Doom

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti delivers a playable but heavily GPU-limited experience in Doom, with the data showing performance that scales predictably with resolution and settings. The GTX 1660 Ti, which sits at the 41st percentile among all GPUs, is the primary bottleneck in this combination, as evidenced by the FPS deltas across resolution changes that far outpace what the CPU would impose. At 1080p, the combo achieves a strong 148 FPS on Low settings, but this drops to 89 FPS on Ultra, indicating that while the i5-14600K has ample headroom, the GPU's 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 1536 shading units limit frame rates at higher quality presets. The overall ranking of 3193 out of 3712 tested combos places this configuration in the lower percentile tier for Doom, reflecting the aging GPU rather than the modern CPU.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, confirming that the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the limiting component. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 148 FPS at 1920x1080 to 96 FPS at 2560x1440, a 35% reduction, and then to 52 FPS at 3840x2160, a further 46% drop. This pattern indicates a pure GPU-bound scenario, where the 5.437 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 288.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth are stretched thin as pixel count increases. The CPU's role is negligible here, as the i5-14600K's 14 cores and 20 threads, running at a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at any resolution.

Examining the Medium settings row, which includes min and max FPS data, reveals the frame time consistency at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the average is 129 FPS with a min of 109 and max of 148, showing a tight 39 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 83 FPS, with a min of 71 and max of 96, maintaining a similar 25 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 45 FPS, with a min of 38 and max of 52, and the spread remains at 14 FPS, indicating that the GPU is consistently hitting its limits rather than experiencing stutters. This data suggests that the performance ceiling is the GPU's fillrate and memory bandwidth, not the CPU or system memory.

The scaling from Ultra to Low at each resolution further underscores the GPU bottleneck. At 4K, moving from Ultra (31 FPS) to Low (52 FPS) yields a 68% improvement, while at 1440p the same settings change takes the frame rate from 57 to 96 FPS, a 68% gain, and at 1080p it goes from 89 to 148 FPS, a 66% improvement. The near-identical percentage gains across resolutions indicate the GPU is the sole constraint, as the i5-14600K does not exhibit any signs of CPU limitation even at the lowest settings where frame rates are highest. The data shows that this combo is not suitable for 4K gaming at high refresh rates, but at 1080p it can push well past 100 FPS on most presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve over 60 FPS in Doom?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 both achieve average frame rates above 57 FPS across all settings. At 1440p, the Ultra preset yields 57 FPS, while High, Medium, and Low all exceed 70 FPS. At 4K, only the Low preset reaches 52 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti has an average benchmark score of 7723, placing it in the 41st percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 540, scores 7673, which is 0.7% lower. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100 scores 7580 (1.9% lower), the AMD Radeon R7 250 scores 7557 (2.2% lower), and the Intel Arc A310 scores 7550 (2.3% lower).

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-14600K a bottleneck for the GTX 1660 Ti in Doom?

A: No, the data indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. The i5-14600K is in the 90th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48618, while the GTX 1660 Ti is in the 41st percentile. The FPS scaling across resolutions and settings follows GPU-bound patterns, not CPU-bound ones.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 148 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 89 FPS. This represents a 59 FPS difference, or a 66% performance drop when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Doom?

A: The data shows 4K performance is limited. At 4K, the Ultra preset averages 31 FPS, High averages 38 FPS, Medium averages 45 FPS, and Low averages 52 FPS. None of these reach the 60 FPS mark, so 4K is only playable at lower settings with sacrifices to smoothness.

Q: How does the CPU's single-threaded performance compare to its multi-threaded performance?

A: The i5-14600K scores 2064 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 24491 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. In Geekbench, it scores 2491 single-core and 16673 multi-core. These scores place it in the 90th percentile, indicating strong performance in both workloads, though Doom is primarily GPU-limited.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience with the Intel Core i5-14600K and GTX 1660 Ti, the data points to the High preset at 2560x1440 as the optimal balance of visual quality and performance. At 1440p High, the combo averages 70 FPS, which is above the standard 60 FPS threshold, while the Medium preset only gains 13 FPS (83 FPS) at the cost of reduced visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 57 FPS, which is below 60 and introduces noticeable frame pacing issues, so it is not recommended for competitive play. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 109 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors, and the Low preset pushes this to 148 FPS, but the visual downgrade is significant.

