Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Doom with the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 shows a predictable but steep scaling curve as resolution increases. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combo delivers 156.3 FPS, which drops to 101.2 FPS at 1440p and further to 54.3 FPS at 4K. This represents a 65% performance loss from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly the limiting factor as pixel count rises.

The scaling pattern across settings reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At Low settings, the frame rate goes from 258.2 FPS at 1080p to 168.7 FPS at 1440p and 89 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is only 34.5% of the 1080p Low figure, whereas at Ultra settings the 4K result retains 34.7% of the 1080p figure. This consistency across presets suggests that the RTX 3070's rendering pipeline is being stressed uniformly regardless of quality level.

The delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution tells a clear story about GPU headroom. At 1080p, the gap between Low (258.2 FPS) and Ultra (156.3 FPS) is 101.9 FPS, a 65.2% improvement for Low. At 4K, the same comparison shows Low at 89 FPS versus Ultra at 54.3 FPS, a 63.9% uplift. The proportional difference remains nearly constant across resolutions, which indicates that Doom's settings scale primarily with GPU workload rather than exposing a CPU limitation at higher resolutions.

The data shows that 1440p High at 125.6 FPS is the highest quality setting that still exceeds 120 FPS, while 4K Ultra at 54.3 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K Medium result of 81.9 FPS demonstrates that dropping one quality tier recovers substantial performance, suggesting the GPU is the dominant constraint at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K brings 14 cores and 20 threads to this combination, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The processor's Raptor Lake architecture with 24 MB of shared L3 cache provides the computational foundation for Doom's engine, but the measured frame rates indicate that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in most scenarios.

At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 258.2 FPS, which is well beyond typical display refresh rates and demonstrates that the CPU can feed the GPU effectively even at high frame rates. The single-core performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4642, is sufficient to keep the game's main thread from becoming a limiting factor at these frame rates.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 93 against all CPUs places it in the top 7% of processors, and its average benchmark score of 49166 puts it within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and 1% ahead of the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H. This level of processing power means that in Doom, a game from 2016 with a focus on fast-paced combat, the CPU delivers more than enough throughput for the RTX 3070 to operate at its full potential.

The multi-threaded capabilities of the i5-14600K, reflected in a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32881, ensure that background tasks and game engine threads do not starve the GPU. The 14-core configuration with 20 threads provides ample parallelism for modern game engines, though Doom's optimization means that even the single-core performance would likely be sufficient for the measured results.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: The data shows that 4K Medium delivers 81.9 FPS and 4K High delivers 64.8 FPS, both above 60 FPS. However, 4K Ultra drops to 54.3 FPS, so 4K High is the highest quality preset at 4K that stays above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 28238 places it 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT and 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, while trailing the AMD FirePro S7150 by 0.6%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in Doom at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo produces 258.2 FPS, which is extremely high. The CPU's single-core performance and the fact that frame rates scale smoothly with resolution changes indicate that the GPU becomes the limiting component as resolution increases, particularly at 4K.

Q: What settings preset provides the most balanced experience at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, High settings deliver 125.6 FPS while Ultra drops to 101.2 FPS. The 24.4 FPS difference between these presets is modest compared to the visual quality gain, making Ultra a viable choice for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Doom?

A: The combo ranks 767 out of 1681 tested combinations, placing it in the 54th percentile of all tested hardware pairings for this game.

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. The data shows 4K High at 64.8 FPS and 4K Medium at 81.9 FPS, both playable. Only 4K Ultra at 54.3 FPS falls below 60 FPS, so users must choose between Ultra settings and smooth frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing the Doom experience with this hardware. At 1080p, all settings presets exceed 156 FPS, meaning the RTX 3070 has substantial headroom. The Ultra preset at 156.3 FPS is the recommended choice for 1080p displays, as it provides the highest visual quality while still maintaining frame rates far above typical 144Hz monitor refresh rates.

