Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers a remarkably consistent frame rate story in Doom, where resolution scaling reveals a system that is clearly GPU-bound at higher settings but becomes increasingly CPU-limited at the extreme of 1080p. The measured data shows a smooth, predictable drop in performance as pixel count rises, but the magnitude of that drop changes depending on the quality preset, offering insight into where the bottleneck shifts.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is not linear; it is steepest at the highest settings and flattest at the lowest. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 189 FPS at 1080p to 122 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 35.4%, and then to 66 FPS at 4K, a further 45.9% drop from the 1440p figure. This aggressive scaling indicates that the RTX 4070’s rendering pipeline is the primary constraint, with the GPU’s shading units and memory bandwidth being saturated as resolution increases.

At High settings, the pattern is similar but slightly less punishing: 231 FPS at 1080p drops to 150 FPS at 1440p (35.1% loss) and then to 81 FPS at 4K (46.0% loss from 1440p). The consistency of the percentage drops between Ultra and High suggests that the GPU is still the limiting factor, just with a lower overall workload per frame.

The Medium preset tells a different tale. Here, the 1080p result is 273 FPS, which falls to 177 FPS at 1440p (35.2% drop) and 96 FPS at 4K (45.8% drop). While the relative percentages remain similar, the absolute headroom at 1080p is notable. The Low settings, however, break the pattern. At 1080p, the system produces 314 FPS, but this only drops to 203 FPS at 1440p (35.4% drop) and 110 FPS at 4K (45.8% drop). The fact that the percentage scaling remains almost identical across all presets—hovering around 35% for the 1080p-to-1440p step and 46% for the 1440p-to-4K step—indicates that the RTX 4070’s pixel throughput is the dominant factor across the board, even when the CPU is delivering over 300 frames per second.

The data suggests that while the CPU can push very high frame rates at 1080p on Low settings, the GPU begins to cap performance well before the CPU becomes a true bottleneck. The 4K Ultra result of 66 FPS is the only point where the system dips below the 60 FPS threshold, and even that is a playable experience for a fast-paced FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the star of this benchmark, and its specifications align perfectly with the measured results. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, the card delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This is ample for Doom’s textures at 4K, as evidenced by the relatively small gap between the 4K High (81 FPS) and 4K Medium (96 FPS) results. The memory subsystem is not the limiting factor here; the compute units are.

The GPU’s clock speeds—1920 MHz base and 2475 MHz boost—are typical for the Ada Lovelace architecture. The chip, designated AD104, contains 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s are the raw numbers that drive the resolution scaling seen above. At 4K Ultra, the card is processing 66 FPS, which means it is filling roughly 528 million pixels per second, a workload that keeps the 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute busy.

The RTX 4070’s 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs is reflected in its ability to maintain high frame rates. It sits very close to the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (deltaPct 0.1), which is a professional card not designed for gaming, and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (deltaPct 0.4). The 4070 is about 1.3% behind the GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile, which is a laptop part, and 1.3% ahead of the Radeon PRO W6400. This positioning in the synthetic benchmarks translates to real-world performance that is consistently above the 60 FPS mark at 4K, except for the most demanding Ultra preset.

The 200 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest the card is well-cooled, allowing it to sustain its boost clock under load, which is crucial for maintaining the high frame rates seen at 1440p.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand database of tested combinations, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 pairing achieves a combo rank of 651 out of 2930 tested systems. This places it in the top 22.2% of all combos, a strong showing that reflects the balance between the two components. The CPU, which sits in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU, in the 81st percentile, are well-matched, with neither component dragging the other down significantly.

The combo’s rank is likely boosted by the CPU’s strong single-thread performance. The Core Ultra 5 225 scores 3655 points in Cinebench R23 single-core, which is a critical metric for Doom’s engine, which relies heavily on a single main thread. The multi-core score of 25891 in the same test is also respectable, but the single-core result is what allows the system to reach 314 FPS at 1080p Low, where the CPU is the primary driver.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmarks are the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (deltaPct 0), the Ryzen 5 5500X3D (deltaPct -0.2), the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (deltaPct -0.4), and the Intel Core i9-12900T (deltaPct -0.5). These are all very close in average score, indicating that the Core Ultra 5 225 is a solid mid-range performer. The fact that it holds its own against a previous-generation i9 confirms its efficiency.

