Doom

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-9400 compare to its closest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, scores 2259, which is 0.2% higher. Another close competitor, the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, scores 2246, placing it 0.4% behind the i5-9400.

Q: What is the RTX 2060's standing among all GPUs based on its benchmark percentile?

A: The RTX 2060 sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 15290. The closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 with a score of 15283, showing a 0% delta, meaning the two are virtually tied in this metric.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in the measured data?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 175, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The next highest is 152 FPS at the same resolution with Medium settings.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 2934 out of 3712 total tested combos. This places it in the lower portion of the ranking, indicating that while it can run the game, many other combinations deliver higher performance.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the RTX 2060 provide, and how much VRAM does it have?

A: The RTX 2060 has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 192-bit bus width, providing a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective.

Q: What is the boost clock of the Intel Core i5-9400, and how many cores does it have?

A: The i5-9400 has 6 cores and 6 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its L3 cache is 9 MB shared, and it supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel configuration.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 holds a rank of 2934 out of 3712 tested combinations for Doom. This places it in the 79th percentile of all tested combos, meaning roughly 79% of other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates in this title. The ranking reflects the moderate performance ceiling of this pairing, which is consistent with the individual component standings: the CPU sits at the 47th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks at the 58th percentile among all GPUs.

The data indicates that this combo is not a top-tier performer for Doom, but it is also not at the very bottom. The rank disparity between the combo and the individual components suggests that the pairing is balanced enough to avoid severe bottlenecking, yet neither component excels enough to push the combo into the upper echelons. When analyzing the measured frames, the combo delivers playable results at 1080p and 1440p, but struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K, especially with higher settings presets.

The rank of 2934 out of 3712 is a clear signal that users seeking maximum performance in Doom would need to look at higher-end hardware. However, for those with a 1080p or 1440p monitor, the combo still provides a viable experience, as the measured FPS data demonstrates. The ranking should be interpreted as a general indicator of performance relative to all other tested combinations, not as a definitive measure of playability.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is built on the Turing architecture with a TU106 chip, fabricated on a 12 nm process by TSMC. It contains 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 24.3 million per square millimeter. The GPU has 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units, along with 30 ray tracing cores and 240 tensor cores.

Clock speeds are a base of 1365 MHz and a boost of 1680 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The memory clock is 1750 MHz, which is specified as 14 Gbps effective. Pixel rate is 80.64 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 201.6 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 6.451 TFLOPS.

In Doom, the GPU's role is critical at higher resolutions. The measured data shows that at 4K Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 37, while at 1080p Ultra it reaches 105 FPS. This demonstrates that the GPU is the primary driver of frame rates as resolution increases. The VRAM capacity of 6 GB is sufficient for the game at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K with higher settings, the memory bandwidth and capacity may become a limiting factor. The GPU's 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it is a mid-range performer, which aligns with the measured results.

The RTX 2060's nearest rival in average benchmark score is the GTX 580, with a delta of 0%, meaning they are statistically tied. The AMD Radeon 680M is 0.1% behind, and the RTX 3050 OEM is 0.6% behind. This shows that the RTX 2060 is in a competitive performance bracket, though its architecture is significantly newer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. With Low settings, the average FPS is 175, and with Medium settings it drops to 152 FPS, with a minimum of 130 and a maximum of 175. High settings yield 129 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 105 FPS. These numbers indicate that the combo can easily handle 1080p gaming at high refresh rates, even at Ultra settings, which is above the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains solid but decreases. Low settings average 113 FPS, Medium settings average 99 FPS (with a minimum of 84 and maximum of 113), High settings average 83 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 68 FPS. The 1440p results show that the combo is still capable of smooth gameplay, but the gap between settings presets widens, indicating the GPU is becoming more stressed.

At 3840x2160, the data shows a significant drop. Low settings average 61 FPS, Medium settings average 53 FPS (with a minimum of 45 and maximum of 61), High settings average 45 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 37 FPS. The 4K results reveal that only Low settings maintain an average above 60 FPS, while all other presets fall below that threshold. This indicates that 4K gaming is only feasible at the lowest settings preset.