For 1440p, the High preset at 125.6 FPS offers an excellent balance, but Ultra at 101.2 FPS remains above the 100 FPS threshold and is the better option for users with 144Hz displays who prioritize visual fidelity. The 24.4 FPS cost of moving from High to Ultra is acceptable given the frame rate remains high.

At 4K, the recommendation depends on the user's frame rate target. For 60 FPS gaming, High at 64.8 FPS is the safest choice, providing a 10.5 FPS buffer above the target. Medium at 81.9 FPS offers more headroom for demanding scenes, while Ultra at 54.3 FPS should be avoided unless the user accepts sub-60 FPS performance. The Low preset at 89 FPS is only recommended for competitive play where maximum frame rates matter more than visual quality.

The data indicates that the best overall experience across all resolutions is achieved by matching the preset to the resolution's GPU demands. For 1080p, Ultra is free performance. For 1440p, Ultra is affordable. For 4K, High is the sweet spot.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 767 out of 1681 tested combinations in Doom. This places the combo in the upper-middle range of all tested hardware pairings, which is notable given that the RTX 3070 is from the previous generation and the game is from 2016.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 93 against all CPUs indicates that the processor is near the top of the performance hierarchy, while the GPU's percentile ranking of 72 against all GPUs shows that the graphics card is solidly mid-to-upper tier. This combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-to-upper-tier GPU creates a system where the GPU is the limiting factor in most gaming scenarios.

The combo's rank of 767 out of 1681 means that 914 combinations tested faster in this game. This is expected given the GPU's position in the market, but the actual frame rates measured — particularly the 192.3 FPS at 1080p High and 125.6 FPS at 1440p High — demonstrate that the combo delivers excellent real-world performance despite not being at the top of the rankings.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, which scores 0.2% higher on average, and the Intel Core i5-14600KF, which scores 0.4% higher. These small deltas indicate that the i5-14600K is competitively positioned within its performance class.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data reveals a consistent performance hierarchy across all resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the average frame rates range from 156.3 FPS at Ultra to 258.2 FPS at Low, with Medium at 225 FPS and High at 192.3 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decrease of approximately 33 FPS per tier, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High at 32.7 FPS.

At 1440p, the average frame rates compress to a range of 101.2 FPS at Ultra to 168.7 FPS at Low. Medium delivers 148.9 FPS and High delivers 125.6 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 67.5 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the 1080p drop of 101.9 FPS when normalized for resolution.

At 4K, the frame rates tighten further, with Ultra at 54.3 FPS, High at 64.8 FPS, Medium at 81.9 FPS, and Low at 89 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 34.7 FPS, representing a 63.9% performance penalty for the highest quality preset. The 4K Medium result of 81.9 FPS is particularly notable as it exceeds the 4K High result by 17.1 FPS, demonstrating that the Medium preset offers substantial performance gains.

The scaling efficiency between resolutions shows that moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings reduces frame rates by 34.7% (from 192.3 to 125.6 FPS), while moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings reduces frame rates by 48.4% (from 125.6 to 64.8 FPS). This indicates that the 4K resolution places significantly more stress on the RTX 3070's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA104 chip manufactured on an 8 nm process from Samsung. The GPU features 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, along with 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores. These specifications translate to 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 317.4 GTexel/s of texture fill rate.

The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical factor in the 4K performance observed. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective data rate. The base clock of 1500 MHz boosts to 1725 MHz, and the GPU's 220 W TDP requires a 550 W recommended power supply.

The RTX 3070's synthetic benchmarks show a Passmark G3D score of 22214 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3162. The GPU's average benchmark score of 28238 places it 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT and 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, while trailing the AMD FirePro S7150 by 0.6%. This competitive positioning explains why the GPU performs well in Doom but is not at the top of the rankings.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K, where even Low settings produce only 89 FPS. The 8 GB memory capacity appears sufficient for Doom at these settings, as the game's 2016 release date predates the high memory demands of modern titles. The GPU's pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s is well-matched to the demands of 4K rendering, but the 54.3 FPS at Ultra settings indicates that the shading and texture throughput becomes limiting at maximum quality.