Doom

# Doom with Intel Core Ultra 5 245 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER

This pairing of Intel's Arrow Lake Ultra 5 245 with NVIDIA's Turing-era RTX 2060 SUPER produces a fascinating split personality in Doom, a 2016 FPS that remains demanding at high resolutions. The measured frame rates reveal a system that is clearly GPU-bound at 4K, but at 1080p the CPU begins to flex its muscles, producing a range of 115 to 192 FPS depending on settings. The data suggests this combo is capable of excellent 1080p and 1440p play, while 4K Ultra is a stretch, with the RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth becoming the primary constraint.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling pattern tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average frame rate drops from 141 FPS to 91 FPS, a 35.5% reduction. Continuing to 3840x2160 at High, the average falls further to 50 FPS, representing another 45.1% drop from 1440p. This steep degradation as resolution climbs is the classic signature of a GPU-limited scenario — the RTX 2060 SUPER's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are being saturated.

The Low settings tier shows an even more pronounced scaling curve. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 192 FPS, which drops to 124 FPS at 1440p (a 35.4% reduction) and then to 67 FPS at 4K (a 46.0% drop from 1440p). The fact that the percentage drops are similar between High and Low settings at each resolution step (around 35% from 1080p to 1440p, and around 45-46% from 1440p to 4K) indicates that the GPU is the limiting component even when settings are lowered. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see the gap between resolutions narrow at lower settings, as the GPU would have more headroom — but that is not what the data shows.

Interestingly, the Medium settings tier provides the only complete min/max data in the measured set. At 1080p Medium, the average is 167 FPS with a minimum of 142 and maximum of 192. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 108 FPS with a range of 92 to 125. At 4K Medium, the average is 59 FPS with a range of 50 to 67. The minimum-to-maximum spread of roughly 25-30 FPS at each resolution suggests consistent frame pacing without severe stutters, though the 4K Medium minimum of 50 FPS is noticeably close to the average, indicating the GPU is working hard to maintain frame delivery.

The overall pattern implies that this system is not CPU-limited at any resolution in Doom. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245, with its 14 cores and 14 threads, has substantial headroom even at 1080p where frame rates reach nearly 200 FPS. The scaling behavior points squarely at the RTX 2060 SUPER as the performance ceiling, particularly at 4K where even Low settings only produce 67 FPS.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the TU106 chip using a 12 nm process, with 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die. Its memory configuration consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock runs at 1470 MHz with a boost clock of 1650 MHz, and the card's compute capabilities include 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The FP32 throughput is 7.181 TFLOPS, with a pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Doom at 1080p and 1440p across all settings, but at 4K Ultra the combination of high-resolution textures and advanced effects may be pushing against memory limits. The measured 4K Ultra average of 40 FPS is the lowest in the entire dataset, and this is consistent with a GPU that is both bandwidth-constrained and potentially VRAM-limited at that resolution. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is a significant factor here — 4K rendering requires fetching substantially more texture data per frame, and the memory subsystem becomes a critical bottleneck.

Looking at the GPU's benchmark scores provides context for its performance tier. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 2011, and the PassMark G3D score is 16462, with a percentile of 62 against all GPUs. The nearest rivals in the data are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (avgScore 18159, deltaPct -0.4), AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (avgScore 18189, deltaPct -0.5), AMD Radeon RX 460 (avgScore 18373, deltaPct -1.5), and Intel Arc A770M (avgScore 18383, deltaPct -1.6). The RTX 2060 SUPER's average benchmark score of 18093 places it essentially on par with these competitors, differing by less than 2% in either direction.

In Doom specifically, the GPU's role as the primary performance limiter is evident from the resolution scaling analysis. The fact that the RTX 2060 SUPER is a dual-slot card with a 175 W TDP and requires a 450 W suggested PSU indicates it is a mid-range performer from its generation, and the measured FPS results in Doom reflect that positioning — capable of high refresh rates at 1080p and solid 1440p performance, but struggling to maintain 60 FPS at 4K except on Low settings.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 represents a modern Arrow Lake-S architecture design, manufactured on TSMC's 3 nm process with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. It features 14 cores and 14 threads — notably, it has no hyperthreading, meaning the core count equals thread count. The base clock is 3.50 GHz with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, and the cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 102.4 GB/s bandwidth, and the CPU includes integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 execution units.

In Doom, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates. The measured FPS data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the system reaches 192 FPS average, the CPU is not presenting a bottleneck — otherwise we would see the frame rate plateau regardless of resolution or settings. The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce this capability: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and single-core of 4648, with a PassMark single-thread score of 4394. The R23 single-core score is particularly relevant for gaming, as Doom's engine relies heavily on a few main threads.

The Core Ultra 5 245 achieves a 90th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48995. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (avgScore 49196, deltaPct -0.4), AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (avgScore 49228, deltaPct -0.5), Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (avgScore 48698, deltaPct 0.6), and Intel Core i5-14600K (avgScore 48618, deltaPct 0.8). These deltas are all within 1% of the Ultra 5 245's score, indicating that this CPU is competitively positioned in its performance class.

The boost clock of 5.10 GHz is particularly relevant for Doom's frame generation at high FPS levels. At 1080p, the system achieves 141 FPS at High and 192 FPS at Low, and these high frame rates place significant demand on the CPU to process and submit frames. The fact that the CPU can sustain these rates without causing the FPS to plateau suggests that its single-thread performance is more than adequate for this game. The 14 cores provide ample multi-threaded headroom for background tasks and the game's parallel workloads, though Doom is not known for scaling heavily across many cores.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 2056 out of 2930 tested combos in Doom, placing it at approximately the 70th percentile of all tested systems. This rank reflects the complete system performance, accounting for both CPU and GPU contributions. Given that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing, the rank is likely driven primarily by the RTX 2060 SUPER's performance level, with the CPU contributing positively but not being the determining factor.

The CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all processors suggests that the processor itself is well above average, but the GPU's 62nd percentile ranking pulls the overall combo down. This creates an interesting imbalance — the Ultra 5 245 has substantially more compute headroom than the RTX 2060 SUPER can utilize in Doom. The data implies that pairing this CPU with a stronger GPU would yield significantly better frame rates, particularly at 4K where the GPU is clearly the bottleneck.

The combo rank of 2056 out of 2930 means that roughly 874 tested combinations (about 30%) perform better in Doom. This positions the system in the upper-middle tier of tested hardware, which aligns with the measured FPS results: excellent 1080p performance, good 1440p performance, and playable-but-not-ideal 4K performance. The rank also suggests that many combinations with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs would outperform this pairing in Doom, given the game's GPU-intensive nature at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The complete measured FPS dataset provides a comprehensive picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings tiers. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 192 FPS at Low, 167 FPS at Medium, 141 FPS at High, and 115 FPS at Ultra. The Medium setting shows a minimum of 142 FPS and maximum of 192 FPS, matching the Low average exactly as the ceiling. At 2560x1440, the averages are 124 FPS at Low, 108 FPS at Medium, 91 FPS at High, and 75 FPS at Ultra. The Medium setting at 1440p shows a range of 92 to 125 FPS. At 3840x2160, the averages drop to 67 FPS at Low, 59 FPS at Medium, 50 FPS at High, and 40 FPS at Ultra. The Medium setting at 4K has a minimum of 50 FPS and maximum of 67 FPS.

The performance delta between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution reveals the cost of quality. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 77 FPS (192 vs 115), a 40.1% reduction. At 1440p, the gap is 49 FPS (124 vs 75), a 39.5% reduction. At 4K, the difference is 27 FPS (67 vs 40), a 40.3% reduction. The consistency of this percentage across resolutions suggests that the settings impact scales uniformly regardless of resolution, which is typical of GPU-bound scenarios where the same relative workload increase applies at each pixel count.

The progression from Medium to High settings costs approximately 26 FPS at 1080p (167 to 141), 17 FPS at 1440p (108 to 91), and 9 FPS at 4K (59 to 50). Similarly, moving from High to Ultra costs 26 FPS at 1080p (141 to 115), 16 FPS at 1440p (91 to 75), and 10 FPS at 4K (50 to 40). These consistent incremental drops indicate that each settings tier adds a predictable performance burden, with no single tier causing a disproportionate FPS collapse.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, all settings tiers are playable, but the data suggests that High settings at 141 FPS provides the best balance of visual quality and performance for most players. The jump from High to Ultra costs 26 FPS (141 to 115), which may be noticeable on high-refresh-rate monitors, while the visual improvement may not justify the frame rate loss. For competitive play, Low settings at 192 FPS offers the maximum frame rate, though the visual trade-offs are significant.

At 2560x1440, the High setting at 91 FPS is the recommended choice for a smooth experience, as it stays above the 90 FPS threshold that many players consider optimal for fast-paced FPS action. The Medium setting at 108 FPS provides additional headroom and is also an excellent option, particularly if the 16 FPS difference (108 vs 91) matters more than the visual quality improvement. Ultra at 75 FPS is playable but may feel less responsive, and Low at 124 FPS is viable for players prioritizing frame rate above all else.

At 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. The Medium setting at 59 FPS is the only tier that comes close to 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 4K play. The High setting drops to 50 FPS, which is still playable but noticeably less smooth, and Ultra at 40 FPS falls below the threshold for comfortable FPS gaming. Low at 67 FPS provides the highest frame rate at 4K but sacrifices significant visual quality. For the best overall 4K experience, Medium settings at 59 FPS represents the sweet spot where the system can maintain near-60 FPS performance while retaining reasonable visual fidelity.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Doom at 4K with smooth performance?

A: At 4K, the system achieves 67 FPS on Low settings, 59 FPS on Medium, 50 FPS on High, and 40 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset at 59 FPS is the closest to a smooth 60 FPS experience, while Ultra falls well below acceptable levels for fast-paced FPS gameplay.

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play with this hardware?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 192 FPS, which is the maximum frame rate in the measured data. For a balance of visuals and speed, 1080p High at 141 FPS is recommended, as it maintains a high refresh rate while providing better image quality.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 18093, placing it within 1.6% of its nearest rivals: the RTX 3060 Mobile (18159, -0.4%), Radeon Pro 5700 (18189, -0.5%), Radeon RX 460 (18373, -1.5%), and Arc A770M (18383, -1.6%). Its 62nd percentile ranking indicates mid-tier performance among all GPUs.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this system for Doom?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting component. Resolution scaling shows consistent FPS drops of approximately 35-46% when moving from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, regardless of settings. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking and high single-thread scores suggest it has ample headroom, with the RTX 2060 SUPER's 62nd percentile ranking being the performance ceiling.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 91 FPS. This is the second-highest settings tier at this resolution, with Medium at 108 FPS, Low at 124 FPS, and Ultra at 75 FPS.

Q: Does the Medium settings tier show consistent frame pacing?

A: Yes, the Medium tier is the only one with complete min/max data. At 1080p, it ranges from 142 to 192 FPS (average 167); at 1440p, from 92 to 125 FPS (average 108); and at 4K, from 50 to 67 FPS (average 59). These ranges indicate generally stable performance without major stutters.