Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Doom with the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti show a clear progression as resolution increases. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 225.3 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that figure to 181.6 FPS, a reduction of roughly 19 percent. Jumping to 4K at High settings yields 100.3 FPS, which is about 45 percent lower than the 1440p result and 55 percent below the 1080p number. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU becomes the dominant constraint at higher resolutions, but the magnitude of the drop between 1440p and 4K is steeper than the drop between 1080p and 1440p, suggesting that the 4K workload pushes the RTX 5070 Ti into a less comfortable performance envelope.

The Low settings row reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 252.5 FPS, while 1440p Low produces 220.1 FPS and 4K Low manages 133.4 FPS. The relative drops are smaller for Low than for High across the same resolution steps, which is expected because lower graphics settings reduce the per-pixel workload. However, the 4K Low result still falls well below the 1440p High result (133.4 versus 181.6), meaning that even with reduced settings, the sheer pixel count at 4K imposes a substantial cost. The data shows that this combo is comfortable at 1080p and 1440p across all settings, but 4K requires careful settings selection to stay above 100 FPS.

GPU Role

The RTX 5070 Ti brings a substantial amount of rendering resources to this game. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a 2016 FPS title like Doom, even at 4K with Ultra settings. The GPU's 8960 shading units, 280 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs provide the raw compute throughput needed to maintain high frame rates. Clock speeds are listed at 2295 MHz base and 2452 MHz boost, and the chip is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC with 45,600 million transistors across a 378 mm² die.

The benchmark data shows the GPU's headroom is not fully challenged until 4K Ultra. At that setting, the combo produces 82.8 FPS, which is the lowest measured result in the entire table. The gap between 4K High (100.3 FPS) and 4K Ultra (82.8 FPS) is 17.5 FPS, while the gap between 4K Medium (116.9 FPS) and 4K High is 16.6 FPS. This suggests that each settings tier at 4K costs roughly 15 to 20 FPS, a consistent penalty that reflects the GPU's compute and memory subsystem being taxed progressively harder. The GPU's percentile ranking of 87 among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 52086, places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, which scores 52085 with a 0 percent deltaPct. That parity in synthetic benchmarks aligns with the strong absolute FPS numbers seen here.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti ranks 392nd out of 1681 tested combos in Doom. That places it in the top 23 percent of all pairings in this database for this specific game. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU; the i5-9400 is not a top-tier processor, but the RTX 5070 Ti's raw power carries the combo to a respectable position. The CPU alone sits at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2305, while the GPU sits at the 87th percentile. The combination of a mid-pack CPU with a high-end GPU yields a result that is better than the CPU's percentile alone would suggest, but it does not reach the top echelon of combos that pair the RTX 5070 Ti with a stronger processor.

The nearest rivals for the i5-9400 in synthetic CPU benchmarks are the Intel Core i3-10305 (avgScore 2300, deltaPct 0.2), the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (avgScore 2299, deltaPct 0.2), and the Intel Xeon E-2134 (avgScore 2295, deltaPct 0.4). The i5-9400 is effectively tied with these parts, trailing only the Intel Core i7-8809G (avgScore 2319, deltaPct -0.6) by a small margin. This clustering indicates that the CPU is not a differentiator in this pairing; any of these processors would likely produce similar game performance when paired with the same GPU. The combo rank of 392 out of 1681 suggests that while the GPU is strong, the CPU limits the overall standing relative to combos using faster processors.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 252.5 FPS on Low, 240.3 FPS on Medium, 225.3 FPS on High, and 209.9 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 42.6 FPS, which is the narrowest of any resolution tier. This tight range indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiter; even lowering settings from Ultra to Low only recovers 42.6 FPS, suggesting that the i5-9400's six cores and six threads are near their ceiling for this game's engine. The 1080p results all exceed 200 FPS, so the experience is smooth, but the scaling is modest compared to higher resolutions.

At 2560x1440, the results are 220.1 FPS on Low, 207.3 FPS on Medium, 181.6 FPS on High, and 147.1 FPS on Ultra. The spread here is 73.0 FPS, which is wider than at 1080p. This widening indicates that the GPU begins to exert more influence on performance as resolution increases, but the CPU still keeps frame rates high. The 1440p Ultra result of 147.1 FPS is still well above the refresh rate of most monitors, so this resolution is viable for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, the results are 133.4 FPS on Low, 116.9 FPS on Medium, 100.3 FPS on High, and 82.8 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 50.6 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured row below 90 FPS, and it is the only row below 100 FPS in the entire table. The 4K Low result of 133.4 FPS shows that the GPU can handle 4K when settings are reduced, but the gap between Low and Ultra at 4K (50.6 FPS) is substantial, reflecting the heavy cost of the highest settings at this resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. Its base clock is 2.90 GHz with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, and it has a 9 MB shared L3 cache. The processor supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. These specifications are modest by modern standards, and the CPU's synthetic benchmark results reflect that: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125, with a Cinebench R20 multicore score of 3346.

In Doom, the CPU's role becomes apparent when examining the 1080p results. The frame rates at 1080p are high but show limited scaling between settings, which is characteristic of a CPU-bound scenario. The fact that 1080p Low (252.5 FPS) is only 10 percent faster than 1080p High (225.3 FPS) suggests that the i5-9400's six threads are the bottleneck, not the GPU. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU takes over as the limiting factor, but the CPU still needs to feed the RTX 5070 Ti with draw calls and physics data. The 4K Ultra result of 82.8 FPS is likely a combination of GPU compute limits and CPU overhead, though the GPU is clearly the dominant constraint at that resolution.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and end-of-life production status indicate that this is an older part, but its performance in this game is still sufficient to avoid being a severe bottleneck at higher resolutions. The nearest rival data shows that the i5-9400 is comparable to several other mid-range parts, so users with this CPU should expect similar Doom performance to those with slightly newer or older six-core processors.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the best experience for this combo depends on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 209.9 FPS, which is only 16.6 percent lower than the Low preset's 252.5 FPS. Given that the gap is relatively small and the absolute frame rate is well above 200 FPS, the Ultra preset is the recommended choice at 1080p. The visual quality improvement from Low to Ultra is substantial in Doom, and the performance cost is acceptable.

At 1440p, the High preset provides 181.6 FPS, while Ultra drops to 147.1 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is 34.5 FPS, which is noticeable, but the High preset still delivers a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate monitors. For users who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, Medium at 207.3 FPS is also a strong option. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot at 1440p, balancing visual quality with a comfortable margin above 144 FPS.

At 4K, the choice is more constrained. The High preset yields 100.3 FPS, which is just above the 100 FPS threshold, while Ultra drops to 82.8 FPS. For a 60 Hz display, either preset works, but for a 120 Hz or 144 Hz display, the Medium preset at 116.9 FPS is the better choice. The Low preset at 133.4 FPS is viable for competitive play, but it sacrifices significant visual detail. The recommendation is to use Medium at 4K for a balanced experience, or High if the display refresh rate is 60 Hz and visual fidelity is the priority. The Ultra preset at 4K is only advisable for users who prioritize image quality over frame rate and are comfortable with the 82.8 FPS result.