Doom

# Doom — Intel Core i7-13700K + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

This combination pairs a 16-core, 24-thread Raptor Lake flagship-class CPU with a Pascal-era GPU that launched in mid-2016, creating a system where the graphics card is the clear performance bottleneck across all tested resolutions. The measured frames per second show a GPU-bound experience at every setting tier, with the CPU's substantial headroom never becoming a limiting factor in this 2016 FPS title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and consistent across all four settings presets, confirming that the GTX 1070's rendering throughput dictates performance. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 95 FPS at 1920x1080 to 61 FPS at 2560x1440 — a 35.8% reduction — then further to 33 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 65.3% drop from the 1080p baseline. This steep scaling curve is characteristic of a GPU that exhausts its fillrate and memory bandwidth as pixel count quadruples.

The Low preset shows the most extreme resolution sensitivity: 158 FPS at 1080p drops to 102 FPS at 1440p (a 35.4% decline) and then to 55 FPS at 4K (a 65.2% decline from 1080p). The near-identical percentage drops between Ultra and Low presets across resolution steps indicate that pixel throughput, not shading complexity, is the primary constraint. Medium settings follow the same pattern: 137 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p, and 48 FPS at 4K. High settings produce 116 FPS, 75 FPS, and 41 FPS respectively.

The 1440p-to-4K transition is particularly punishing, with every preset losing roughly 45-47% of its 1440p performance. This aligns with the 2.25x pixel count increase from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, though the actual losses are smaller than the raw pixel ratio suggests, indicating some degree of memory bandwidth headroom at 1440p that partially cushions the 4K hit. The GTX 1070's 256-bit memory bus and 256.3 GB/s bandwidth appear adequate for 1080p and playable at 1440p, but 4K pushes the card past its comfortable envelope.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers the most balanced experience, with an average of 89 FPS and a measured minimum of 75 FPS. This combination provides 75 FPS as the floor, which is well within smooth gameplay territory for a fast-paced FPS, while the 89 FPS average leaves headroom for demanding scenes. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs 14 FPS (from 89 to 75 average), which is a meaningful reduction that may be noticeable during intense combat sequences.

At 1920x1080, the High preset at 116 FPS average is the recommended starting point, as it provides excellent fluidity while maintaining visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 95 FPS average; while still playable, the 21 FPS penalty over High is steep for the incremental visual gains typical of the final quality tier. For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1080p achieves 158 FPS, and Medium reaches 137 FPS — both far exceeding display refresh rate capabilities of typical 60Hz or 144Hz panels.

At 3840x2160, the data shows no truly comfortable preset. Medium averages 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold that most FPS players consider ideal. Low at 4K averages 55 FPS, still shy of 60 FPS, and the minimum is not recorded. Ultra at 4K drops to 33 FPS, which is borderline unplayable for a game requiring rapid target acquisition. The recommendation for 4K is to accept either Low or Medium and rely on the engine's dynamic resolution scaling if available; however, the measured data alone suggests that 4K gaming with this GPU requires compromising below 60 FPS regardless of settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 3068 out of 3712 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the 17.4th percentile of all systems evaluated. This low ranking reflects the GTX 1070's age rather than any CPU deficiency; the i7-13700K ranks in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU sits in the 47th percentile among all GPUs. The GPU's outdated architecture and 8 GB of GDDR5 memory limit the system's overall standing despite the CPU's modern capabilities.

Examining the GPU's nearest rivals contextualizes its position: the GTX 1070's average benchmark score of 9780 is nearly identical to the AMD FirePro W5000 (9803, delta -0.2%), NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (9832, delta -0.5%), NVIDIA Tesla M10 (9724, delta 0.6%), and NVIDIA Tesla C2070 (9716, delta 0.7%). These are all professional or older workstation cards, indicating that the GTX 1070's compute performance has been surpassed by several generations of consumer GPUs. However, for Doom specifically, the measured FPS shows the card still delivers playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, suggesting that the game's Vulkan-based engine scales well with the Pascal architecture's strengths.

The CPU's nearest rivals are all significantly more modern parts: the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (46971 avg, delta -0.2%), AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (47022 avg, delta -0.3%), AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX (46654 avg, delta 0.5%), and Intel Xeon w3-2535 (46653 avg, delta 0.5%). The i7-13700K's average benchmark score of 46881 places it within 0.5% of these competitors, confirming that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing. In Doom, where the GTX 1070 saturates well before the CPU can become a constraint, the combination's low rank is entirely attributable to the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates span from 95 to 158 FPS across four presets. Low produces 158 FPS average; Medium produces 137 FPS average with a minimum of 117 FPS and maximum of 158 FPS; High produces 116 FPS average; Ultra produces 95 FPS average. The step from Low to Medium costs 21 FPS, Medium to High costs another 21 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 21 FPS — a remarkably consistent 13-15% penalty per tier.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 102 FPS (Low), 89 FPS (Medium), 75 FPS (High), and 61 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset shows a minimum of 75 FPS and maximum of 102 FPS, exactly matching the minimum of High and the average of Low respectively. This suggests that at 1440p, the Medium preset's performance envelope overlaps with adjacent tiers, providing a wide operating range. The High-to-Ultra step costs 14 FPS (18.7%), while Low-to-Medium costs 13 FPS (12.7%), showing slightly steeper penalties at higher quality levels.

