Doom

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Doom with the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER reveals a clear pattern of resolution-dependent performance scaling. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average frame rate drops from 109 FPS to 70 FPS, a reduction of roughly 36%. The scaling from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 is even more punishing: at High settings, the average falls from 70 FPS to 38 FPS, a 46% decline. This accelerating drop-off as resolution increases is a hallmark of GPU-bound rendering, where the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth become the limiting factors.

At Ultra settings, the trend is steeper still. The average FPS at 1920x1080 is 89, dropping to 58 at 2560x1440, and then collapsing to 31 at 3840x2160. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset, and it falls below the generally accepted 60 FPS threshold by a wide margin. The GTX 1660 SUPER's 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus width are likely contributors here, as 4K Ultra textures and effects place significant pressure on the memory subsystem.

Low settings provide a different perspective. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 148 FPS average, which is the highest score in the entire measured set. At 2560x1440 Low, it still manages 96 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low, it reaches 52 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 59 FPS (148 vs 89), while at 4K that gap narrows to 21 FPS (52 vs 31). This compression at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU's raw compute and memory throughput are being saturated regardless of the visual fidelity settings.

The Medium settings data includes minimum and maximum frame values, which offer insight into frame pacing. At 1920x1080 Medium, the average is 129 FPS with a minimum of 110 and maximum of 148. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average is 83 FPS with a minimum of 71 and maximum of 96. At 3840x2160 Medium, the average is 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 and maximum of 52. The minimum-to-maximum spread in each case is roughly 28-38%, suggesting that the frame time variance does not dramatically worsen at higher resolutions, even as the average drops.

What does this say about the limiting component? The consistent pattern of FPS halving or nearly halving when moving from 1080p to 4K at every settings tier points squarely at the GPU as the bottleneck. The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads are more than sufficient for a 2016-era FPS title at these frame rates; the data shows no signs of CPU-induced stuttering or inconsistent frame delivery at lower resolutions where the CPU would typically be taxed more heavily relative to the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of performance across the four preset levels: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1920x1080, the jump from Low (148 FPS) to Medium (129 FPS) costs 19 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High (109 FPS) costs another 20 FPS, and from High to Ultra (89 FPS) costs 20 more. The step between each preset is nearly uniform at 1080p, which suggests the GPU has headroom to absorb the increased load at each tier.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. Low delivers 96 FPS, Medium drops to 83 FPS, High to 70 FPS, and Ultra to 58 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra is 12 FPS, which is proportionally smaller than the 20 FPS drop at 1080p for the same preset change. This indicates that at 1440p, the GPU is starting to approach its limits, and the additional rendering work from Ultra settings yields diminishing returns relative to the frame rate cost.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more constrained. Low produces 52 FPS, Medium 45 FPS, High 38 FPS, and Ultra 31 FPS. None of these presets achieve the 60 FPS target at 4K. The difference between Low and Ultra is only 21 FPS, meaning the choice of preset has less impact on playability than the choice of resolution itself.

For a smooth experience targeting 60 FPS or higher, the data suggests that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all four presets meet that bar, with Ultra at 89 FPS still providing comfortable headroom. At 2560x1440, Low and Medium both exceed 60 FPS (96 and 83 respectively), High falls just below at 70 FPS, and Ultra drops to 58 FPS, which is borderline. At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS, and even Low falls short at 52 FPS.

The best experience per the measured rows would be 2560x1440 Medium, which delivers 83 FPS average with a minimum of 71 FPS. This combination provides the highest resolution that still maintains a solid frame rate above 60 FPS, with a minimum that never dips below that threshold. For users prioritizing frame rate over resolution, 1920x1080 High at 109 FPS offers a strong balance, while 1920x1080 Ultra at 89 FPS adds visual fidelity without sacrificing playability. At 4K, the data indicates that even Low settings at 52 FPS may feel choppy, and users should consider lowering the resolution rather than the preset.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary determinant of this combo's gaming performance in Doom. Its specifications include 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The GPU clocks run at a base of 1530 MHz with a boost of 1785 MHz, and it houses 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units. The pixel rate is rated at 85.68 GPixel/s and the texture rate at 157.1 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 5.027 TFLOPS.

These specifications place the GTX 1660 SUPER in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 12986. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (avgScore 12940, deltaPct 0.4), the AMD Radeon RX 580 (avgScore 12928, deltaPct 0.4), and the AMD Radeon 740M (avgScore 12870, deltaPct 0.9). The GTX 1660 SUPER sits less than 1% above or below each of these rivals, indicating that its raw compute capabilities are closely matched with a broad tier of mid-range GPUs.

The VRAM capacity of 6 GB is a critical factor in Doom's performance at higher resolutions and settings. The data shows that at 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS falls to 31, which is the lowest measured score. While the GPU's compute throughput is certainly taxed at 4K, the memory subsystem's 336.0 GB/s bandwidth and 6 GB capacity are likely contributing to the steep performance cliff between 1440p and 4K. At 1080p and 1440p, the memory requirements are more manageable, allowing the GPU to maintain higher frame rates.

The GPU's benchmark results across various DirectX versions show a specific pattern: Passmark DirectX 11 scores 104, DirectX 12 scores 50, and DirectX 9 scores 189. Doom is a title that supports Vulkan and OpenGL 4.6, and the GPU's Vulkan score of 57102 in Geekbench suggests it handles modern APIs reasonably well. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1278 is modest, consistent with the GPU's mid-range positioning.

