Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers exceptional frame rates in Doom, ranking first out of 2,930 tested combinations. The data shows a system with immense headroom, where the choice of settings and resolution has a dramatic impact on the final experience. This analysis breaks down the measured performance to provide practical guidance for getting the most out of this hardware.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for this combination reveals a clear hierarchy across the four settings presets, each offering a distinctly different experience. At 4K, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 102 FPS, which is highly playable but leaves performance on the table given the hardware's capability. The High preset at 4K jumps to 125 FPS average, a substantial 22.5% improvement over Ultra, while the Medium preset reaches 148 FPS average, and the Low preset tops out at 170 FPS average. The scaling is consistent, with each step down in settings providing a significant boost in frame rate.

For the best overall experience, the High preset at any resolution represents the sweet spot. It offers a massive improvement over Ultra, with the 4K High score of 125 FPS being 22.5% higher than the Ultra score. At 1440p, High delivers 231 FPS average, which is 22.2% faster than Ultra's 189 FPS. The performance gains from High to Medium are smaller but still notable, with 4K Medium at 148 FPS being 18.4% faster than High, and 1440p Medium at 273 FPS being 18.2% faster than High. The Low preset offers the highest frame rates, but the visual fidelity trade-off is significant for a game like Doom.

Given that the RTX 5090 D is a top-tier GPU, the data suggests that High settings are the optimal choice for this combination. The step from Ultra to High yields the largest relative performance gain, suggesting that the Ultra preset imposes a heavy load that is disproportionate to its visual benefits. The Medium preset is a viable alternative for those seeking even higher frame rates, but the jump from High to Medium is smaller than the jump from Ultra to High, indicating diminishing returns. For competitive play at 1080p, the Low preset at 485 FPS average offers the absolute maximum responsiveness, but most users will find the High preset at 357 FPS to be more than sufficient while providing a much better visual experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the primary driver of the extreme frame rates seen in this benchmark, and its substantial memory and clock specifications are central to its performance. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This massive memory allocation ensures that even at 4K with Ultra settings, the GPU is never bandwidth-limited, allowing it to maintain consistent frame delivery. The core clock runs at a base of 2017 MHz and boosts to 2407 MHz, which, combined with 21,760 shading units, delivers the raw computational power required for high-resolution rendering.

The GPU's compute capabilities are underscored by its FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS, a figure that places it among the most powerful consumer graphics cards available. The data shows that the RTX 5090 D is not the bottleneck at lower resolutions, as frame rates scale dramatically from 4K to 1080p. The GPU's percentile ranking of 92 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712, confirms its position near the top of the performance hierarchy. Its nearest rivals in the average benchmark score are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, which is 1.1% faster, and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, which is 1.6% slower, showing that the 5090 D is in a tightly contested performance tier.

In Doom, the GPU's role is to render the game's fast-paced, detailed environments at high resolutions. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU handles this task with ease, delivering playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra. The transition from Low to Ultra settings at any resolution demonstrates the GPU's scaling behavior, with the performance drop being more pronounced at higher resolutions. The 32 GB of VRAM is a significant asset, ensuring that texture-heavy scenes at 4K do not cause frame drops or stuttering, as the memory pool is more than sufficient for any current game title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases, indicating where the system's bottleneck lies. At 1080p with High settings, the system achieves an average of 357 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the frame rate drops to 231 FPS, a 35.3% decrease. At 4K High, the average falls to 125 FPS, which is a 45.9% further drop from 1440p. This steep decline with increasing resolution is a classic sign that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor at higher pixel counts, while the CPU has ample headroom to feed it frames.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Low settings, 1080p yields 485 FPS, 1440p drops to 314 FPS (a 35.3% decrease), and 4K falls to 170 FPS (a 45.9% drop from 1440p). The relative percentage drops are nearly identical across all settings, which is a strong indicator that the scaling is purely resolution-driven and not settings-dependent. This suggests that the CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265, is not a bottleneck at any resolution, as the frame rate drops are proportional to the pixel count increase.

