Doom

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the top-performing combination in the database for Doom, ranking first out of 2,930 tested combos. This is a game from 2016, but the measured results show that this modern flagship hardware still delivers exceptional frame rates across all tested settings and resolutions. The data indicates a system that can push well beyond the limits of standard high-refresh-rate monitors, even at 4K Ultra settings, where it maintains an average of 102 FPS. For competitive play, the lower settings at 1080p provide frame rates exceeding 480 FPS, making this combo a definitive choice for maximum performance in this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of how this combo scales with graphical fidelity. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is significant, but the absolute numbers remain staggeringly high. The Low preset yields an average of 485 FPS, while Medium drops to 422 FPS, High to 357 FPS, and Ultra to 292 FPS. The data shows that even at Ultra settings, the average frame rate is nearly triple the refresh rate of a standard 144Hz monitor, meaning there is no practical reason to sacrifice visual quality for speed at this resolution unless targeting extreme refresh rates like 360Hz or 500Hz panels.

At 2560x1440, the pattern continues. Low settings produce an average of 314 FPS, Medium 273 FPS, High 231 FPS, and Ultra 189 FPS. For most users with a 1440p high-refresh monitor, the High preset represents the sweet spot, delivering 231 FPS average while maintaining better visual fidelity than Medium or Low. The Ultra preset at this resolution still provides 189 FPS average, which is comfortably above 144Hz, so those prioritizing image quality over raw frame rates can safely choose Ultra without dropping below playable thresholds.

At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more pronounced. Low settings average 170 FPS, Medium 148 FPS, High 125 FPS, and Ultra 102 FPS. Here, the recommendation depends on the display. For a 4K 120Hz panel, the High preset at 125 FPS average is ideal, as it exceeds the refresh rate while offering better visuals than Medium. The Ultra preset at 102 FPS average is still perfectly playable on a 120Hz display, though it will not fully saturate the panel. For those with 4K 144Hz monitors, the Medium preset at 148 FPS average is the best match, as it clears the refresh rate while sacrificing some visual detail compared to High.

The benchmark data suggests that the optimal experience for this combo is setting the preset based on the target refresh rate. At 1080p, High or Ultra are both viable, with the latter providing 292 FPS average, which is still far beyond most monitor capabilities. At 1440p, High is the balanced choice, but Ultra remains a strong option. At 4K, the choice between High and Ultra comes down to whether the user prioritizes the 125 FPS average of High or the 102 FPS average of Ultra, with the former being better for 120Hz+ displays and the latter acceptable for standard 60Hz or 120Hz panels.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. The GPU operates with a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The card is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC, containing 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. These specifications translate into measured benchmark scores that place the GPU in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712.

In Doom, the GPU's role becomes more critical as resolution increases. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the frame rates are extremely high, with the Low preset reaching 485 FPS average. This indicates that the GPU is not heavily taxed at this resolution, and the frame rates are likely constrained by the CPU or other system bottlenecks. As resolution increases to 1440p, the GPU begins to take on more work, with the Low preset dropping to 314 FPS average. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the dominant factor, as the Low preset yields 170 FPS average, a significant drop from the 1080p figure.

The VRAM capacity of 32 GB is far more than Doom requires, even at 4K Ultra settings. The game's texture and geometry demands are modest by modern standards, so the 32 GB GDDR7 memory is effectively never a limiting factor. The memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s ensures that even at 4K with High or Ultra settings, the GPU can feed its 21,760 shading units and 680 texture mapping units without stalling. The boost clock of 2407 MHz is relatively high, and the card's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance provides ample compute power for this title's rendering workload.

The data shows that the RTX 5090 D is overkill for Doom at 1080p, where the frame rates approach the limits of what is physically possible on current display technology. At 1440p, the GPU still has headroom, as evidenced by the 314 FPS average on Low settings. At 4K, the GPU is working harder, but the 170 FPS average on Low and 102 FPS on Ultra demonstrate that it remains well within its capabilities. The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT with a deltaPct of 1.1% and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT with a deltaPct of -1.6%, are close in average benchmark scores, but the 5090 D's performance in Doom is clearly superior, given the rank of this combo.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. Its benchmark scores are strong, with a 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 79,097. In multi-core tests like Cinebench R23, it scores 39,399.5, and in single-core tests, it scores 2,262.5.

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 settings, the combo achieves 485 FPS average, which is an exceptionally high frame rate. This suggests that the CPU is capable of keeping up with the GPU's output at lower resolutions, where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The 32 threads and high boost clock of 6.00 GHz provide ample single-threaded performance for the game's main thread, while the multi-core capabilities handle background tasks and any secondary threads.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the Intel Core i9-14900KF with a deltaPct of -0.3%, the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus with a deltaPct of -0.6%, and the AMD EPYC 7413 with a deltaPct of -1.2%. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 shows a deltaPct of 1.7%, meaning it scores slightly higher on average, but the i9-14900K's performance in Doom is sufficient to place this combo at rank 1.

The data indicates that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this game at any resolution. At 1080p, the frame rates are so high that even the fastest CPUs would struggle to push them higher, and the i9-14900K's 6.00 GHz boost clock is among the highest available. As resolution increases, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, and the CPU has even more headroom. The 36 MB of L3 cache helps with game data locality, and the 2 MB per-core L2 cache reduces latency for frequently accessed data.