At 3840x2160, the averages compress into a narrower band: 55 FPS (Low), 48 FPS (Medium), 41 FPS (High), and 33 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset records minimum and maximum values of 41 and 55 FPS, respectively. The spread from Low to Ultra is only 22 FPS, compared to 63 FPS at 1080p and 41 FPS at 1440p. This compression indicates that at 4K, even the lowest settings cannot escape the GPU's fillrate ceiling, and higher settings only marginally worsen the already-limited performance.

FAQ

Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 4K in Doom?

A: No. The highest measured 4K average is 55 FPS on Low settings, and Medium averages 48 FPS. No preset reaches 60 FPS at 3840x2160.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combination?

A: 2560x1440 on Medium settings provides 89 FPS average with a 75 FPS minimum, offering the best combination of visual quality and smooth performance. At 1080p, all presets exceed 95 FPS, with Low reaching 158 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its closest rivals in overall benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1070's average benchmark score is 9780, within 0.7% of the AMD FirePro W5000, NVIDIA Quadro M2000M, NVIDIA Tesla M10, and NVIDIA Tesla C2070. The performance differences range from -0.5% to +0.7%.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU in this game?

A: No. The i7-13700K ranks in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 46881 is within 0.5% of four comparable modern processors. The frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent with GPU-bound rendering.

Q: What FPS can be expected at 1080p with maximum settings?

A: Ultra settings at 1920x1080 produce an average of 95 FPS. This is playable but represents a 21 FPS reduction compared to High settings, which average 116 FPS.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM on the GTX 1070 cause issues at higher resolutions?

A: The measured data does not indicate VRAM-related stuttering or crashes at any resolution. Frame rates scale consistently with pixel count, suggesting memory capacity is sufficient for Doom's requirements even at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K brings 16 cores and 24 threads from the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This CPU achieves a PassMark multithread score of 45887, a single-thread score of 4333, and a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 30745. In Doom, a game from 2016 that typically utilizes fewer threads, the CPU's single-core performance is more relevant than its massive multicore throughput. The 3dmark single-thread score of 1136 and 3dmark 2-thread score of 2262 indicate strong per-core efficiency that prevents any CPU-side bottlenecks even at low resolutions where frame rates exceed 150 FPS.

The CPU's cache hierarchy — 80 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 30 MB shared L3 — provides ample bandwidth for game logic and draw call processing. At 1080p Low settings, the system reaches 158 FPS average, and the fact that this score scales down to 55 FPS at 4K confirms that the GPU is the sole constraint. The i7-13700K's 125W TDP and 10nm process node from Intel allow high sustained boost clocks without thermal throttling, ensuring consistent frame delivery. With a launch MSRP of $409, this CPU was positioned as a high-end desktop part when released in September 2022, and its benchmark results show it remains competitive with modern rivals like the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 and Ryzen 9 7845HX, both within 0.5% of its average score.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 utilizes the GP104 chip on TSMC's 16nm process, packing 7,200 million transistors into a 314 mm² die. Its 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s. The base clock of 1506 MHz boosts to 1683 MHz, providing 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. Memory consists of 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, running at 2002 MHz for 8 Gbps effective speed and 256.3 GB/s bandwidth.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a PassMark G3D score of 13498 and a 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1082, placing it in the 47th percentile among all GPUs. The measured Doom performance aligns with these figures: at 1080p, the card delivers between 95 and 158 FPS depending on settings, which demonstrates that Pascal's architecture remains competent for older titles. However, the 4K results — 33 to 55 FPS across presets — reveal the card's limits. The 256-bit memory bus provides adequate bandwidth for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K pixel workload exceeds the card's fillrate capabilities, as evidenced by the compressed FPS range at that resolution.

The GTX 1070's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are all professional or workstation cards — the AMD FirePro W5000, NVIDIA Quadro M2000M, Tesla M10, and Tesla C2070 — none of which are designed for gaming. This context underscores that the GTX 1070, while end-of-life and succeeded by the GeForce 20 series, still holds its own among legacy hardware. Its 150W TDP and dual-slot design with a single 8-pin power connector make it relatively efficient for its era, and its support for DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 ensures compatibility with modern APIs, including the Vulkan renderer that Doom famously utilizes.