Doom

# Doom: Intel Core i5-14600K + Intel Arc B370

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the Intel Arc B370 represents a deeply unbalanced configuration for Doom, as the benchmark data reveals a GPU-bound experience across all tested resolutions. The Arc B370, an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture with a 25 W TDP, delivers playable frame rates only at 1080p with reduced settings, while the 14-core, 20-thread Raptor Lake CPU sits largely idle in this workload. The combination ranks 2696th out of 2930 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 8% of all configurations, a position driven almost entirely by the graphics subsystem's limitations rather than processor performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1080p for this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 84 FPS with minimum and maximum values of 71 and 96 FPS respectively, making it the highest-quality setting that maintains a consistently smooth experience above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 58 FPS average, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Arc B370 compare to its nearest rival in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 0.2% behind the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186) and 0.5% behind the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190). It sits 1.4% ahead of the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168), placing it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the FPS difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 46 FPS while Ultra averages 37 FPS, a 9 FPS reduction for the highest quality tier. The Medium preset sits between them at 54 FPS, which is actually higher than High, suggesting the preset scaling is not linear in this game.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this configuration?

A: The benchmark data shows the GPU is the clear bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 96 FPS average, and dropping resolution from 1080p to 4K at High settings reduces frame rates from 71 to 25 FPS, a 65% decrease that indicates the integrated GPU's rendering capacity is the constraint, not the i5-14600K.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all processors?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600K sits in the 90th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 48618. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H, scores 48698 (0.2% higher), while the AMD EPYC 4345P scores 48470 (0.3% lower).

Q: Does the Arc B370 have dedicated VRAM?

A: No. The Arc B370 uses System Shared memory for both its memory size and type, with bandwidth listed as System Dependent. This means the GPU relies on the same DDR4 or DDR5 memory pool as the CPU, with no dedicated graphics memory of its own.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the dominant performance determinant in this configuration, and the measured frame rates reflect a graphics solution that is fundamentally undersized for Doom's rendering demands. The GPU is built on Intel's 3 nm process with the Xe3-LPG architecture, featuring 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster operation units. Its boost clock reaches 2400 MHz from a 300 MHz base, producing a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute throughput is 6.144 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 12.29 TFLOPS via 2:1 ratio.

The memory configuration is the most consequential limitation. With System Shared memory, the Arc B370 has no dedicated VRAM pool, no dedicated memory bus width, and bandwidth that varies with system memory. This architecture forces the GPU to contend with CPU memory traffic over the same channels, which explains why frame rates collapse so dramatically as resolution increases. At 4K, the memory pressure from larger frame buffers exacerbates the shared-memory bottleneck, pushing average FPS down to 25 at High settings and 20 at Ultra.

The GPU's benchmark pedigree confirms its position. Scoring 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the Arc B370 ranks in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, 0.2% faster) and ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, 0.5% faster). These are legacy discrete parts from over a decade ago, yet the modern integrated Arc B370 cannot separate itself from them. The 25 W TDP and IGP slot width indicate a power-constrained design intended for portable devices, not desktop gaming. The display outputs being listed as Portable Device Dependent further confirms this is an integrated solution rather than a discrete card.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy for settings optimization at each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with an average of 84 FPS and a minimum of 71 FPS. This minimum is critical because it demonstrates that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate remains above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Low preset pushes averages to 96 FPS for competitive play, but the jump from Low to Medium costs only 12 FPS while providing substantially better visuals. High at 71 FPS is playable but leaves less headroom, and Ultra at 58 FPS falls below 60, making it unsuitable for consistent smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the picture changes significantly. Medium delivers 54 FPS average with a 46 FPS minimum, which is borderline playable but not ideal. Low at 62 FPS is the only preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS, while High at 46 FPS and Ultra at 37 FPS are both below acceptable thresholds for fast-paced FPS gameplay. Users at 1440p should default to Low settings to prioritize frame rate, or accept Medium with the understanding that occasional drops to 46 FPS will occur.

At 3840x2160, no setting provides a playable experience. Low averages 34 FPS, Medium 29 FPS, High 25 FPS, and Ultra 20 FPS. The minimum recorded value across all 4K data is 25 FPS (at Medium), indicating severe frame pacing issues. The data suggests this combo is not viable for 4K gaming in Doom, and users should either lower resolution or accept sub-30 FPS performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-14600K and Intel Arc B370 ranks 2696th out of 2930 tested combos for Doom, placing it in the bottom 8% of all configurations. This ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU's 5th percentile standing; the CPU's 90th percentile performance is rendered irrelevant by the graphics bottleneck. The data shows a stark mismatch: a high-end 14-core processor paired with an entry-level integrated GPU creates a system where the CPU's potential is entirely untapped.

