Doom

# Doom — Intel Core i9-14900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers exceptional performance in Doom, with the measured data showing this combination ranks 215th out of 3,712 tested combos in this title. The benchmark results reveal a system that handles the game's id Tech 6 engine with substantial headroom across all resolutions, though the scaling patterns indicate a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable decline as resolution climbs from 1080p to 4K, but the magnitude of that decline varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 401 FPS at 1920x1080 to 260 FPS at 2560x1440, then further to 141 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 35% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and another 46% drop from 1440p to 4K. The 4K Low result of 141 FPS is still comfortably above 120 FPS, indicating the GPU retains substantial capability even at the highest resolution.

Medium settings follow a similar pattern: 350 FPS at 1080p, 226 FPS at 1440p, and 123 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 35% and 46% respectively, nearly identical to Low settings. High settings show 295 FPS at 1080p, 191 FPS at 1440p, and 104 FPS at 4K — a 35% drop to 1440p and a 46% drop to 4K. Ultra settings produce 241 FPS at 1080p, 156 FPS at 1440p, and 85 FPS at 4K, with the same 35% and 45% scaling ratios.

The consistency of these scaling percentages across all four presets strongly suggests that resolution scaling is purely GPU-bound. The RTX 4080's rendering throughput scales inversely with pixel count in a uniform manner, regardless of the visual complexity settings. This uniformity indicates that the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution, as CPU bottlenecks would typically manifest as diminishing returns when lowering resolution. The fact that 1080p Low achieves 401 FPS while 4K Low achieves 141 FPS — a 2.84x difference — closely matches the 4x pixel count difference when accounting for other overheads.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame of 215 out of 3,712 places this configuration in the top 5.8% of all tested systems for Doom. This is a strong result, though not surprising given the premium components involved. The rank reflects the combination's ability to maintain high frame rates even at 4K Ultra, where it still produces 85 FPS — a playable level for most users, though not reaching the 144 Hz territory that lower settings enable.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing sits well above the median. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 95 indicates it outperforms 95% of all CPUs in general benchmark workloads, while the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 86 shows similar standing among graphics cards. When combined specifically for Doom, the rank of 215 suggests the game is somewhat more demanding than average on the GPU relative to the CPU, as the GPU's lower percentile might otherwise predict a lower combo ranking.

The nearest rival CPUs show minimal performance deltas: the Intel Core i9-14900KF scores 0.3% lower on average, the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus scores 0.6% lower, and the AMD EPYC 7413 scores 1.2% lower. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 actually scores 1.7% higher in general benchmarks, yet the combination ranking here remains competitive. Among GPUs, the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 0.1% higher, while the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 1.1% lower, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 2.6% lower, and the AMD Radeon 8060S scores 2.7% lower.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the AD103 chip using TSMC's 5 nm process, containing 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory operates across a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective data rate. The GPU's base clock is 2205 MHz, boosting to 2505 MHz, with 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs.

For Doom specifically, the GPU's substantial memory bandwidth and high shader count are the primary contributors to the measured results. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is far beyond what this 2016 title requires, even at 4K Ultra, meaning there is no texture swapping or memory pressure affecting frame times. The measured FPS data shows the GPU delivering 85 FPS at 4K Ultra and 104 FPS at 4K High, which are strong figures for a game that emphasizes fast-paced action where frame consistency matters.

The RTX 4080's benchmark scores reinforce its position: it achieves a Passmark G3D score of 34457 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 263779. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6567 indicates strong DirectX 12 performance, which is relevant given Doom's Vulkan and OpenGL support. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 48.74 TFLOPS and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s provide ample compute for the game's rendering demands, particularly at higher resolutions where pixel throughput becomes critical.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4080 produces extraordinary frame rates across all presets. Low settings yield 401 FPS average, Medium produces 350 FPS with a minimum of 297 and maximum of 402, High delivers 295 FPS, and Ultra achieves 241 FPS. These numbers are all well above any display refresh rate currently available, making 1080p essentially a CPU-bound scenario where the i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads help maintain these extremely high frame rates.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results remain impressive. Low settings produce 260 FPS, Medium averages 226 FPS with a minimum of 192 and maximum of 260, High reaches 191 FPS, and Ultra drops to 156 FPS. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings (192 FPS at 1440p, 297 FPS at 1080p) show that frame pacing remains consistent even during intense gameplay sequences, with no severe drops that would cause perceptible stuttering.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits more clearly. Low settings average 141 FPS, Medium produces 123 FPS with a minimum of 104 and maximum of 141, High achieves 104 FPS, and Ultra drops to 85 FPS. These 4K results are still highly playable, but the progression from Low to Ultra represents a 40% reduction in frame rate (141 to 85 FPS), indicating that the game's higher-quality settings meaningfully increase GPU load at this resolution.

