Doom

The data for Doom with the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti shows a clear progression as resolution increases, revealing a system that is firmly balanced toward high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p play. The measured frame rates across the four presets at each resolution provide a complete picture of where the bottleneck shifts between the CPU and GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic reduction in frame rates, with the scaling pattern differing by preset. At the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 190.2 FPS at 1080p to 123.8 FPS at 1440p, and then further down to 67 FPS at 4K. This represents a 64.8% drop from 1080p to 4K, indicating that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is becoming the primary constraint as pixel count increases. The High preset shows a similar trend: 141.4 FPS at 1080p falls to 90.7 FPS at 1440p and reaches 47.8 FPS at 4K, a 66.2% reduction.

The Medium preset follows the same pattern, with 165.4 FPS at 1080p dropping to 107.5 FPS at 1440p and 60.9 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, starting at 116.7 FPS at 1080p, falling to 73.7 FPS at 1440p, and bottoming out at 41.7 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep across all presets, with the Low preset losing 45.9% of its performance, suggesting that the 8 GB VRAM and memory bandwidth of the RTX 3060 Ti are being heavily taxed at 4K.

At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU's role becomes more prominent, especially at the Low preset where 190.2 FPS is achieved. The gap between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p is 73.5 FPS, whereas at 4K that same gap narrows to 25.3 FPS. This compression of performance differences at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is the limiting component at 4K, while at 1080p the system has enough headroom that even the most demanding settings remain playable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K brings a substantial amount of processing power to this pairing, with 14 cores and 20 threads operating at a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The architecture is Raptor Lake-R, built on a 10 nm process, and the processor includes 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores reflect its strength: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32881 and a single-core score of 4642, with a Geekbench multicore score of 15846.

In Doom, the CPU's capabilities are most evident at 1080p with the Low preset, where the system reaches 190.2 FPS. This high frame rate suggests that the CPU is able to feed the GPU efficiently even at low settings, where the graphics workload is minimized. The Passmark multithread score of 38682 and the single-thread score of 4270 indicate that the processor excels in both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads, which is beneficial for a game engine that typically relies on a few primary threads.

The CPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark scores include the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X with a delta of 0.2% and the Intel Core i5-14600KF with a delta of -0.4%. This places the i5-14600K in a highly competitive position, with its performance essentially matching a 16-core Ryzen part despite having fewer cores. The processor's 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs further reinforces that it is not the bottleneck in this system for Doom. At 4K, the frame rates are primarily dictated by the GPU, but at 1080p, the CPU's strong single-core performance helps maintain frame rates above 116 FPS even on the Ultra preset.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1235 out of 1681 tested combos for Doom. This percentile placement indicates that while the system is capable, there are a significant number of other combinations that achieve higher average frame rates in this specific title. The ranking is likely influenced by the GPU's mid-range positioning rather than the CPU, given that the processor performs well above the 90th percentile in general benchmarks.

The RTX 3060 Ti itself ranks in the 69th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25120. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6700M with a delta of -0.2% and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 with a delta of -0.5%, showing that the GPU sits in a tightly contested performance band. The combo's rank of 1235 suggests that many systems with higher-tier GPUs, such as those from the RTX 40-series or AMD's higher-end Radeon parts, will outpace this configuration in Doom.

However, the ranking does not tell the whole story. The measured FPS data shows that this combo delivers excellent 1080p performance, with even the Ultra preset averaging 116.7 FPS. At 1440p, the High preset achieves 90.7 FPS, which is still well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The rank of 1235 out of 1681 places the combo in the top 26.5% of all tested configurations, which is a respectable position given that the GPU is not a top-tier part. The data indicates that the combo is well-matched for the game's engine, with the CPU providing ample headroom for the GPU to be the primary determinant of performance at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with the High preset?

A: The average frame rate at 1920x1080 with the High preset is 141.4 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset at 4K compare to the Low preset at 4K?

A: The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 averages 41.7 FPS, while the Low preset averages 67 FPS, a difference of 25.3 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the frame rates range from 73.7 FPS on Ultra to 123.8 FPS on Low, indicating that the GPU is the primary factor limiting performance, as the CPU is capable of higher frame rates at 1080p.

Q: What is the best resolution for maintaining frame rates above 100 FPS?

A: At 1920x1080, all presets except Ultra average above 141 FPS, and at 2560x1440, the Low and Medium presets average 123.8 FPS and 107.5 FPS, respectively, so 1440p with Medium settings is the highest resolution option above 100 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti compare to its nearest rival in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti has an average benchmark score of 25120, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6700M and 0.5% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6600.

Q: Does the combo rank in the top half of all tested combinations?

A: Yes, the combo ranks 1235 out of 1681 combinations, placing it in the top 26.5% of all tested combos for Doom.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip manufactured on an 8 nm process. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The GPU has 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, along with 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores. Its base clock is 1410 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and the memory operates at 1750 MHz or 14 Gbps effective.

In Doom, the GPU's memory configuration is a significant factor. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at all presets, but at 4K with Ultra settings, the frame rate drops to 41.7 FPS, suggesting that memory bandwidth and capacity are being pushed to their limits. The GPU's pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 253.1 GTexel/s are adequate for the game's demands at lower resolutions, as evidenced by the 190.2 FPS result at 1080p Low.

The GPU's compute capabilities, with an FP32 performance of 16.20 TFLOPS, are well-suited for the game's rendering workload. The Passmark G3D score of 20349 and the Geekbench Vulkan score of 107543 provide context for its overall graphics performance. The GPU's 69th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates that it is a mid-range part, which is consistent with its performance in Doom. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a clear GPU-bound behavior, with the frame rate at 4K Ultra being less than one-third of the 1080p Low result.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the High preset offers an excellent balance with 141.4 FPS, while the Ultra preset still delivers a highly playable 116.7 FPS. For users with 1440p monitors, the Medium preset provides 107.5 FPS, which is above the 100 FPS mark, while the High preset at 90.7 FPS remains smooth for most players. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 123.8 FPS, but the visual quality trade-off may not be worth the extra frames.

At 3840x2160, the data shows that even the Low preset only averages 67 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 41.7 FPS. For 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only option that approaches a playable frame rate, but the Medium preset at 60.9 FPS is borderline. The High preset at 47.8 FPS and Ultra at 41.7 FPS are below the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. Therefore, the recommendation is to use the High preset at 1080p for the best combination of visual fidelity and performance, the Medium preset at 1440p for a similar experience, and to avoid 4K unless the Low preset is acceptable. The data indicates that the RTX 3060 Ti is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p, where it can fully leverage its capabilities without exceeding its memory and bandwidth constraints.