The measured FPS breakdown across all resolutions shows a clear trend: the combo performs well at 1080p and adequately at 1440p, but struggles at 4K. The Medium settings data includes min and max FPS values, which provide insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the range is 130-175 FPS, at 1440p Medium it's 84-113 FPS, and at 4K Medium it's 45-61 FPS. These ranges show that frame pacing is relatively stable, with no extreme dips.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 175 at 1080p to 61 at 4K, representing a 65% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 152 to 53, a 65% reduction as well. High settings decrease from 129 to 45, a 65% reduction, and Ultra settings fall from 105 to 37, a 65% reduction. This consistent percentage drop across all settings presets indicates that the scaling is primarily resolution-driven rather than setting-driven.

The consistent 65% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K suggests that the limiting component is the GPU. The pixel count increases by a factor of 4 from 1080p to 4K, but the FPS does not drop by the same factor, which implies that the GPU is not fully saturated at 1080p. This is typical for a mid-range GPU paired with a mid-range CPU, where the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

At 1440p, the FPS values sit between the 1080p and 4K results. For example, at High settings, 1440p achieves 83 FPS, which is 64% of the 1080p value of 129 FPS. At Low settings, 1440p achieves 113 FPS, which is 65% of the 1080p value of 175 FPS. This linear scaling pattern reinforces that the GPU is the primary constraint, as the CPU has enough headroom to handle the increased pixel workload without causing a disproportionate FPS drop.

The resolution scaling analysis shows that for this game, the combo is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as even the lowest settings preset only reaches 61 FPS. Users targeting 4K would need to reduce settings to Low or consider a more powerful GPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 256 KB of L2 per core, and 9 MB of shared L3. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration, providing a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s.

In terms of synthetic benchmarks, the i5-9400 scores 668 in Cinebench R15 multi-core and 94 in single-core. In Cinebench R20, it scores 2784 multi-core and 392 single-core. The Geekbench scores are 5141 multi-core and 1389 single-core. The processor's average benchmark score is 2254, placing it at the 47th percentile among all CPUs.

The CPU's role in Doom is less critical than the GPU, as the game is primarily GPU-bound. However, the 6-core configuration ensures that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at 1080p and 1440p, where frame rates are high. At 4K, the CPU has more than enough headroom, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck.

The i5-9400's nearest rival is the i7-1068NG7, which scores 2259, a 0.2% difference. This indicates that the i5-9400 is competitive with other mid-range CPUs. The 47th percentile ranking shows it is an average performer, but for a game like Doom, which is not heavily CPU-dependent, this is sufficient.

The boost clock of 4.10 GHz is important for single-threaded performance, which Doom relies on for its game logic. The 6 threads are enough to handle the game's multi-threaded aspects without causing a bottleneck. The measured FPS data supports this, as the combo achieves high frame rates at 1080p, indicating that the CPU is not limiting performance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, Ultra settings deliver an average of 105 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This makes Ultra the best choice for 1080p, as it provides the highest visual quality without sacrificing playability.

At 2560x1440, the data shows that High settings achieve 83 FPS, while Ultra drops to 68 FPS. Both are above 60 FPS, but Ultra offers a more demanding experience with a lower margin. For a consistently smooth experience, High settings at 1440p are recommended, as they provide a 15 FPS buffer over Ultra while still offering good visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the situation is different. Only Low settings achieve an average of 61 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings drop to 53 FPS, and High settings fall to 45 FPS. For 4K, Low settings are the only viable option for maintaining a playable frame rate. Users who prioritize visual quality over frame rate could consider Medium settings, but the 53 FPS average may result in noticeable stuttering on some displays.

The Medium settings preset, which has min and max FPS data, offers a balanced option. At 1080p, it averages 152 FPS with a range of 130-175, at 1440p it averages 99 FPS with a range of 84-113, and at 4K it averages 53 FPS with a range of 45-61. This preset provides a good balance between visual quality and performance, especially at 1440p where it maintains an average above 90 FPS.

In summary, the recommended settings are: Ultra at 1080p for maximum quality, High at 1440p for a smooth experience with good visuals, and Low at 4K for playable frame rates. The Medium preset is a reasonable middle ground for users who want a mix of quality and performance, particularly at 1440p.