Doom

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D paired with the Intel Core i5-14600K delivers a striking performance profile in Doom, with measured frame rates that reveal a system heavily optimized for high-refresh-rate gaming. The data shows a combination that scales unusually well across resolutions, though the relationship between settings and performance offers some counterintuitive insights worth investigating. Starting from a commanding 447 FPS at 1080p Low, this combo demonstrates headroom that suggests the CPU is doing more heavy lifting than one might expect from a GPU of this caliber, while the 4K results point to a different bottleneck equation entirely.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about where the limiting component lies in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the combo posts 447 FPS, which falls to 314 FPS at 1440p Low, and then to 170 FPS at 4K Low — a reduction of 62% from the lowest to highest resolution. This scaling pattern is almost perfectly linear with pixel count, suggesting the GPU becomes progressively more dominant as resolution increases, which is expected given the RTX 5090 D’s massive 32 GB GDDR7 memory pool and 512-bit bus.

However, the Ultra settings reveal a different scaling curve. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 292 FPS, dropping to 189 FPS at 1440p Ultra (a 35% reduction), and then to 102 FPS at 4K Ultra (a 46% reduction from 1440p). The non-linear drop between 1440p and 4K Ultra indicates that at these higher settings, the GPU’s shading units and texture processing capabilities are being pushed harder, with the 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput becoming the limiting factor rather than memory bandwidth.

The gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is particularly telling. At 1080p, the difference is 155 FPS (447 vs 292), which narrows to 125 FPS at 1440p (314 vs 189), and then to 68 FPS at 4K (170 vs 102). This compression of the settings gap at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is the primary scaling driver, while at lower resolutions, the CPU’s 14 cores and 20 threads with a 5.30 GHz boost clock are better able to feed frames.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database’s tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a combo rank of 19 out of 2930 tested combos for Doom. This places it in the top 0.65% of all tested configurations, which is an exceptionally strong showing. The rank reflects the measured FPS across all resolution and settings combinations, and the data indicates that this combo outperforms the vast majority of alternatives in this game.

The percentile data for the individual components provides context for this ranking. The CPU sits at the 90th percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 92nd percentile against all GPUs. When combined, these two components produce a result that exceeds what either component’s standalone percentile might suggest, implying a synergistic pairing where neither component is severely bottlenecking the other. The nearest rival CPUs — the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H at -0.2% delta and the AMD EPYC 4345P at +0.3% delta — have similar average benchmark scores, but the gaming performance here shows the i5-14600K’s single-thread strength matters more than raw multi-thread throughput.

Interestingly, the GPU’s nearest rivals in the database are mobile and data center parts — the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT at +1.1% delta and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB at -2.1% delta — which highlights how unique the RTX 5090 D’s position is. The average benchmark score of 77,712 places it well above typical consumer GPUs, yet the combo rank of 19 indicates that the CPU choice still matters significantly for Doom’s frame delivery.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D’s memory configuration is a defining feature for Doom’s performance. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivering 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, the GPU has far more memory bandwidth than any 2016-era game would require. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra — the most demanding tested configuration — the system maintains 102 FPS, suggesting that memory capacity is never a limiting factor in this title.

The GPU’s clock behavior shows a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, which when combined with 21,760 shading units produces the 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput. This compute headroom is what allows the 4K High setting to reach 125 FPS, a result that would have been unthinkable for the original Doom’s target hardware. The 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores are largely irrelevant for this game’s rendering path, but they contribute to the GPU’s overall 92nd percentile ranking.

The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are the specifications that directly impact Doom’s fill-rate-heavy scenes. At 4K Ultra, the 102 FPS average suggests the GPU is being utilized efficiently, but the jump to 170 FPS at 4K Low indicates that the GPU has substantial reserve capacity when texture quality and post-processing effects are reduced. The measured data shows that the GPU’s 575 W TDP is justified by the performance on offer, as the card maintains high frame rates even at 4K without appearing to throttle based on the FPS consistency across multiple runs.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo reveals a consistent hierarchy across all resolutions. At 1080p, the Low setting produces 447 FPS, Medium produces 422 FPS, High produces 357 FPS, and Ultra produces 292 FPS. The Medium setting’s minimum FPS of 359 and maximum of 486 show a wide variance, indicating that scenes with heavy enemy counts or particle effects can cause significant frame time spikes, though the average remains high.

Moving to 1440p, the pattern holds with Low at 314 FPS, Medium at 273 FPS, High at 231 FPS, and Ultra at 189 FPS. The Medium setting here shows a minimum of 232 FPS and maximum of 314 FPS, which represents a tighter distribution than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is becoming more consistently the bottleneck. At 4K, the figures are 170 FPS for Low, 148 FPS for Medium, 125 FPS for High, and 102 FPS for Ultra. The 4K Medium setting shows a min of 126 FPS and max of 170 FPS, which is the narrowest absolute range across all resolution-settings combinations.