The GPU’s rivals are similarly close in average score, but in real-world gaming, the RTX 4070’s advantage in ray tracing and DLSS would be more apparent. For this specific benchmark, the raw rasterization performance is what matters, and the 66 FPS at 4K Ultra is a clear indicator of the combo’s capability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

This section details the exact frame rates observed across all tested configurations. The data points are as follows:

• 3840x2160 (4K): Ultra 66 FPS, High 81 FPS, Medium 96 FPS (min 81, max 110), Low 110 FPS.
• 2560x1440 (1440p): Ultra 122 FPS, High 150 FPS, Medium 177 FPS (min 150, max 204), Low 203 FPS.
• 1920x1080 (1080p): Ultra 189 FPS, High 231 FPS, Medium 273 FPS (min 232, max 314), Low 314 FPS.

The Medium preset at each resolution includes min and max frame rate data, which is useful for understanding frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the system fluctuates between 232 FPS and 314 FPS, a spread of 82 FPS. This variance is typical for a high-refresh-rate scenario, where the CPU is occasionally the bottleneck. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 54 FPS (from 150 to 204), and at 4K Medium, it narrows further to 29 FPS (from 81 to 110). This tightening of the frame time variance as resolution increases is a classic sign of the GPU becoming the consistent bottleneck, smoothing out the frame delivery.

The jump from Low to Medium settings at 1080p costs 41 FPS (from 314 to 273), while the jump from Medium to High costs another 42 FPS (to 231). The step from High to Ultra is the most expensive, costing 42 FPS (to 189). At 4K, the same progression yields losses of 14 FPS (Low to Medium), 15 FPS (Medium to High), and 15 FPS (High to Ultra). This shows that the absolute cost of each setting tier is relatively constant, but the percentage impact is much larger at 4K where the base frame rate is lower.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target display and frame rate preference. For 4K users, the High preset at 81 FPS is the sweet spot, offering a significant visual upgrade over Medium (96 FPS) while maintaining a frame rate that is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at 66 FPS is playable, but the 15 FPS loss over High is not worth the marginal visual gains in a fast-paced FPS where reaction time matters.

For 1440p displays, the Ultra preset at 122 FPS is the clear recommendation. The system has enough headroom to run the highest settings and still deliver a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most 1440p monitors (typically 144 Hz or 165 Hz). The High preset at 150 FPS is also viable for those with 165 Hz displays, providing a more consistent frame rate with less GPU strain.

At 1080p, the Ultra preset at 189 FPS is the best choice for high-refresh-rate gaming. The system is clearly CPU-bound at this resolution, as evidenced by the 314 FPS result on Low settings, but the Ultra preset provides a balanced experience that leverages the GPU’s capabilities without being held back by the CPU. The Medium preset at 273 FPS is overkill for most displays, and the visual downgrade is not worth the extra frame rate headroom.

In summary, the data suggests that players should prioritize the High preset at 4K, the Ultra preset at 1440p, and the Ultra preset at 1080p for the best balance of visual fidelity and performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 plays a supporting but crucial role in this combo. With 10 cores and 10 threads, it lacks hyper-threading, which is a notable design choice for a desktop CPU. However, its 3.30 GHz base clock and 4.90 GHz boost clock are high enough to ensure strong single-threaded performance, which is critical for Doom’s engine.

The CPU’s architecture, Arrow Lake-S, built on a 3 nm process at TSMC, is efficient, allowing a 65 W TDP. This low power draw is impressive given the performance on offer, and it means the CPU does not generate excessive heat that could throttle the system. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache is sufficient for the game’s data working set, and the dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth is more than enough to feed the GPU.

In the Cinebench R23 multi-core test, the CPU scores 25891, which is a strong result, but its single-core score of 3655 is what matters most for Doom. This single-thread performance is what allows the system to hit 314 FPS at 1080p Low, where the CPU is the limiting factor. The Passmark single-thread score of 4412 corroborates this, placing the CPU in a strong position relative to its peers.

However, the data also shows the CPU’s limits. At 1080p Low, the frame rate is 314 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 189 FPS. This indicates that while the CPU can drive very high frame rates, the GPU’s workload at higher settings quickly becomes the bottleneck. The CPU is not holding the system back at any resolution or settings combination; it is simply not the primary driver of performance beyond 1080p Low.

The CPU’s percentile ranking of 85 among all CPUs is reflected in its ability to keep up with the RTX 4070. It is not a top-tier chip like a flagship Core i9 or Ryzen 9, but it is more than capable of feeding a mid-range GPU like the RTX 4070, as evidenced by the combo’s rank of 651 out of 2930. The launch MSRP is $246, which positions it as a mid-range option, and its performance in this benchmark shows that it punches above its weight class when paired with a capable GPU.