For a game like Doom, which is known for its fast-paced action and requires high frame rates for competitive play, the i9-14900K provides the necessary single-threaded performance to drive the RTX 5090 D to its limits. The measured results show that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 485 FPS average, which is among the highest possible frame rates in any game. At 4K Ultra, the CPU still has enough headroom to maintain 102 FPS average, proving that it is not a bottleneck even at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i9-14900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 1st out of 2,930 tested combos in Doom. This is the top position in the database, indicating that no other CPU-GPU pairing tested achieves higher average frame rates in this game. The rank is based on measured FPS data across the tested resolutions and settings, and this combo leads the field.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 92 among all GPUs and the CPU's percentile ranking of 95 among all CPUs both contribute to this top-tier result. The combination of a high-end CPU and a flagship GPU ensures that neither component becomes a significant bottleneck, allowing the system to perform at its maximum potential. The nearest rival GPUs in terms of average benchmark score, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and RX 6850M XT, have similar average scores, but the RTX 5090 D's actual performance in Doom, as measured by the FPS data, is what matters for this ranking.

The combo's rank of 1 out of 2,930 is a strong indicator of its dominance in this title. The data shows that at every resolution and settings combination, the frame rates are exceptionally high, with the lowest average being 102 FPS at 4K Ultra. This means that even the most demanding settings are playable, and the system has enough performance headroom to handle future updates or additional background tasks without impacting gameplay.

The rank also reflects the synergy between the i9-14900K and the RTX 5090 D. The CPU's high clock speeds and the GPU's massive compute resources work together to deliver frame rates that are unmatched by other combinations. For a game like Doom, which benefits from both high single-threaded CPU performance and high GPU fill rates, this pairing is ideal.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how performance scales from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 485 at 1080p to 314 at 1440p, a decrease of 171 FPS or roughly 35%. From 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drops from 314 to 170, a decrease of 144 FPS or roughly 46%. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor as resolution increases, while the CPU's role diminishes.

At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 422 at 1080p to 273 at 1440p, a decrease of 149 FPS or roughly 35%. From 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drops from 273 to 148, a decrease of 125 FPS or roughly 46%. The percentage drops are similar to Low settings, suggesting that the scaling is consistent regardless of settings.

At High settings, the average FPS drops from 357 at 1080p to 231 at 1440p, a decrease of 126 FPS or roughly 35%. From 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drops from 231 to 125, a decrease of 106 FPS or roughly 46%. Again, the scaling pattern is similar, with a roughly 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 46% drop from 1440p to 4K.

At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 292 at 1080p to 189 at 1440p, a decrease of 103 FPS or roughly 35%. From 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drops from 189 to 102, a decrease of 87 FPS or roughly 46%. The consistent percentage drops across all settings indicate that the limiting component is the GPU, as the CPU's performance is sufficient to keep up even at 1080p.

The data shows that the frame rate drops are more severe from 1440p to 4K than from 1080p to 1440p, which is expected given the increased pixel count. At 4K, the GPU is working to fill four times the pixels of 1080p, and the 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are being utilized more heavily. The fact that the drops are similar across all settings suggests that the GPU's compute and memory resources are the primary constraints, rather than any specific setting like texture quality or anti-aliasing.

This scaling behavior indicates that for users targeting high refresh rates, 1080p or 1440p are the optimal resolutions, as they allow the combo to reach frame rates above 300 FPS on lower settings. At 4K, the frame rates are still high, but the drop from 1080p is significant, with the Low preset at 4K (170 FPS) being lower than the Ultra preset at 1080p (292 FPS). This confirms that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions, while the CPU has ample headroom at all resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo is as follows:

At 3840x2160, the High settings preset yields an average FPS of 125. The Low settings preset yields an average FPS of 170. The Medium settings preset yields an average FPS of 148, with a minimum of 126 and a maximum of 170. The Ultra settings preset yields an average FPS of 102. This represents a spread of 68 FPS between the lowest (Ultra) and highest (Low) presets at 4K, showing that the GPU handles the increased load of higher settings with a corresponding drop in performance.

At 2560x1440, the High settings preset yields an average FPS of 231. The Low settings preset yields an average FPS of 314. The Medium settings preset yields an average FPS of 273, with a minimum of 232 and a maximum of 314. The Ultra settings preset yields an average FPS of 189. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 125 FPS, indicating that the GPU has more headroom at this resolution, but the settings still have a significant impact on performance.

At 1920x1080, the High settings preset yields an average FPS of 357. The Low settings preset yields an average FPS of 485. The Medium settings preset yields an average FPS of 422, with a minimum of 359 and a maximum of 486. The Ultra settings preset yields an average FPS of 292. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 193 FPS, which is the largest of any resolution, demonstrating that at lower resolutions, the GPU is not the bottleneck, and the settings have a more pronounced effect on frame rates.

The data shows that the Medium preset at each resolution has a recorded minimum FPS, which is 126 at 4K, 232 at 1440p, and 359 at 1080p, along with maximum FPS values of 170, 314, and 486 respectively. These minimum and maximum values provide insight into frame time consistency, with the minimum being lower than the average and the maximum higher, indicating some variance in frame delivery. The fact that the minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 126, which is still above 60 FPS, suggests that the game remains smooth even in demanding scenes.

Across all resolutions and settings, the lowest average FPS recorded is 102 at 4K Ultra, which is still well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The highest average FPS recorded is 485 at 1080p Low, which is an extraordinary number that exceeds the refresh rate of any consumer monitor. This data confirms that the combo is capable of delivering playable frame rates at all tested settings and resolutions, with the only consideration being the user's preference for visual quality versus maximum frame rate.