Doom

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 sits in the 1596th position out of 3712 tested combos for Doom, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database. This is a balanced pairing where the 14-core CPU and the 8 GB GPU work together to deliver playable frame rates across all tested settings, though the data reveals clear bottlenecks that shift depending on resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1596 out of 3712 tested configurations places it in the 43rd percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings tested in Doom. This position reflects a system that is capable but not exceptional, with the RTX 3070's age showing in the most demanding scenarios. The ranking is more a function of the GPU's position in the overall hierarchy than the CPU, as the i5-14600KF ranks in the 90th percentile among all CPUs while the RTX 3070 sits at the 61st percentile among all GPUs.

Benchmark results suggest the CPU is doing its part. The i5-14600KF averages 49394 across all benchmark tests, and its nearest rivals are separated by less than one percent. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900 scores 49228, a delta of just 0.3 percent, while the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 leads the group at 49796, a delta of -0.8 percent from the Intel chip. This clustering indicates the CPU is not the limiting factor in most gaming scenarios.

The GPU side tells a different story. The RTX 3070's average benchmark score of 17208 places it just 0.7 percent ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT at 17083. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 and AMD Radeon HD 7970M trail by 1 percent and 1.1 percent respectively, while the NVIDIA Tesla K40c leads by 1.5 percent. These are older or less capable cards, and the RTX 3070's position among them suggests its performance ceiling is well below what modern titles demand at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The RTX 3070's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Doom at 1080p but becomes a constraint at 4K. The card's 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output pipelines are backed by 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores, making it a fully featured Ampere-generation part. The boost clock of 1725 MHz and base clock of 1500 MHz are modest by current standards, but the architecture's efficiency keeps frame rates respectable.

In Doom specifically, the GPU's role is dominant at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate drops to 54 FPS, which is a 79 percent reduction from the 1080p Low result of 258 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates the GPU is saturated at 4K, particularly with the Ultra preset's increased geometry and texture demands. The 8 GB VRAM buffer is likely a factor, as the card cannot preload as many high-resolution textures as newer 12 GB or 16 GB parts.

The card's FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS and FP16 of 20.31 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) provide ample compute headroom for Doom's Vulkan and OpenGL rendering paths. The API support includes DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, all of which Doom can leverage. The 165.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 317.4 GTexel/s texture rate are the raw throughput figures that determine fill-rate-bound scenarios, and they hold up well at 1440p.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 3070 sufficient for Doom at 4K?

A: At 4K with High settings, the average frame rate is 67 FPS, which is playable. Dropping to Medium yields 79 FPS, and Low reaches 90 FPS. Ultra settings push the average down to 54 FPS, which may feel sluggish for fast-paced combat.

Q: How does the i5-14600KF compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The i5-14600KF averages 49394 across benchmark tests, with the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 at 49228 (0.3 percent behind) and the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 at 49796 (0.8 percent ahead). These differences are negligible in gaming workloads.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p with this combo?

A: At 1440p High, the average is 123 FPS. Medium averages 145 FPS with a minimum of 124 and maximum of 167. Low settings reach 167 FPS, while Ultra drops to 100 FPS. All settings are above 60 FPS.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM limit performance in Doom?

A: The data suggests VRAM pressure is most apparent at 4K Ultra, where the average drops to 54 FPS. At 1080p and 1440p, the frame rates are high enough that VRAM capacity is not a visible constraint in the measured results.

Q: Which resolution offers the best balance of quality and performance?

A: 1440p Medium delivers 145 FPS average with a 124 FPS minimum, which is smooth for competitive play while maintaining visual fidelity. 1440p High at 123 FPS is also viable if you prefer higher quality settings.

Q: How much faster is 1080p compared to 4K?

A: At High settings, 1080p averages 190 FPS versus 67 FPS at 4K, a 2.8x difference. At Low settings, 1080p hits 258 FPS versus 90 FPS at 4K, a 2.9x difference. This scaling is consistent with GPU-bound performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates span four resolutions and four quality presets, providing a complete picture of the combo's capabilities. At 1080p, the results are impressive. Low settings produce an average of 258 FPS, which is the highest figure in the dataset. Medium settings average 225 FPS with a minimum of 191 and maximum of 258, while High settings average 190 FPS. Ultra settings at 1080p average 155 FPS, still well above any display refresh rate.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain strong. Low settings average 167 FPS, Medium averages 145 FPS with a minimum of 124 and maximum of 167, and High averages 123 FPS. Ultra settings at 1440p average 100 FPS, which is the first preset in the dataset to dip below the triple-digit threshold.

At 4K, the performance drops become pronounced. Low settings average 90 FPS, Medium averages 79 FPS with a minimum of 67 and maximum of 91, and High averages 67 FPS. Ultra settings at 4K average 54 FPS, which is the only result below 60 FPS in the entire dataset.

The minimum and maximum frame rates are only recorded for Medium settings across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the spread is 191 to 258 FPS, a 67 FPS range. At 1440p Medium, the spread is 124 to 167 FPS, a 43 FPS range. At 4K Medium, the spread is 67 to 91 FPS, a 24 FPS range. This narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates the GPU is becoming the consistent bottleneck, reducing frame time variance.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU-bound nature of Doom with this combo. At High settings, the progression is 190 FPS at 1080p, 123 FPS at 1440p, and 67 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35 percent drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 45 percent drop from 1440p to 4K. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 65 percent, which aligns with the pixel count increase of 4x being mitigated by the game's rendering efficiency.

At Low settings, the scaling is steeper in absolute terms but similar in percentage. The progression is 258 FPS at 1080p, 167 FPS at 1440p, and 90 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 35 percent, and from 1440p to 4K is 46 percent. The total reduction is 65 percent, matching the High settings pattern.

The Medium settings data includes minimum and maximum frame rates that illustrate the consistency of performance. At 1080p Medium, the average of 225 FPS sits between a minimum of 191 and maximum of 258. At 1440p Medium, the average of 145 FPS sits between 124 and 167. At 4K Medium, the average of 79 FPS sits between 67 and 91. The relative spread narrows as resolution increases, suggesting the GPU is more consistently loaded at higher pixel counts.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU. The CPU's performance does not degrade with resolution in the same way, and its benchmark scores indicate it can feed the GPU at any resolution tested. The fact that 4K Ultra drops to 54 FPS while 1080p Low reaches 258 FPS points to a GPU that is saturated by the higher pixel count and more demanding presets.

CPU Role

The i5-14600KF's 14 cores and 20 threads provide substantial parallel processing capability for Doom's engine, which can utilize multiple cores for physics, AI, and rendering tasks. The base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz deliver strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Geekbench single-core score of 2445 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4594. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache reduce memory latency for frequently accessed data.

The CPU's benchmark results demonstrate its capability. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and Geekbench multi-core score of 17085 indicate strong multithreaded throughput. The Passmark multithread score of 38697 and integer math score of 125982 show the CPU can handle complex workloads without becoming a bottleneck. The data compression score of 485140 and encryption score of 27608 further confirm the CPU's general-purpose strength.

In Doom specifically, the CPU's role is to maintain frame pacing and handle the game's simulation layer. The 125 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support provide adequate bandwidth for the game's data streams. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 16 lanes ensures the GPU has full bandwidth for texture streaming, though the RTX 3070 uses PCIe 4.0 x16, which is backward compatible.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 90 among all CPUs and its average benchmark score of 49394 place it well above the GPU's 61st percentile and 17208 average score. This disparity confirms the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo. The nearest CPU rivals show less than one percent difference in average scores, meaning any of these chips would perform similarly in Doom. The bottleneck is squarely on the GPU, particularly at 4K and Ultra settings.