Doom

The data for Doom with the Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the CPU becoming a more significant factor as resolution drops and frame rates climb. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across resolutions and settings, focusing on the relationship between the components and the game's demands.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 4K down to 1080p reveals a classic performance curve where the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, but the CPU's influence becomes more apparent at lower ones. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the system produces an average of 104 FPS. Dropping to 2560x1440 High increases the average to 191 FPS, a substantial 83.7% improvement. Moving further down to 1920x1080 High yields 295 FPS, which is 54.5% higher than the 1440p result and 183.7% higher than the 4K result.

This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4080 has considerable headroom at 1440p and 1080p, but the frame rate gains are not linear with the pixel count reduction. The transition from 4K to 1440p reduces pixels by 55% but improves FPS by 83.7%, suggesting the GPU is still managing the workload efficiently. However, the jump from 1440p to 1080p reduces pixels by 43.75% but only improves FPS by 54.5%, showing diminishing returns as the system approaches the CPU's performance ceiling.

The Low settings data reinforces this interpretation. At 4K Low, the average is 141 FPS, while 1440p Low reaches 260 FPS and 1080p Low peaks at 401 FPS. The delta between 1080p Low and 1440p Low is 141 FPS, while the delta between 1440p Low and 4K Low is 119 FPS. These numbers suggest that at 1080p Low, the CPU is likely becoming a bottleneck, as the frame rates exceed what typical single-thread performance would allow without constraint. The 401 FPS at 1080p Low is the highest recorded value in the dataset, and the fact that it is only 54.2% higher than the 260 FPS at 1440p Low, despite a 43.75% pixel reduction, points to the i7-12700K's 12 cores and 20 threads handling the game's engine at its limit.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this configuration for Doom, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for the game's textures and geometry at 4K. The AD103 chip, built on TSMC's 5 nm process, contains 45,900 million transistors and operates at a base clock of 2205 MHz with a boost clock of 2505 MHz. The memory clock is listed at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective speed.

The GPU's 9728 shading units and 112 ROPs contribute to its pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s, which explains its ability to sustain 104 FPS at 4K High. The texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s, driven by 304 TMUs, ensures that texture-heavy scenes do not cause stuttering. The FP32 performance of 48.74 TFLOPS indicates that the card has significant compute headroom, which is reflected in the 104 FPS at 4K High versus 85 FPS at 4K Ultra, a 22.4% penalty for the Ultra preset's additional effects.

Comparing the RTX 4080 to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, it scores 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER, 1.1% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, 2.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, and 2.7% lower than the AMD Radeon 8060S. These deltas are minimal, indicating that the card sits in a tight performance band relative to its peers. The GPU's percentile rank of 86 against all GPUs confirms it is a high-end part, but the data shows that for Doom, the card is not fully utilized at 1080p, where the CPU becomes the limiting factor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K provides the processing backbone for this system, and its role becomes increasingly visible as resolution decreases. With 12 cores and 20 threads, the Alder Lake architecture operates at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration yields a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19784 and a single-core score of 1850.5.

In Doom, the CPU's impact is evident when comparing the 1080p Low average of 401 FPS to the 1440p Low average of 260 FPS. The 54.2% improvement from 1440p to 1080p is less than the 83.7% improvement seen from 4K to 1440p at High settings, which indicates that the CPU is nearing its ceiling. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1043 and the Passmark single-thread score of 4013 suggest that the processor's single-thread performance is strong, but the game's engine likely requires more than one thread for certain tasks, limiting the maximum frame rate.

The i7-12700K's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-13600T with a delta of -0.1%, the Intel Core i7-12700KF at -0.2%, the Intel Core i7-13700T at -0.3%, and the Intel Core 5 213PE at -0.4%. These tiny differences mean that the processor's performance is well within the range of its peers, and the CPU is not a weak link in this system. The Passmark multi-thread score of 34404 and the Geekbench multi-core score of 15790 show that the CPU has ample parallel processing capability, but Doom's engine may not scale perfectly across all 20 threads, particularly at low resolutions where the frame rate is high.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 215th out of 3712 tested combinations in the database for Doom. This places it in the top 5.8% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the overall balance of the system, where the GPU handles the heavy lifting at 4K and the CPU keeps pace at lower resolutions.