The data indicates that the RTX 5090 D is the primary limiting component at 4K, as the frame rates at that resolution are significantly lower than at 1080p. At 1080p, the system is likely CPU-limited in some scenes, as the frame rates exceed 400 FPS, which is far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. However, the CPU's performance is sufficient to maintain high frame rates at 1440p, where the 231 FPS average at High settings is still exceptionally smooth. The resolution scaling shows that this combination is best suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at 1440p, where it can fully utilize a 240Hz monitor, while 4K is better paired with a high-refresh-rate panel that supports the 125 FPS average.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination holds the top position in the database for Doom, ranking first out of 2,930 tested combos. This is a definitive statement of this setup's dominance for this specific game. The combination's rank is a result of the GPU's immense power and the CPU's ability to keep up with it, ensuring that neither component becomes a bottleneck in a way that would hamper performance.

This top ranking is particularly notable given the strength of the individual components. The CPU has a percentile ranking of 93 against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 64,640. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 4464P, which scores 64,823 (0.3% faster), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, which scores 64,438 (0.3% slower). The GPU, with a percentile ranking of 92, has an average score of 77,712, with the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT being 1.1% faster and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT being 1.6% slower. The fact that this combo still ranks first suggests that the pairing of these two specific components yields a synergy that is greater than the sum of its parts, likely due to the CPU's robust multi-core performance being able to feed the GPU's high throughput.

The rank of 1 out of 2,930 combos means that no other tested configuration of CPU and GPU was able to achieve higher average frame rates in Doom. This puts this combo at the absolute peak of the performance curve for this game, making it a reference point for what is achievable. For a user, this rank indicates that they are at the top of the performance pyramid, and any frame rate limitations they encounter will be due to the game's engine or their display's refresh rate, not the hardware.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 plays a supporting role in this configuration, but its capabilities are essential for reaching the high frame rates seen in the benchmark. The CPU has 20 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This core configuration is more than sufficient for a game like Doom, which is not heavily multi-threaded. The high boost clock is critical for maintaining high single-thread performance, which is the primary driver of frame rates in most game engines.

The CPU's benchmark scores reflect its strong overall capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 42,216 in the multi-core test and 5,960 in the single-core test. These scores show that while it is a powerful multi-core processor, its single-core performance is what matters most for gaming. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,689 and the PassMark physics score of 2,923 further indicate that the CPU has the per-core strength to avoid becoming a bottleneck, even when the GPU is pushing out hundreds of frames per second.

In the context of this benchmark, the CPU's role is to prepare draw calls and handle game logic, and the data shows that it does so without limiting the GPU. At 1080p with Low settings, the system reaches 485 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game. However, at 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as evidenced by the resolution scaling. The CPU's 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core provide ample fast memory for game data, reducing latency and ensuring smooth frame delivery. Its memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s with DDR5 support is also adequate to keep the CPU's cores fed with data, preventing any stalls that could impact performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset of measured FPS provides a granular look at performance across all settings and resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across the board. The Low preset achieves an average of 485 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate for this combo. The Medium preset averages 422 FPS, with a minimum of 359 FPS and a maximum of 486 FPS. The High preset averages 357 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 292 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 39.8% drop in performance, but even at Ultra, the frame rate is far beyond any display's refresh rate.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains incredibly high. The Low preset averages 314 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 273 FPS, with a minimum of 232 FPS and a maximum of 314 FPS. The High preset averages 231 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 189 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent, with each preset losing about 35% of its frame rate. At this resolution, the system can easily drive a 240Hz monitor at High settings, and even 360Hz at Medium or Low.

At 3840x2160, the performance is still very strong, but the resolution begins to tax the GPU. The Low preset averages 170 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 148 FPS, with a minimum of 126 FPS and a maximum of 170 FPS. The High preset averages 125 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 102 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is again a roughly 46% drop for all presets. At 4K, the High preset is the recommended choice, as it provides a smooth 125 FPS average that is well-suited for a high-refresh-rate 4K display. The Ultra preset, while still playable at 102 FPS, offers diminishing returns in visual fidelity for the significant performance cost.