The step pattern between settings is not uniform. At 1080p, the drop from Low to Medium is only 25 FPS, but from Medium to High it’s 65 FPS, and from High to Ultra it’s another 65 FPS. At 4K, the drops are 22 FPS, 23 FPS, and 23 FPS respectively, showing a much more even distribution. This suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU is able to hide some of the GPU’s settings-related workload, while at 4K, the GPU’s rendering cost for each settings tier is more directly exposed.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K’s specifications provide the foundation for the high frame rates observed at lower resolutions. With 14 cores (likely a combination of performance and efficiency cores) and 20 threads, the CPU has substantial multi-threading capability, but it’s the 3.50 GHz base clock and 5.30 GHz boost clock that matter most for Doom’s single-threaded game logic. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache help keep frequently accessed game data close to the cores.

The CPU benchmark scores contextualize its gaming performance. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24,491 and single-core score of 2,064 indicate strong per-thread performance, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates in a game like Doom that relies on a main game thread. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,270 reinforces this, while the multi-thread score of 38,682 shows that the CPU also has headroom for background tasks.

At 1080p Low, the 447 FPS result is likely limited by the CPU’s ability to issue draw calls and process game logic, since the GPU has massive headroom at this resolution. The drop to 314 FPS at 1440p Low shows the GPU taking on more responsibility, but the fact that the 1080p Ultra setting (292 FPS) performs nearly identically to the 1440p Low setting (314 FPS) suggests that the CPU can still keep up even with higher graphical workloads. The 90th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with the nearest rival being the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H at -0.2% delta, confirms this processor is well above average for gaming workloads.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target refresh rate and resolution. For 1080p displays with a 144 Hz or 165 Hz refresh rate, the Ultra preset at 292 FPS is the clear recommendation — it provides the best visual quality while still delivering nearly double the frame rate needed for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 357 FPS offers a middle ground for those who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity.

At 1440p, the High setting at 231 FPS is the sweet spot for most high-refresh-rate monitors, as it exceeds 200 FPS while providing better image quality than Medium at 273 FPS. The Ultra setting at 189 FPS is still viable for 144 Hz displays, but the 42 FPS difference between High and Ultra may not justify the visual upgrade for competitive play. The Medium setting at 273 FPS is the choice for esports-focused players who want maximum responsiveness.

For 4K, the data suggests that High at 125 FPS is the best balance of visual quality and performance, as it comfortably exceeds 60 FPS and approaches 120 FPS territory. The Ultra setting at 102 FPS is playable on 120 Hz displays but may experience more frame pacing issues. The Low setting at 170 FPS is only recommended for players who prioritize frame rate above all else, as the visual downgrade from High to Low is substantial. The Medium setting at 148 FPS offers a reasonable compromise, but the 23 FPS gain over High does not offset the reduced visual quality.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Doom?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 447 at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The Medium setting at the same resolution achieves 422 FPS, showing that the combo can exceed 400 FPS even with some visual enhancements.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average of 102 FPS. This is the most demanding tested configuration, and the result indicates that the RTX 5090 D’s 32 GB GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient to maintain triple-digit frame rates at maximum quality.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the 447 FPS result suggests the CPU (Intel Core i5-14600K with 5.30 GHz boost) is the limiting factor, as the GPU has significant headroom. The gap between Low (447 FPS) and Ultra (292 FPS) at 1080p is 155 FPS, indicating that graphics settings have a large impact even when the CPU constrains maximum output.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested combinations for Doom?

A: This combo ranks 19th out of 2,930 tested combinations for Doom. This places it in the top 0.65% of all configurations tested, with the CPU at the 90th percentile and GPU at the 92nd percentile of their respective categories.

Q: How does the 4K Medium setting compare to 4K High in terms of frame consistency?

A: The 4K Medium setting shows a minimum FPS of 126 and maximum of 170, with an average of 148 FPS. The 4K High setting averages 125 FPS but does not have recorded min/max values in the data, making direct consistency comparison impossible from the available measurements.

Q: Which settings preset provides the best experience at 1440p for high-refresh-rate monitors?

A: For 1440p displays with refresh rates above 200 Hz, the Medium preset at 273 FPS is recommended. For 144 Hz monitors, the High preset at 231 FPS offers better visual quality while maintaining a comfortable margin above the refresh rate. The Ultra preset at 189 FPS is suitable for 165 Hz displays but provides diminishing returns over High.