Doom

# Doom: Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a formidable Doom experience, with measured frame rates that range from a 4K Ultra average of 74 FPS to a 1080p Low average of 349 FPS. This combination sits at rank 448 out of 2,930 tested combos in this title, placing it comfortably in the top 15% of all configurations. The data shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but reveals interesting scaling characteristics as resolution drops, suggesting the 10-core, 10-thread Arrow Lake processor has ample headroom to feed the AD104-based graphics card.

Resolution Scaling

The performance trajectory from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable curve, but the magnitude of the drop varies significantly depending on the quality preset. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 257 FPS at 1080p to 166 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 91 FPS, and then to 90 FPS at 4K, which represents a 65% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline is typical of a GPU-limited scenario, where the RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are increasingly strained by the pixel count.

Low settings tell a different story. The 1080p Low average of 349 FPS drops to 226 FPS at 1440p and further to 123 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K here is approximately 65%, nearly identical to the High preset's scaling. However, the absolute headroom at 1080p Low—349 FPS—suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor, as even the most demanding scenes would struggle to push the Core Ultra 5 225 beyond its capabilities given its 4.90 GHz boost clock.

Medium settings provide the most complete data set, with minimum and maximum frame rates recorded at every resolution. At 1080p, the Medium preset averages 304 FPS with a min of 259 and max of 350. Moving to 1440p, the average drops to 197 FPS (min 167, max 227), and at 4K it falls to 107 FPS (min 91, max 123). The consistency of the min-to-max spread—roughly 30 FPS at each resolution—indicates stable frame pacing with no severe hitches, a hallmark of a well-matched CPU-GPU pairing in this Vulkan-based title.

The Ultra preset reveals the most dramatic scaling, with averages of 210 FPS at 1080p, 136 FPS at 1440p, and just 74 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the only configuration that dips below the 90 FPS threshold, suggesting that the highest quality settings at 4K push the RTX 4070 SUPER to its practical limit in Doom. Interestingly, the gap between Ultra and High widens as resolution increases: a 47 FPS difference at 1080p (210 vs 257), a 30 FPS difference at 1440p (136 vs 166), and a 16 FPS difference at 4K (74 vs 90). This narrowing gap indicates that at 4K, the GPU's shading units and texture units are saturated regardless of preset, making the difference between High and Ultra less impactful.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 SUPER, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, brings 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines to the table. Its boost clock of 2,475 MHz and base clock of 1,980 MHz provide the raw compute throughput needed for Doom's fast-paced rendering, while the 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores offer headroom for future titles, even though Doom's original 2016 release predates widespread ray tracing adoption.

Memory configuration is a critical factor in this game's results. The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for all tested presets, including 4K Ultra. The measured data shows no signs of texture thrashing or memory-related stuttering, as evidenced by the consistent min FPS values at Medium settings. The 21 Gbps effective memory clock is particularly well-suited to Doom's texture-heavy environments, where large, detailed surfaces require rapid data streaming.

The GPU's 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is substantial for a card in this class, and the measured results confirm that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary performance driver in Doom. At 1080p High, the 257 FPS average demonstrates that the card is not fully taxed, leaving room for higher refresh rate displays. However, the 4K Ultra result of 74 FPS indicates that the GPU's pixel throughput—rated at 198.0 GPixel/s—is the bottleneck at that resolution. The texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s is also a contributing factor, as Doom's detailed environments require aggressive texture filtering at higher resolutions.

Comparing to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the RTX 4070 SUPER's average benchmark score of 43,223 places it just 0.1% behind the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43,262) and 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (43,268). The RTX 4090 Mobile, with a score of 43,667, is only 1% faster in aggregate benchmarks, yet the desktop card's dedicated 220 W TDP and dual-slot cooler allow it to sustain boost clocks more consistently in gaming workloads like Doom.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 304 FPS average with a minimum of 259 FPS, ensuring that even the most chaotic combat sequences remain well above any display's refresh rate. At 1440p, the 197 FPS average (min 167 FPS) keeps gameplay exceptionally smooth on high-refresh monitors, while at 4K, the 107 FPS average (min 91 FPS) stays above the 90 FPS threshold, providing a responsive experience on standard 60 Hz displays with ample headroom for G-Sync.

The High preset is a viable alternative for users prioritizing image quality over raw frame rates. At 1080p, High averages 257 FPS, which is still exceptionally fast, and at 1440p it maintains 166 FPS. However, at 4K, High drops to 90 FPS average, which is exactly at the threshold where some users may notice minor frame pacing issues on 120 Hz displays. The data suggests that High is the best choice for 1440p gaming, where the visual uplift over Medium is noticeable but the performance cost (29 FPS average difference) is acceptable.

Ultra settings are only recommended for 1080p or 1440p use. At 1080p, Ultra's 210 FPS average remains highly playable, and at 1440p, the 136 FPS average still provides a smooth experience. However, at 4K, Ultra's 74 FPS average falls below the 90 FPS mark, making it unsuitable for competitive play or fast-paced action. The 16 FPS difference between High and Ultra at 4K (90 vs 74) is not worth the visual gain, given that Doom's Ultra preset primarily increases shadow quality and texture filtering, which are less noticeable at high pixel densities.