The comboRankInGame of 2696/2930 means only 234 configurations perform worse in Doom. Given that the Arc B370's nearest GPU rivals are legacy ATI parts from the HD 5000 series, this ranking is unsurprising. The i5-14600K's nearest CPU rivals include the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698 avg score, 0.2% higher), AMD EPYC 4345P (48470, 0.3% lower), and Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX (48287, 0.7% lower), all of which would perform identically in this pairing because the GPU saturates first.

The practical implication is that users should not interpret this combo's ranking as a CPU failure. The i5-14600K is a top-decile processor, but its capabilities are simply not exercised in Doom with the Arc B370. Any upgrade path that improves the GPU would dramatically shift this combo's standing, whereas upgrading the CPU would yield zero measurable benefit.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the combo produces 71 FPS at 1920x1080, 46 FPS at 2560x1440, and 25 FPS at 3840x2160. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 25 FPS (a 35% reduction), and from 1440p to 4K is another 21 FPS (a 46% reduction). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 46 FPS, or 65% of the 1080p score.

This scaling behavior is consistent with a GPU that is memory-bandwidth limited. As resolution increases, the pixel count grows from approximately 2.1 million (1080p) to 3.7 million (1440p) to 8.3 million (4K), and the System Shared memory architecture cannot feed the GPU at the required rates. The fact that Low settings at 4K (34 FPS) barely exceed High settings at 1440p (46 FPS) when the pixel count nearly doubles confirms that the GPU's compute units are not the primary constraint — the memory subsystem is.

The limited resolution scaling also indicates that the CPU is not a factor in these results. A CPU-bound system would show smaller FPS drops as resolution increases, because the CPU work per frame remains relatively constant while GPU time grows. Here, the FPS drops are drastic at every step, which is the signature of a GPU that is overwhelmed by pixel throughput demands.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings spectrum shows: Low averages 96 FPS, Medium averages 84 FPS with a minimum of 71 and maximum of 96, High averages 71 FPS, and Ultra averages 58 FPS. The Medium range from 71 to 96 FPS mirrors the Low and High averages, indicating consistent frame delivery across the preset range.

At 2560x1440, the data shows: Low averages 62 FPS, Medium averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 and maximum of 62, High averages 46 FPS, and Ultra averages 37 FPS. The Medium min/max of 46/62 exactly brackets the High and Low averages, suggesting the game's preset scaling operates on a predictable continuum.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low averages 34 FPS, Medium averages 29 FPS with a minimum of 25 and maximum of 34, High averages 25 FPS, and Ultra averages 20 FPS. The Medium range of 25 to 34 FPS again brackets the High and Low averages, confirming a consistent 3-5 FPS step between each preset tier regardless of resolution.

The pattern across all three resolutions is remarkably uniform: stepping down one preset tier yields approximately 10-13 FPS at 1080p, 8 FPS at 1440p, and 4-5 FPS at 4K. This consistent scaling suggests the game's preset system adjusts a similar set of rendering parameters at each quality level, and the absolute FPS differences shrink as the GPU becomes more saturated.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process with a die size of 257 mm². It operates at a 3.50 GHz base clock and 5.30 GHz boost clock, with a 125 W TDP, and features a three-tier cache hierarchy: 80 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 24 MB shared L3. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, with ECC memory support available. It connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes from the CPU and includes integrated UHD Graphics 770.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-14600K demonstrates strong performance: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 24491 and single-core 2064, while Geekbench multi-core reaches 16673 and single-core 2491. PassMark results show a multi-thread score of 38682 and single-thread of 4270, with integer math at 125737 and floating-point math at 92794. These figures place the CPU in the 90th percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 48618.

However, in Doom with the Arc B370, the CPU's capabilities are largely irrelevant. The game is not CPU-limited at any resolution or setting in the measured data. Evidence for this includes the fact that frame rates scale almost perfectly with resolution changes, which would not happen if the CPU were the bottleneck. Additionally, at 1080p Low — the setting that would most likely reveal CPU limitations — the combo achieves 96 FPS, which is far below what the i5-14600K could drive in this game if paired with a more capable GPU. The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom for the game's rendering thread and any background tasks, but the Arc B370's 6.144 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and shared memory bandwidth simply cannot feed frames fast enough to stress the processor.