Doom

# FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-14600KF compare to its closest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K?

A: The i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49,367, which places it 0.4% ahead of the i5-14600K (49,166). It also edges out the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X by 0.6% (49,062) and the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H by 1.4% (48,698), while trailing the AMD EPYC 4345P by 0.5% (49,595).

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all graphics cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti sits in the 30th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 5,316. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce 930A, scores 5,317 (a 0% delta), while the AMD Radeon R7 240 trails by 0.7% at 5,280.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS at 75.4, followed by Medium at 63.7 and High at 52.6. The Ultra preset drops to 43.3 average FPS, making Low the smoothest option if frame rate is the priority.

Q: How does the GTX 1050 Ti's memory bandwidth compare to its pixel throughput?

A: The GTX 1050 Ti has a memory bandwidth of 112.1 GB/s across a 128-bit bus, with a pixel rate of 44.54 GPixel/s. Its texture rate is 66.82 GTexel/s, and the effective memory clock runs at 7 Gbps.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 49.2 FPS while Ultra drops to 30.3 FPS, a difference of 18.9 FPS. Medium sits at 41.6 FPS and High at 33.9 FPS, showing a steep scaling curve as settings increase.

Q: Is this CPU-GPU combo ranked near the top or bottom of the database?

A: The combination ranks 1,661 out of 1,681 total combos in the database for Doom, placing it in the bottom 1.2% of all tested pairings. This reflects the GPU's 30th percentile standing rather than the CPU's 93rd percentile performance.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the limiting component in this pairing, and the measured FPS data confirms this clearly. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1291 MHz and a boost clock of 1392 MHz, paired with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus. The memory runs at 1752 MHz (7 Gbps effective), delivering 112.1 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications place the card in the 30th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 5,316.

The Pascal architecture GPU (GP107 chip, 14 nm process from Samsung) contains 3,300 million transistors on a 132 mm² die, with 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. Its compute capabilities include 2.138 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, a pixel rate of 44.54 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 66.82 GTexel/s. The card draws up to 75 W and requires no external power connectors, with a suggested PSU of 250 W.

In the context of Doom's measured results, the GTX 1050 Ti's VRAM capacity and bandwidth become the primary constraints. At 3840x2160, all settings remain below 26 FPS regardless of preset, indicating that the 4 GB frame buffer and 112.1 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for 4K workloads. The gap between Low (25 FPS) and Ultra (18 FPS) at 4K is just 7 FPS, suggesting the GPU is saturated even at the lowest settings.

The CPU, by contrast, is far more capable. The Intel Core i5-14600KF ranks in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 49,367. Its nearest rivals include the i5-14600K (0.4% behind), AMD EPYC 4345P (0.5% ahead), and Ryzen 9 5950X (0.6% behind). The 14-core, 20-thread processor with a 5.30 GHz boost clock provides ample headroom for Doom's engine, which relies heavily on draw calls and physics simulation. The Raptor Lake architecture's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support further reduce potential bottlenecks.

The benchmark data shows that the GTX 1050 Ti's 4 GB VRAM is the decisive factor. At 1080p, the card can push 75.4 FPS on Low, but this drops to 43.3 FPS on Ultra. The scaling pattern—where each incremental settings tier costs roughly 10-15 FPS at 1080p—demonstrates that texture memory and shading throughput are exhausted well before the CPU becomes relevant. The i5-14600KF's single-core performance (4,643 in Cinebench R23) and multi-core scores (32,889 in R23) are never the limiting factor in these measurements.

# Settings Recommendations

For players targeting a smooth experience at 1920x1080, the Low preset is the only setting that consistently exceeds 70 FPS, averaging 75.4 FPS. This is the recommended configuration for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors, as it provides the largest margin above the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset at 63.7 FPS also clears 60 FPS, making it viable for those who want moderate visual improvements without sacrificing responsiveness.

The High preset at 1080p averages 52.6 FPS, which dips below the 60 FPS target but remains playable on standard 60 Hz displays. The Ultra preset at 43.3 FPS is the least desirable at 1080p, offering diminishing visual returns for a significant performance cost. The data indicates a 32.1 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p, with each settings tier costing between 9.3 and 11.7 FPS.

At 2560x1440, only the Low preset (49.2 FPS) approaches playable territory, while Medium (41.6 FPS), High (33.9 FPS), and Ultra (30.3 FPS) fall progressively further behind. The 1440p resolution is borderline for this GPU, and even Low settings cannot sustain a locked 60 FPS. For users with 1440p displays, dropping to 1080p with Medium or High settings would provide a better balance, though the measured data does not include such a configuration.