The relationship between clock speed and game performance is evident in the measured FPS data. The boost clock of 1785 MHz allows the GPU to sustain higher throughput in less demanding scenes, which is why the minimum FPS values at Medium settings (110 at 1080p, 71 at 1440p, 38 at 4K) stay relatively close to the average. The GPU's thermal and power constraints, rated at a TDP of 125 W, do not appear to cause severe throttling in this title, as the frame pacing remains consistent.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER holds a combo rank of 2497 out of 2930 tested combos in Doom. This places the combo in the bottom 15% of all tested configurations, which is a notable finding given the CPU's strong synthetic performance. The CPU itself ranks in the 90th percentile of all processors with an average benchmark score of 48995, while the GPU sits at the 53rd percentile with an average score of 12986. This disparity—a high-performing CPU paired with a mid-range GPU—explains the combo's overall low ranking in this GPU-intensive title.

The combo's rank of 2497 out of 2930 means that 433 other tested combos performed worse, but the vast majority of configurations (over 85%) delivered higher frame rates in Doom. This is not surprising given the GPU's age and market positioning; the GTX 1660 SUPER was released in 2019 and is now end-of-life, while Doom is a well-optimized title that scales strongly with GPU capability.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (avgScore 49196, deltaPct -0.4), the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (avgScore 49228, deltaPct -0.5), the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (avgScore 48698, deltaPct 0.6), and the Intel Core i5-14600K (avgScore 48618, deltaPct 0.8). These deltas are all within 1% of the Core Ultra 5 245's score, indicating that the CPU's processing power is comparable to a wide range of modern and previous-generation parts.

In the context of Doom, however, the CPU's synthetic strength does not translate into a high combo ranking. The game's frame rates at 1080p High (109 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (89 FPS) are respectable, but they are not exceptional compared to what higher-end GPUs would achieve with the same CPU. The data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield substantial gains in this title, while the CPU would not be a limiting factor until frame rates far exceed what the GTX 1660 SUPER can deliver.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process node by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, and it connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 245 demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 32924, R20 multicore scores 13828, and R15 multicore scores 3318. Single-thread scores are equally robust, with R23 single-core at 4648 and R20 single-core at 1952. Passmark tests show a multithread score of 38706 and a single-thread score of 4394. The CPU's average benchmark score of 48995 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs.

In Doom, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with enough draw calls and physics calculations to maintain high frame rates. The measured data shows that at 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 148 FPS average, which is the highest score in the dataset. This high frame rate at low settings indicates that the CPU is capable of driving the game engine well beyond the GPU's limits in less demanding scenarios. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau at a similar level across different resolutions or settings, but the data shows a clear decline as resolution increases.

The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads are overkill for a game like Doom, which was designed to run on much older and less capable hardware. The lack of hyperthreading (14 threads for 14 cores) is not a disadvantage in this title, as the game's engine typically uses fewer than 8 threads effectively. The boost clock of 5.10 GHz provides ample single-thread performance for the game's main game logic and rendering thread.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and dual-channel DDR5 support ensure that the GPU has access to system memory without contention. However, the GTX 1660 SUPER's own 6 GB of GDDR6 memory is sufficient for Doom's texture data at 1080p and 1440p, so the CPU's memory subsystem is unlikely to be a limiting factor in this configuration.

Comparing the CPU to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 245 is nearly identical in average score to the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (deltaPct -0.4), AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (deltaPct -0.5), Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (deltaPct 0.6), and Intel Core i5-14600K (deltaPct 0.8). This suggests that any of these CPUs would produce similar frame rates in Doom when paired with the same GTX 1660 SUPER, further confirming that the GPU is the performance bottleneck.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this combo in Doom?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 148, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 2560x1440 resolution?

A: Yes, at 2560x1440, Low settings deliver 96 FPS and Medium settings deliver 83 FPS, both above 60 FPS. High settings drop to 70 FPS, and Ultra falls to 58 FPS.

Q: What is the lowest measured average FPS for this combo?

A: The lowest average FPS is 31, measured at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: How does the CPU's synthetic performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48995, which is within 1% of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196), AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228), Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698), and Intel Core i5-14600K (48618).

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested configurations in Doom?

A: The combo ranks 2497 out of 2930 tested combos, placing it in the lower portion of the performance distribution.

Q: Does the GPU's benchmark percentile indicate its relative performance?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER sits in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 12986, closely matching the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12940), RX 580 (12928), Tesla M2090 (13075), and Radeon 740M (12870).

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: average 148 FPS
• Medium: average 129 FPS, minimum 110 FPS, maximum 148 FPS
• High: average 109 FPS
• Ultra: average 89 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: average 96 FPS
• Medium: average 83 FPS, minimum 71 FPS, maximum 96 FPS
• High: average 70 FPS
• Ultra: average 58 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: average 52 FPS
• Medium: average 45 FPS, minimum 38 FPS, maximum 52 FPS
• High: average 38 FPS
• Ultra: average 31 FPS

The complete dataset shows a monotonic decrease in average FPS as both resolution and settings increase. The Medium settings rows are the only ones with recorded minimum and maximum values, providing frame pacing data: at 1080p, the frame range is 110-148; at 1440p, it is 71-96; and at 4K, it is 38-52. The minimum FPS values at each resolution are approximately 85% of the average, indicating generally consistent frame delivery without severe drops. The maximum FPS values align closely with the Low settings averages at each resolution, suggesting that the GPU can reach its peak throughput in less demanding scenes even at Medium settings.