The percentile ranks for the individual components—84th for the CPU and 86th for the GPU—are close, suggesting that neither component is significantly underpowered relative to the other. The combo rank of 215 is slightly worse than the individual percentile ranks might suggest, which could indicate that the CPU becomes a minor bottleneck at 1080p, preventing the system from reaching the top 5% of combinations. However, the delta between the CPU's rank and the combo's rank is small, and the system still delivers playable frame rates across all tested settings.

In practical terms, this ranking means that the system is well-suited for Doom at 4K, where the GPU is the primary driver, and at 1440p, where the balance between CPU and GPU is optimal. At 1080p, the system is still competitive, but the frame rates are high enough that the CPU's limitations become apparent.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the best experience. At 3840x2160, the High preset yields 104 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay on most displays. The Ultra preset drops to 85 FPS, a 18.3% decrease from High, which may be noticeable on high-refresh-rate monitors but is still playable. The Medium preset offers 123 FPS, and Low offers 141 FPS, but these settings reduce visual fidelity.

For 4K gaming, the High preset is the recommended choice. It provides a 22.4% improvement over Ultra while maintaining a frame rate that is 22.4% higher than Ultra's 85 FPS. The difference between High and Medium is 19 FPS, but High's visual enhancements are worth the small performance cost. For 1440p, the High preset delivers 191 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate displays. The Ultra preset at 156 FPS is also viable, but the 35 FPS difference between High and Ultra is significant without a proportional visual gain.

At 1080p, the High preset produces 295 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors. The Low preset at 401 FPS is unnecessary for typical displays, and Medium at 350 FPS offers a better balance. The Ultra preset at 241 FPS is still smooth, but the High preset is the sweet spot for visual quality and performance. Across all resolutions, the High preset provides the best balance of image quality and frame rate, with the data showing that it avoids the steep performance drop seen with Ultra while delivering superior visuals to Medium.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset for this system shows the following average frame rates:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 401 FPS, Medium averages 350 FPS with a minimum of 297 and maximum of 402, High averages 295 FPS, and Ultra averages 241 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 160 FPS, representing a 39.9% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to the highest settings.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 260 FPS, Medium averages 226 FPS with a minimum of 192 and maximum of 260, High averages 191 FPS, and Ultra averages 156 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 104 FPS, a 40% reduction, which is consistent with the 1080p scaling.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 141 FPS, Medium averages 123 FPS with a minimum of 104 and maximum of 141, High averages 104 FPS, and Ultra averages 85 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 56 FPS, a 39.7% reduction, maintaining the same proportional drop as the other resolutions.

The Medium preset's minimum and maximum values at each resolution are identical to the Low and High averages, respectively, indicating that the Medium preset uses the same underlying performance bounds as the adjacent presets. This pattern suggests that the game's settings scale linearly in terms of frame rate impact, with each step from Low to Ultra costing approximately 20% of the previous setting's performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this system in Doom?

A: The highest average FPS is 401, recorded at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER in the benchmark database, indicating virtually identical performance.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from High to Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset averages 104 FPS while Ultra averages 85 FPS, a decrease of 19 FPS or 18.3%.

Q: Which resolution shows the largest performance difference between Low and High settings?

A: The 1920x1080 resolution shows the largest absolute difference, with Low at 401 FPS and High at 295 FPS, a gap of 106 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to limit performance at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the CPU becomes the limiting factor at 1080p, as the frame rate improvement from 1440p to 1080p is smaller than expected based on pixel count reduction.

Q: What is the combo's rank out of all tested systems for Doom?

A: The combo ranks 215th out of 3712 tested combinations, placing it in the top 5.8% of systems.