Doom

Doom’s 2016 engine is famously scalable, and the measured results for the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti confirm that scaling holds up across the board. At 1080p, the combination is heavily CPU-bound at lower presets, with the GPU taking over as the primary limiter as resolution climbs to 4K. The data paints a clear picture: this is a high-refresh 1440p machine and a very capable 4K performer when settings are tuned correctly.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but predictable, and it tells the usual story of a GPU that starts to strain at higher pixel counts. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 271 FPS at 1920x1080 to 176 FPS at 2560x1440, then down to 95 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 65% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, which is a significant hit but still leaves the game very playable. The progression is not linear; the jump from 1440p to 4K costs 81 FPS, while the jump from 1080p to 1440p costs 95 FPS. This suggests that the GPU is hitting a bandwidth or fill-rate wall at 4K, even at the lowest settings.

Moving to High settings, the pattern repeats but with lower absolute numbers. The average frame rate at 1080p High is 200 FPS, which drops to 129 FPS at 1440p and then to 70 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is roughly 46%, which is slightly less severe than the Low preset drop of 46% as well, but the absolute loss of 59 FPS is substantial. The 4K High result of 70 FPS is still above the 60 FPS threshold, but it leaves little headroom for demanding scenes.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend, with averages of 236 FPS at 1080p, 153 FPS at 1440p, and 83 FPS at 4K. The minimum frame rate at 4K Medium is 70 FPS, which is identical to the average at 4K High. This indicates that the Medium preset is not just about a higher average; it also provides a more stable frame time floor at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 163 FPS at 1080p, 106 FPS at 1440p, and only 57 FPS at 4K. That 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration that dips below 60 FPS, marking it as the threshold for this hardware combo.

The overall scaling behavior shows that the RTX 3070 Ti has enough raw power to handle 1440p with ease, but the gap between 1440p and 4K is where the 8 GB frame buffer and the 256-bit memory bus start to show their limits. At 1080p, the CPU is clearly the bottleneck at Low and Medium presets, as the frame rates of 271 and 236 FPS are far beyond what the GPU can typically sustain. At 4K, the GPU is the definitive limiter, and the CPU has plenty of headroom.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, and its specifications directly explain the measured performance. The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K results suggest that the 8 GB capacity is a limiting factor at Ultra settings, where texture data can exceed the available frame buffer. The boost clock of 1770 MHz and the base clock of 1575 MHz are standard for this class, and the 6144 shading units do the heavy lifting for rasterization.

The GPU’s performance percentile is 75, meaning it sits above the median of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 29945 places it in direct competition with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (0.1% faster) and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (0.5% faster). In Doom, this translates to the measured frame rates. The 4K High average of 70 FPS is a solid result, but the jump to Ultra costs 13 FPS, bringing it down to 57 FPS. This drop is more than just a clock speed issue; it is a memory capacity and bandwidth problem. The 8 GB frame buffer is likely spilling over at 4K Ultra, causing the GPU to rely on slower memory operations.

The RTX 3070 Ti’s 192 texture mapping units and 96 raster output pipelines are well-balanced for this game. The pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s are high enough to handle 1440p High without breaking a sweat, as evidenced by the 129 FPS average. The FP32 performance of 21.75 TFLOPS is also more than adequate for Doom’s Vulkan and OpenGL rendering paths. However, the 4K results indicate that the GPU is not just compute-bound but also memory-bound. The 95 FPS at 4K Low versus 70 FPS at 4K High shows that lowering texture quality and shadow detail can free up memory bandwidth and improve frame rates significantly.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database—the RTX 5070 Mobile and the RX 6800—are all within 1.6% of each other in average score, which means this performance class is tightly packed. In Doom, the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB memory is a slight disadvantage compared to the 16 GB RX 6800, but the measured data does not show a massive gap. The 4K Ultra result of 57 FPS is the weakest point, but it is still within striking distance of 60 FPS, and a small reduction in shadow quality would likely push it over.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Doom at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but not at the highest settings. The measured data shows 70 FPS at 4K High and 83 FPS at 4K Medium, which are both above the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K Ultra preset drops to 57 FPS, which is below that threshold and may feel less smooth.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combo?

A: 2560x1440 is the sweet spot. At High settings, the average frame rate is 129 FPS, and at Ultra it is 106 FPS. Both are well above 100 FPS, providing a smooth experience for fast-paced FPS gameplay. The 1080p results are higher, but the CPU becomes a bottleneck at lower presets.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1440p to 4K?

A: On High settings, the average frame rate drops from 129 FPS at 1440p to 70 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 59 FPS or roughly 46%. On Ultra settings, the drop is from 106 FPS to 57 FPS, a reduction of 49 FPS or approximately 46%.

Q: Is the 8 GB of VRAM on the RTX 3070 Ti enough for Doom?