At 4K, the data suggests avoiding this resolution entirely, as even the Low preset only reaches 52 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K yields 45 FPS with a minimum of 38, which could be acceptable for single-player exploration but is not ideal for fast-paced combat. The settings recommendation is to prioritize 1440p High for a smooth and visually appealing experience, or 1080p High for maximum frame rates without sacrificing too much detail. The Low preset is only advisable for competitive scenarios where every frame counts, as the jump from 109 to 148 FPS at 1080p is substantial.

The measured data shows that the Medium preset at 1080p offers 129 FPS, which is a middle ground, but the min FPS of 109 is identical to the High preset's average, suggesting that High provides better frame time consistency. The Ultra preset at 1080p, while visually rich at 89 FPS, is not worth the 20 FPS loss compared to High. For this hardware combination, the High preset at 1440p is the sweet spot, offering a 70 FPS average that is 23 FPS higher than 4K High and only 39 FPS lower than 1080p High, while providing a significantly sharper image.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the GTX 1660 Ti and i5-14600K combination shows strong performance across all settings. The Low preset delivers the highest average at 148 FPS, followed by Medium at 129 FPS with a range of 109 to 148 FPS, High at 109 FPS, and Ultra at 89 FPS. The 1080p results indicate that the GPU can handle high refresh rates at lower settings, but Ultra drops below 90 FPS, which is still playable but not optimal for high-refresh displays.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down as expected. The Low preset averages 96 FPS, Medium averages 83 FPS with a range of 71 to 96 FPS, High averages 70 FPS, and Ultra averages 57 FPS. The 1440p data shows that the combo can maintain above 60 FPS on High and lower settings, but Ultra falls just short. The Medium preset's min FPS of 71 indicates that frame drops are rare, even at this higher resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overmatched. The Low preset averages 52 FPS, Medium averages 45 FPS with a range of 38 to 52 FPS, High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra averages 31 FPS. The 4K results confirm that this configuration is not suited for 4K gaming, as even the lowest settings fail to reach 60 FPS. The Medium preset's min FPS of 38 shows that there are occasional dips below 40 FPS, which would be noticeable during intense action sequences.

The data across resolutions reveals a consistent pattern: the GTX 1660 Ti's performance degrades by roughly 50% when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and by another 50% from 1440p to 4K. This is typical of a GPU with 6 GB of VRAM and a 192-bit memory bus, as the bandwidth becomes insufficient at higher pixel counts. The i5-14600K's performance is consistent across all resolutions, as evidenced by the stable frame rates and lack of CPU-related stuttering in the min FPS data.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti combination ranks 3193 out of 3712 tested combos for Doom, placing it in the lower 14% of configurations. This ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's 41st percentile standing, as the CPU is in the 90th percentile. The combo's average benchmark scores reflect this disparity: the CPU scores 48618, while the GPU scores 7723, with the GPU score being the limiting factor in gaming performance. The rank suggests that most other tested combos have faster GPUs, even if their CPUs are slower.

Looking at the nearest rivals for the GPU, the GTX 1660 Ti's average score of 7723 is 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon 540's 7673, and 2.3% higher than the Intel Arc A310's 7550. These differences are small, but they indicate that the GTX 1660 Ti is at the low end of the performance spectrum. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698, -0.2% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX (48287, 0.7% delta), show that the i5-14600K is competitively positioned among mainstream processors, but this does not help the combo's gaming rank.

The rank of 3193 out of 3712 translates to a percentile of roughly 86%, meaning this combo outperforms only about 14% of tested configurations. This is a poor result for a game like Doom, which is known for being well-optimized, and it confirms that the GTX 1660 Ti is the primary reason for the low ranking. If the GPU were upgraded, the i5-14600K's high percentile would likely push the combo into the top 50%, but as measured, this configuration is held back by its graphics card.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It has 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core, along with 80 KB of L1 cache per core. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory across a dual-channel bus, and it is built on a 10 nm process node from Intel. These specifications place it in the 90th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48618.

In Doom, the CPU's role is minimal, as the measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking. The i5-14600K's single-threaded performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 (2064) and Geekbench (2491), is strong enough to handle the game's physics and AI calculations without limiting frame rates. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU produces 148 FPS, the CPU does not become a constraint, as the frame rate is limited by the GPU's rendering capabilities rather than the CPU's processing speed.

The multi-threaded performance of the i5-14600K, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 16673, is similarly robust, but Doom does not heavily utilize multi-threading. The game's engine is primarily single-threaded for game logic, but the i5-14600K's high boost clock of 5.30 GHz ensures that even a single core can handle the workload. The data shows that the CPU's 125 W TDP and 14 cores are more than adequate for this game, and the performance bottleneck is squarely on the GPU.