The complete dataset shows consistent relationships between settings at each resolution: Ultra is roughly 40-45% slower than Low across all three resolutions, while Medium sits between Low and High in a predictable manner. This consistency suggests the game's settings scale linearly in GPU cost, with no unusual spikes or inefficiencies.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K displays, the data shows that High settings at 104 FPS provide the best balance of visual quality and performance. Ultra drops to 85 FPS, which is still playable but approaches the threshold where fast-paced action might benefit from higher frame rates. Low and Medium settings at 141 FPS and 123 FPS respectively offer smoother motion but sacrifice visual fidelity that the GPU can clearly handle at High.

At 2560x1440, the choice becomes simpler. Ultra at 156 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of most 144 Hz monitors, making it the recommended preset for this resolution. High at 191 FPS provides even more headroom for future content or for users with 240 Hz displays. Low at 260 FPS and Medium at 226 FPS are unnecessary unless the user prioritizes absolute maximum frame rates over visual quality.

For 1080p, Ultra at 241 FPS is the clear recommendation. This exceeds the capabilities of virtually all displays, and the additional frame rate from lower settings (up to 401 FPS at Low) provides no practical benefit. The minimum FPS at Medium settings is 297 FPS, indicating that even the most demanding scenes remain far above display refresh rates. Users with 360 Hz monitors might consider High at 295 FPS, but the visual quality difference between High and Ultra is more impactful than the marginal FPS gain.

The measured data supports a simple rule: use Ultra whenever the average FPS exceeds 144 at the target resolution, and drop to High if the Ultra frame rate falls below 100. For this combo, that means Ultra at 1080p and 1440p, and High at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, with ECC memory support available.

In Doom, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 401 FPS, which is likely approaching the CPU's practical limit for this game. The fact that 4K Low achieves 141 FPS while 1080p Low achieves 401 FPS indicates the GPU is the bottleneck at higher resolutions, but at 1080p the CPU's capability becomes relevant. The i9-14900K's high single-thread performance — evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2262.5 and Geekbench single-core score of 2655 — is crucial for maintaining these frame rates, as game logic and physics typically run on a limited number of threads.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is also strong, with Cinebench R23 multi-core scoring 39399.5 and Geekbench multi-core reaching 21697. In Doom, which can utilize multiple threads for entity updates and sound processing, this helps maintain consistent frame times even during complex scenes. The Passmark multi-thread score of 58674 and integer math score of 210622 indicate substantial computational headroom, though the game's engine is unlikely to fully utilize all 32 threads.

The nearest rival CPUs show that the i9-14900K is within 1.2% of the AMD EPYC 7413 and within 0.6% of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus in average benchmark scores. This tight grouping suggests that CPU choice has minimal impact on Doom performance when paired with a high-end GPU like the RTX 4080, as the game is primarily GPU-bound at the resolutions tested.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Doom?

A: The measured data shows 2560x1440 with Ultra settings delivers 156 FPS average, which exceeds most display refresh rates while maintaining high visual quality. At 4K, High settings achieve 104 FPS, which is also playable but with lower visual fidelity.

Q: How does the RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: The 16 GB GDDR6X memory with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for Doom at any settings. The 4K Ultra result of 85 FPS and 4K High of 104 FPS show no memory-related performance degradation, as the game's texture requirements are well within the available VRAM.

Q: Is the Intel Core i9-14900K a bottleneck in this configuration?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the system reaches 401 FPS, which suggests the CPU is near its limit for this game. At higher resolutions and settings, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as shown by the consistent FPS reductions when increasing resolution.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 4K with different settings?

A: The measured data shows 141 FPS at Low, 123 FPS at Medium, 104 FPS at High, and 85 FPS at Ultra for 3840x2160 resolution. All settings produce playable frame rates, with High offering the best balance of quality and performance.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 215th out of 3,712 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the top 5.8% of all configurations. The CPU ranks in the 95th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 86th percentile among all GPUs.

Q: Does the game benefit from the CPU's 24 cores and 32 threads?

A: While Doom can utilize multiple threads, the primary performance driver is single-thread speed for game logic. The i9-14900K's single-core performance (Cinebench R23 score of 2262.5) and high boost clock of 6.00 GHz help maintain frame rates, but the game's GPU-bound nature at higher resolutions means the CPU's multi-threading is not fully utilized.