A: The data suggests it is sufficient at 1080p and 1440p, where the frame rates are high. At 4K Ultra, the 57 FPS average is likely impacted by VRAM capacity, as reducing to High settings (70 FPS) or Medium (83 FPS) improves performance significantly.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46062, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030) and 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098). It also outperforms the AMD EPYC 4364P (45970) by 0.2%.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average is 163 FPS at 1080p Ultra. This is lower than the Medium preset (236 FPS) and Low preset (271 FPS), but it is still high enough for a 144Hz monitor.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience. The 4K Ultra preset is the only configuration that fails to reach 60 FPS, with an average of 57 FPS. Dropping to High settings at 4K yields a 13 FPS improvement to 70 FPS, which is a significant gain for a single preset step down. The Medium preset at 4K offers 83 FPS and a minimum frame rate of 70 FPS, which is the same as the High average, indicating better frame pacing. For 4K, the best balance of visual quality and performance is the High preset, as it maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while avoiding the visual downgrades of Medium.

At 1440p, the Ultra preset delivers 106 FPS, which is more than enough for a high-refresh monitor. The High preset at 129 FPS is also excellent, and the difference between the two is likely only visible in fine texture detail. For players with a 144Hz monitor, the High preset is the better choice, as it provides a larger buffer above the refresh rate. The Medium preset at 153 FPS is also viable, but the visual quality drop is more noticeable than the frame rate gain over High. The Low preset at 176 FPS is unnecessary unless chasing maximum competitive frame rates.

At 1080p, the CPU is the bottleneck at lower presets, with the Low preset hitting 271 FPS and Medium hitting 236 FPS. The Ultra preset at 163 FPS is the most balanced, as it provides high visual quality without sacrificing the frame rate. The High preset at 200 FPS is also a strong choice. Given that the CPU is limiting performance at these settings, there is no benefit to lowering the preset below High for most players, as the GPU has headroom to spare. The recommended settings for the best overall experience are 1440p High, which offers a 129 FPS average and a great balance of image quality and speed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 271 FPS, which is the highest measured result in this dataset. The Medium preset averages 236 FPS, with a minimum of 201 FPS and a maximum of 272 FPS. The High preset drops to 200 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 163 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 108 FPS, showing a wide range of performance depending on the visual quality setting.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 176 FPS, which is a 95 FPS drop from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 153 FPS, with a minimum of 130 FPS and a maximum of 176 FPS. The High preset averages 129 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 106 FPS. The performance gap between Low and Ultra is 70 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a factor.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 95 FPS, which is a 81 FPS drop from the 1440p Low result. The Medium preset averages 83 FPS, with a minimum of 70 FPS and a maximum of 95 FPS. The High preset averages 70 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 57 FPS. The total spread from Low to Ultra is 38 FPS, which is the smallest of all resolutions, confirming that the GPU is the primary limiter at 4K.

The Medium preset is the only one with reported minimum and maximum frame rates across all resolutions. At 1080p, the minimum is 201 FPS and the maximum is 272 FPS, a spread of 71 FPS. At 1440p, the minimum is 130 FPS and the maximum is 176 FPS, a spread of 46 FPS. At 4K, the minimum is 70 FPS and the maximum is 95 FPS, a spread of 25 FPS. This tightening of the frame rate range as resolution increases is further evidence that the GPU is the bottleneck at higher pixel counts.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The L3 cache is 24 MB shared, and the memory support is dual-channel DDR5 with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14769 and a single-core score of 2085. The Passmark single-thread score is 4516, and the multithread score is 37816.

In Doom, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p with lower settings. The jump from 200 FPS at High to 271 FPS at Low is a 71 FPS increase, which is far larger than the GPU’s performance delta would suggest. This indicates that at 1080p Low, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU more frames than the GPU can render, but at High settings, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The single-core performance of 2085 in Cinebench R23 is crucial for Doom’s game engine, which relies heavily on a few threads for game logic and draw calls. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz helps ensure that these threads are processed quickly.

The CPU’s percentile versus all CPUs is 89, placing it in the top 11% of all processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and the Intel Core i9-13900HX, with delta percentages of 0.1% and -0.1% respectively. This means the Ultra 5 235 is essentially performance-equivalent to those parts in general benchmarks. In Doom, this translates to a CPU that does not bottleneck the RTX 3070 Ti at 1440p or 4K, as the frame rates are consistently GPU-limited. The 14 cores and 14 threads are more than enough for this game, and the 24 MB L3 cache helps with data locality.

The CPU’s integrated graphics are an Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 24EU, which are not relevant for gaming with a discrete GPU but are useful for troubleshooting. The CPU supports PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes, which is more than sufficient for the RTX 3070 Ti’s PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth is also adequate for Doom, as the game does not require extreme memory throughput. Overall, the Ultra 5 235 is a strong pairing for the RTX 3070 Ti, providing enough single-thread performance for high frame rates at 1080p and enough multicore performance for any background tasks. The measured data shows that the CPU is the limiting factor only at 1080p Low and Medium, where frame rates exceed 236 FPS.