Doom

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination delivers exceptional performance in Doom, ranking in the top 24% of all tested combos. The data shows a system capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1440p and solid 4K performance, though the CPU's six-core design without hyper-threading creates a measurable bottleneck at lower resolutions. The RTX 4070 Ti's 12 GB of VRAM and Ada Lovelace architecture provide ample headroom, but the i5-9400's performance ceiling becomes the limiting factor as resolution drops.

FAQ

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

A: The combo ranks 397th out of 1681 tested combinations, placing it in the top 23.6% of all systems evaluated.

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable at 1080p with this hardware?

A: The highest recorded average at 1920x1080 is 252.5 FPS on Low settings, with Ultra settings still delivering a strong 213.2 FPS average.

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

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 the system averages 93.7 FPS on High settings, though Ultra settings drop to 75.7 FPS average, indicating GPU load becomes significant at this resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti scores 44,900 on average, sitting within 1.6% of the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT and 1.5% behind the Intel Arc A730M, while being 1.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 580.

Q: What is the CPU's synthetic benchmark performance relative to its peers?

A: The i5-9400 achieves an average benchmark score of 2305, placing it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs, with a 0.4% advantage over the Intel Xeon E-2134 and a 0.6% deficit against the Intel Core i7-8809G.

Q: Does the 4K Ultra setting provide a playable experience?

A: The 3840x2160 Ultra preset averages 75.7 FPS, which remains above standard 60 FPS thresholds, though the 18 FPS drop from High to Ultra at this resolution shows diminishing returns.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti serves as the primary rendering engine in this configuration, with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory subsystem is critical for Doom's texture-heavy environments, and the data confirms the GPU can maintain high frame rates across all tested settings. The card's 2310 MHz base clock and 2610 MHz boost clock, combined with 7680 shading units, deliver the raw compute power needed for the game's fast-paced rendering demands.

The GPU's 85th percentile ranking among all GPUs reflects its strong position, with an average benchmark score of 44,900. In Doom specifically, the RTX 4070 Ti demonstrates its capability by pushing 1080p High settings to 226.6 FPS average, showing that the GPU is rarely the limiting factor at lower resolutions. However, the 4K results reveal the GPU's workload scaling: dropping from 126.8 FPS at Low to 75.7 FPS at Ultra represents a 40.3% performance reduction, clearly highlighting where the GPU becomes the bottleneck.

The 40.09 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 626.4 GTexel/s texture rate suggest the card can handle Doom's dynamic lighting and particle effects without issue. The data indicates that at 4K Ultra, the GPU is working near its practical limits for this title, but at 1440p and below, it operates with significant headroom, providing a smooth experience even with maximum settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals distinct scaling patterns across resolutions. At 1080p, the system achieves 252.5 FPS on Low settings, which drops to 213.2 FPS on Ultra, a 15.6% reduction. Moving to 1440p, the same settings comparison shows 219.4 FPS on Low and 142.7 FPS on Ultra, a 35% drop. At 4K, the Low preset delivers 126.8 FPS while Ultra falls to 75.7 FPS, a 40.3% decrease.

The 1080p to 1440p transition shows the system losing 13.1% performance on Low settings (from 252.5 to 219.4 FPS), while the Ultra preset loses 33.1% (from 213.2 to 142.7 FPS). This asymmetric scaling indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is limiting performance, as the GPU has more than enough power to render frames quickly. The larger percentage drops at higher quality settings suggest the GPU becomes progressively more involved as resolution and visual complexity increase.

From 1440p to 4K, the scaling becomes more uniform across settings: Low drops 42.2% (219.4 to 126.8 FPS), Medium drops 45.2% (209.7 to 114.8 FPS), High drops 47% (176.9 to 93.7 FPS), and Ultra drops 47% (142.7 to 75.7 FPS). This consistency confirms that at 4K, the GPU is the dominant limiting factor, with the CPU playing a reduced role in frame production.

Settings Recommendations

The data suggests that High settings at 1440p provide the optimal balance of visual quality and performance for this combination. At 2560x1440 High, the system averages 176.9 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors while maintaining significantly better visuals than the Medium preset's 209.7 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra at this resolution costs 34.2 FPS (19.3% reduction), which is a substantial penalty for marginal visual improvements.

For 4K gaming, High settings at 93.7 FPS average represent the sweet spot, as Ultra drops to 75.7 FPS while Low only reaches 126.8 FPS but with noticeably reduced visual fidelity. The 1080p High preset at 226.6 FPS is recommended for competitive play, as it provides excellent frame rates while maintaining quality above the Medium and Low presets.

Ultra settings are only advisable at 1080p where the 213.2 FPS average remains highly playable. At 1440p, Ultra's 142.7 FPS is still smooth, but the 19.3% performance cost over High makes it a questionable choice for most users. The data clearly indicates that High is the recommended preset across all resolutions, offering the best compromise between the measured 93.7 to 226.6 FPS range.

How This Combo Ranks

The 397th rank out of 1681 tested combinations places this system in the 76.4th percentile of all tested hardware pairings in Doom. This high ranking reflects the RTX 4070 Ti's strong GPU performance, which sits in the 85th percentile of all GPUs, combined with the i5-9400's mid-pack CPU performance in the 50th percentile. The gap between the GPU's high percentile and the CPU's median percentile suggests that the combo's ranking is primarily driven by the graphics card.

The ranking indicates that this system outperforms the majority of tested configurations, though it does not reach the top tier occupied by combinations using higher-end CPUs. The data implies that pairing the RTX 4070 Ti with a stronger processor could yield better results, but the current configuration still delivers excellent performance in Doom. The 1681 total tested combos provide context for the 397th rank, showing this system beats roughly three-quarters of all alternatives.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates: Low settings average 252.5 FPS, Medium averages 243.3 FPS, High averages 226.6 FPS, and Ultra averages 213.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 39.3 FPS, with each quality tier costing between 13.4 and 16.7 FPS. These numbers indicate that even Ultra settings at 1080p leave significant performance headroom.

At 2560x1440, the measured averages are 219.4 FPS on Low, 209.7 FPS on Medium, 176.9 FPS on High, and 142.7 FPS on Ultra. The Medium to High transition costs 32.8 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 34.2 FPS, showing a steeper performance curve at this resolution. The 4K results at 3840x2160 show 126.8 FPS on Low, 114.8 FPS on Medium, 93.7 FPS on High, and 75.7 FPS on Ultra, with the gap between Low and Ultra reaching 51.1 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides six cores and six threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This Coffee Lake architecture processor has 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU's benchmark scores, including 7969 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1125 in single-core, place it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs, indicating mid-range performance.

In Doom, the CPU's role becomes apparent in the 1080p results. The relatively small performance difference between Low (252.5 FPS) and Ultra (213.2 FPS) at 1080p, compared to the larger gaps at higher resolutions, suggests the CPU is preventing the GPU from reaching even higher frame rates. The 6-thread configuration means the CPU can handle Doom's workload, but the lack of hyper-threading may limit performance in scenes with heavy physics or AI calculations.

The CPU's 4.10 GHz boost clock helps maintain responsiveness, but the data shows this processor is the weaker link in the pairing. The GPU's 85th percentile ranking versus the CPU's 50th percentile illustrates the imbalance. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes as the GPU becomes the bottleneck, but at 1080p, the i5-9400's performance ceiling is evident in the sub-300 FPS results despite the RTX 4070 Ti's capability to render frames faster.