Low settings, while delivering 349 FPS at 1080p and 123 FPS at 4K, sacrifice too much visual quality for the marginal performance gain over Medium. The 45 FPS difference between Low and Medium at 1080p (349 vs 304) is unlikely to be perceptible on most displays, whereas the visual downgrade is immediately apparent. For 4K gaming, Low's 123 FPS average is enticing for esports-style play, but the reduced draw distances and simplified lighting detract from Doom's atmospheric presentation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Core Ultra 5 225 and RTX 4070 SUPER combination produces exceptional results across all presets. Low settings yield an average of 349 FPS, Medium averages 304 FPS with a minimum of 259 and maximum of 350, High averages 257 FPS, and Ultra averages 210 FPS. The 139 FPS spread between Low and Ultra (349 vs 210) demonstrates that the GPU has significant headroom even at the highest quality settings, with the CPU's 10 cores and 10 threads never becoming a bottleneck at this resolution.

The 2560x1440 results show a clear step down but remain highly playable. Low averages 226 FPS, Medium averages 197 FPS (min 167, max 227), High averages 166 FPS, and Ultra averages 136 FPS. The minimum frame rate of 167 FPS at Medium settings is particularly noteworthy, as it indicates that even the most demanding scenes—likely involving multiple demons and particle effects—stay well above the 144 Hz refresh rate that many 1440p monitors offer.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals the GPU's limits. Low settings average 123 FPS, Medium averages 107 FPS (min 91, max 123), High averages 90 FPS, and Ultra averages 74 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 91 FPS is the closest any configuration comes to dropping below playable thresholds, and it still maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset's 74 FPS average, while technically playable, shows that the RTX 4070 SUPER is working at full capacity, with the 2,475 MHz boost clock likely fluctuating under sustained load.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 448 out of 2,930 tested configurations places this pairing in the 84.7th percentile among all tested systems in Doom. This ranking is particularly impressive given that the database includes combinations with significantly more expensive CPUs and GPUs. The RTX 4070 SUPER's percentile of 83 among all GPUs aligns closely with the combo's overall ranking, suggesting that the graphics card is the primary determinant of performance in this title.

The Core Ultra 5 225's percentile of 85 among all CPUs is slightly higher than the combo's rank, indicating that the processor has more headroom than the GPU is currently utilizing. This is consistent with the resolution scaling analysis, which showed the GPU becoming the limiting factor at 1440p and 4K. The CPU's nearest rivals—the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (0% delta), AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (-0.2%), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (-0.4%), and Intel Core i9-12900T (-0.5%)—all perform within 0.5% of each other in aggregate benchmarks, yet the Core Ultra 5 225's combination with the RTX 4070 SUPER delivers frame rates that are competitive with systems featuring higher-end CPUs.

In the context of Doom specifically, this combo's rank of 448 suggests that it outperforms approximately 85% of tested systems, many of which may feature GPUs with larger memory pools or higher boost clocks. The 12 GB VRAM capacity proves adequate for Doom's requirements, and the 192-bit memory bus, while narrower than some competitors, does not appear to hinder performance given the game's optimization for Vulkan.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225, based on the Arrow Lake-S architecture and manufactured on TSMC's 3 nm process, provides the computational foundation for this system. Its 10 cores and 10 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz, deliver strong single-thread performance that is critical for Doom's game logic and physics calculations. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache, combined with 3 MB of L2 cache per core, ensures that frequently accessed game data remains close to the processing units.

The CPU's benchmarks reinforce its capability in gaming workloads. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,655 and multi-core score of 25,891 indicate balanced performance, while the PassMark single-thread score of 4,412 places it in the upper echelon of desktop processors. The 4.90 GHz boost clock is particularly relevant for Doom, which relies heavily on a limited number of threads for its core simulation, and the 10 threads available are more than sufficient for this 2016 title.

The memory subsystem plays a supporting role in the measured results. The dual-channel DDR5 support, with a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, provides adequate data throughput to feed the RTX 4070 SUPER. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 CPU lanes ensures that the GPU can communicate with the processor without bandwidth constraints, although the RTX 4070 SUPER's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface means that the system operates at Gen 4 speeds in practice.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and 3 nm process node contribute to thermal efficiency, allowing the processor to maintain boost clocks during extended gaming sessions without throttling. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 16EU, while not used for gaming in this configuration, provides a fallback for basic display output. In Doom, the CPU's role is clearly secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the 349 FPS at 1080p Low versus 74 FPS at 4K Ultra—the 275 FPS difference is almost entirely attributable to GPU load rather than CPU limitations. The data confirms that the Core Ultra 5 225 is a capable partner for the RTX 4070 SUPER, with no evidence of CPU-induced frame drops in any tested configuration.