or power constraints. The card's 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs provide the raw compute throughput needed for Doom's rendering workload. The pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s are directly reflected in the high average frame rates observed across all resolutions.

In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU scores 26,795 in Passmark G3D and 15,864 in Passmark GPU Compute, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 7,260. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 65,879 indicates strong API-level performance. However, the GPU's percentile ranking of 55 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13,543, shows that while it is capable, it does not reach the top tier of graphics cards. The nearest rivals in this scoring range include the AMD Radeon HD 7770M (scoring 13,536) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (scoring 13,515), which places the RX 9070 XT in a mid-range performance bracket despite its modern architecture.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p resolution, the benchmark results show a range of performance depending on settings. With Low settings, the average frame rate reaches 314 FPS, which drops to 273 FPS at Medium settings with a minimum of 232 FPS. High settings produce 231 FPS average, while Ultra settings reduce this to 189 FPS. These numbers indicate that even at the highest quality preset, the system maintains frame rates well above the refresh rate of most monitors.

Moving to 1440p, the performance scales accordingly. Low settings deliver 203 FPS average, Medium settings reach 177 FPS with a minimum of 150 FPS, High settings produce 149 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 122 FPS. The 1440p results show a tighter spread between settings compared to 1080p, with the difference between Low and Ultra being 81 FPS, as opposed to 125 FPS at 1080p. This suggests the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor as resolution increases.

At 4K resolution, the frame rates become more moderate. Low settings yield 110 FPS average, Medium settings produce 96 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS and a maximum of 110 FPS, High settings deliver 81 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 66 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that the GPU is the primary constraint at this resolution, with even Low settings unable to push beyond 110 FPS. The minimum frame rate of 81 FPS at Medium settings indicates that the system remains playable at 4K, though the margin for error narrows significantly.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium settings deliver 273 FPS average, which is only 41 FPS less than Low settings but provides a substantial visual improvement over the baseline. The minimum frame rate of 232 FPS at this setting ensures smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes.

For 1440p gaming, Medium settings again prove optimal, with an average of 177 FPS and a minimum of 150 FPS. This configuration maintains frame rates well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on many monitors, while the step up to High settings only reduces performance to 149 FPS, which is still acceptable for most users. The data indicates that High settings at 1440p are a viable alternative for those prioritizing visual fidelity over maximum frame rates.

At 4K resolution, the recommendation shifts toward Low or Medium settings. Low settings achieve 110 FPS average, while Medium settings provide 96 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 66 FPS, which may cause noticeable stuttering on high refresh rate displays. For a consistent 4K experience, the Medium preset offers the best compromise, keeping frame rates above 90 FPS while maintaining a playable minimum.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K features 14 cores and 20 threads based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. The processor runs at a base clock of 3.50 GHz with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, supported by a 125 W TDP. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache, providing ample data storage for gaming workloads.

In Doom, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic data. The benchmark results show that at 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 314 FPS, which is well beyond what most CPUs can sustain in this title. The i5-14600K's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its Geekbench single-core score of 2,491 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,064, helps minimize CPU-side bottlenecks at lower resolutions.

The processor's multi-threaded capabilities are also robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24,491 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 16,673. These scores, combined with a Passmark multi-thread score of 38,682, indicate that the CPU has substantial headroom for gaming workloads. The 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms that this processor is well above average, and the synthetic benchmark scores position it closely to rivals like the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (0.2% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (0.8% delta). The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combination, as the frame rates scale more with resolution changes than with CPU-bound scenarios.