At 3840x2160, no preset is playable. The best result is Low at 25 FPS, followed by Medium at 22.9 FPS, High at 20.7 FPS, and Ultra at 18 FPS. The 4K resolution is clearly beyond the GTX 1050 Ti's capabilities, and the data suggests that even the lowest settings cannot overcome the GPU's fundamental bandwidth and VRAM limitations.

The optimal experience, based solely on measured FPS, is 1080p with the Low preset. This configuration delivers 75.4 average FPS, which is 11.7 FPS higher than Medium and 32.1 FPS higher than Ultra. The 1440p Low preset (49.2 FPS) is a secondary option for users who prioritize resolution over frame rate, but it falls 26.2 FPS short of the 1080p Low result.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data covers three resolutions—1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160—each with four settings presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. All values are average FPS; minimum and maximum FPS were not recorded in the dataset.

At 1920x1080, the performance hierarchy is clear. Low settings produce 75.4 FPS, the highest result in the entire dataset. Medium settings achieve 63.7 FPS, representing a 15.5% drop from Low. High settings reach 52.6 FPS, an additional 17.4% reduction. Ultra settings fall to 43.3 FPS, which is 17.7% below High and 42.6% below Low. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p is nearly linear, with each successive preset costing between 9.3 and 11.7 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges but with lower absolute values. Low settings average 49.2 FPS, which is 34.7% below the 1080p Low result. Medium settings produce 41.6 FPS, a 15.4% drop from Low at the same resolution. High settings reach 33.9 FPS, down 18.5% from Medium. Ultra settings bottom out at 30.3 FPS, a 10.6% reduction from High. The total spread from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 18.9 FPS, compared to 32.1 FPS at 1080p, indicating that the GPU's performance ceiling compresses the range at higher resolutions.

At 3840x2160, all results are below 30 FPS. Low settings average 25 FPS, which is 49.2% below the 1080p Low result. Medium settings produce 22.9 FPS, High settings reach 20.7 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 18 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is only 7 FPS, showing that the GPU is so heavily constrained that settings changes have minimal impact. The 4K Low result is 66.8% lower than the 1080p Low result, and even the 4K Low is 8.4% below the 1440p Ultra result.

Comparing across resolutions, the 1080p Ultra (43.3 FPS) is 29.9% faster than the 1440p High (33.9 FPS). The 1440p Low (49.2 FPS) is 5.5% faster than the 1080p Ultra, illustrating that resolution scaling has a larger impact than settings changes in this GPU's mid-range.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 75.4 at 1080p to 49.2 at 1440p (a 34.7% reduction) and then to 25 at 4K (a 49.2% reduction from 1440p). The cumulative drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 66.8%. At Medium settings, the progression is 63.7 FPS to 41.6 FPS to 22.9 FPS, representing reductions of 34.7% and 45.0%, respectively. High settings follow a similar pattern: 52.6 FPS to 33.9 FPS to 20.7 FPS, with drops of 35.6% and 38.9%. Ultra settings go from 43.3 FPS to 30.3 FPS to 18 FPS, with reductions of 30.0% and 40.6%.

The pattern reveals that the GPU's performance is dominated by pixel throughput and memory bandwidth rather than shading capacity. The 128-bit memory bus and 112.1 GB/s bandwidth are the primary bottlenecks when moving from 1080p to 1440p, as the pixel count increases by 77.8% but FPS drops by roughly 35%. From 1440p to 4K, the pixel count increases by 125%, yet FPS drops by approximately 40-49%, indicating that the GPU is already operating near its memory bandwidth ceiling.

The limiting component is unambiguously the GTX 1050 Ti. The i5-14600KF, with its 93rd percentile CPU score and 32,889 multi-core Cinebench R23 result, is nowhere near saturation. The CPU's 5.30 GHz boost clock and 24 MB L3 cache provide far more compute headroom than Doom requires at these settings. Even at 1080p Low (75.4 FPS), the CPU is unlikely to be the constraint given its single-core score of 4,643 in Cinebench R23.

The data also shows that resolution scaling has a larger impact than settings scaling. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 42.6% performance. At 4K, the same settings change costs only 28% performance, because the GPU is already bottlenecked by memory bandwidth. This compression effect means that users on lower resolutions can meaningfully trade visual quality for FPS, while 4K users gain almost nothing from reducing settings.

The benchmark results indicate that this pairing is only viable at 1080p, and even then, only Low and Medium presets consistently exceed 60 FPS. The 1440p Low result (49.2 FPS) is borderline for single-player play but insufficient for competitive scenarios. The 4K results, ranging from 18 to 25 FPS, are uniformly unplayable and suggest that the GTX 1050 Ti's 4 GB VRAM and 112.1 GB/s bandwidth are fundamentally mismatched with 4K workloads. The CPU's percentile standing (93rd) versus the GPU's (30th) reinforces that any upgrade path should prioritize the graphics card first.