Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Doom with the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 shows a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo delivers 330.1 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 drops that to 214.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 35%. At 3840x2160, the average falls to 116.1 FPS, which is about 65% lower than the 1080p result.

This scaling behavior is instructive. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is substantial, and the gap between 1440p and 4K is even larger in absolute terms. The data suggests that at 1080p, the system is likely hitting a ceiling imposed by the CPU or game engine logic, because the RTX 4090 is far more capable than what the frame rates at that resolution indicate. At 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant limiting factor, as the pixel throughput demand rises sharply.

Looking at the Low settings row reinforces this interpretation. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo reaches 445.4 FPS, while at 3840x2160 Low it falls to 158.5 FPS. The 4K Low result is still very high, but the drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is about 64%, nearly identical to the High settings drop. This consistency across settings levels indicates that the scaling is primarily resolution-driven rather than settings-driven.

The Ultra preset shows the same pattern. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 268.5 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 175.9 FPS. At 4K Ultra, it falls to 92.9 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest in the entire measured set, which makes sense because it combines the highest pixel count with the most demanding visual effects. The data shows that this combo is capable of maintaining playable frame rates at 4K even on the most demanding preset, but the margin shrinks considerably.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank for this specific pairing in Doom is 15 out of 1,681 tested combinations. That places it in the top 1% of all tested combos, which is expected given the hardware involved. The Intel Core i7-13700K ranks in the 93rd percentile against all CPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks in the 91st percentile against all GPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its position. The Intel Core i7-13700KF scores 47,334 on average benchmark, which is 0.1% higher than the i7-13700K's 47,282. The AMD EPYC 4364P scores 47,131, which is 0.3% lower. The Intel Core i9-12900F scores 47,081, 0.4% lower. The AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 5945 scores 47,527, which is 0.5% higher. These deltas are all within a fraction of a percent, meaning the i7-13700K sits in a tightly packed cluster of high-end processors where no single competitor has a meaningful advantage in aggregate benchmarks.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals show a similar story. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 scores 66,733, which is 0.4% higher than the RTX 4090's 66,473. The NVIDIA Tesla P40 scores 66,127, 0.5% lower. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 scores 67,097, 0.9% higher. The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 scores 67,320, 1.3% higher. These are all professional or workstation cards with different driver optimizations and thermal profiles, so the direct comparison is less meaningful for gaming. Still, the data shows the RTX 4090 is competitive with these high-end alternatives in raw compute benchmarks.

The rank of 15 out of 1,681 means that only 14 other CPU-GPU combinations deliver higher average frame rates in Doom. Given that the RTX 4090 is the fastest consumer GPU in its generation, the combos above this one are likely pairing it with equally fast or faster CPUs, or perhaps using more specialized configurations. The data does not specify what those combos are, but the i7-13700K's position in the 93rd percentile suggests it is not the absolute fastest CPU available.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide four settings presets at each resolution: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. The data shows a consistent ordering across all three resolutions: Low produces the highest frame rates, followed by Medium, then High, and finally Ultra.

At 1920x1080, the spread is significant. Low delivers 445.4 FPS, Medium 390.7 FPS, High 330.1 FPS, and Ultra 268.5 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 176.9 FPS, which is a 40% reduction. At this resolution, even the Ultra preset delivers frame rates far beyond what most displays can show, so users with 1080p monitors can safely select Ultra without any perceptible downside.

At 2560x1440, the spread narrows proportionally but remains large. Low delivers 287.5 FPS, Medium 252.6 FPS, High 214.8 FPS, and Ultra 175.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 111.6 FPS. For 1440p gaming, the Ultra preset still delivers 175.9 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. Choosing Ultra here provides the best visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 3840x2160, the spread becomes more consequential. Low delivers 158.5 FPS, Medium 134.3 FPS, High 116.1 FPS, and Ultra 92.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 65.6 FPS. At 4K, the Ultra preset drops below 100 FPS, which is still playable but may be noticeable on high-refresh displays. Users with 4K monitors who prioritize frame rates should consider High settings, which deliver 116.1 FPS, a 25% improvement over Ultra. Those who prioritize visual fidelity can still use Ultra, as 92.9 FPS remains smooth for most gaming scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full set of measurements is as follows: Low averages 445.4 FPS, Medium averages 390.7 FPS, High averages 330.1 FPS, and Ultra averages 268.5 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a stepwise decline, with each higher preset reducing the frame rate by a meaningful margin. The largest single step is from High to Ultra, which drops 61.6 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the measurements are: Low averages 287.5 FPS, Medium averages 252.6 FPS, High averages 214.8 FPS, and Ultra averages 175.9 FPS. The pattern is identical to 1080p, with each preset tier delivering lower frame rates. The step from High to Ultra is 38.9 FPS, which is the largest drop between consecutive presets at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the measurements are: Low averages 158.5 FPS, Medium averages 134.3 FPS, High averages 116.1 FPS, and Ultra averages 92.9 FPS. The step from High to Ultra is 23.2 FPS, again the largest single drop. Across all resolutions, the Ultra preset consistently imposes the heaviest performance cost relative to High, indicating that the Ultra preset includes effects or rendering features that are disproportionately expensive.

Comparing the same preset across resolutions provides another view. Low at 1080p delivers 445.4 FPS, at 1440p 287.5 FPS, and at 4K 158.5 FPS. Medium at 1080p delivers 390.7 FPS, at 1440p 252.6 FPS, and at 4K 134.3 FPS. High at 1080p delivers 330.1 FPS, at 1440p 214.8 FPS, and at 4K 116.1 FPS. Ultra at 1080p delivers 268.5 FPS, at 1440p 175.9 FPS, and at 4K 92.9 FPS. The data shows that resolution scaling is roughly linear across the three resolutions, with 4K consistently delivering about half the frame rate of 1080p for the same settings preset.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC. It has 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, which translates to 21 Gbps effective. The GPU has 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster operation units. It also includes 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores.

The base clock is 2235 MHz and the boost clock is 2520 MHz. This high boost clock, combined with the large number of shading units, gives the card a peak FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS. The pixel rate is 443.5 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 1,290.2 GTexel/s. These specifications explain why the card can sustain such high frame rates in Doom, which is a 2016 title with relatively modest geometry and texture demands compared to modern releases.

The GPU's benchmarks reinforce its position. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 9,223. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 317,684, and in Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 270,615. PassMark results show a G3D score of 38,194 and a GPU compute score of 26,613. The average benchmark score is 66,473, placing it in the 91st percentile against all GPUs.

The RTX 4090's memory capacity of 24 GB is far more than Doom requires. The game was released in 2016, and its texture sizes are modest by modern standards. The memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s ensures that even at 4K with Ultra settings, the GPU never becomes bandwidth-limited. The data shows that the 4K Ultra result of 92.9 FPS is the lowest in the set, but it is still a high frame rate for the most demanding configuration tested.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS is 445.4, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS measured for this combo?

A: The lowest average FPS is 92.9, achieved at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How does the i7-13700K compare to its closest rival, the i7-13700KF?

A: The i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 47,282, while the i7-13700KF scores 47,334, which is 0.1% higher. The difference is negligible.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 compare to the Tesla T4 in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4090 scores 66,473 on average, while the Tesla T4 scores 66,733, which is 0.4% higher. The RTX 4090 trails by a small margin.

Q: What frame rate does the combo achieve at 4K with High settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with High settings, the combo delivers an average of 116.1 FPS.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU combinations in Doom?

A: The combo ranks 15th out of 1,681 tested combinations, placing it in the top 1% of all tested setups.