Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the Intel Arc B390 produces a highly constrained gaming experience in Doom, with the benchmark data indicating that the integrated graphics solution is the definitive bottleneck across all tested resolutions and settings. The measured frame rates place this combo in the lower tier of tested configurations, and the data suggests that only the lowest graphical presets provide a playable experience, and only at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Doom reveals a clear hierarchy where the choice of settings preset is the primary determinant of playability. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 107 FPS, which is the only configuration that approaches the 100 FPS threshold often considered ideal for a fast-paced FPS. The Medium preset at the same resolution delivers 93 FPS, which remains a viable option for those seeking a balance between visual fidelity and performance, though it sacrifices 14 FPS compared to Low. The High preset drops to 78 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 64 FPS, indicating a steep performance cost for higher visual quality.

Based on the data, the Low preset at 1080p provides the best experience for this combo, as it is the only setting that yields frame rates high enough to fully support the game's fast-paced action without significant compromise. The Medium preset at 1080p is the recommended alternative if visual quality is prioritized, as the 93 FPS average still provides a smooth experience. At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 69 FPS, which is playable but less fluid, while the High and Medium presets deliver 51 FPS and 60 FPS respectively, making them less suitable for competitive play. All presets at 3840x2160 produce averages below 40 FPS, rendering the game effectively unplayable at that resolution regardless of settings. The data strongly suggests that users should stay at 1080p with Low or Medium settings to maintain a reasonable frame rate.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, and its specifications clearly explain the measured performance limits in Doom. The GPU operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with a TDP of 80 W. Its memory configuration is entirely system-dependent, as it uses "System Shared" memory with a "System Dependent" bandwidth, meaning it relies on the CPU's DDR5 memory bus rather than dedicated VRAM. This shared memory arrangement is a fundamental constraint, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth, which is particularly detrimental in a demanding game like Doom.

The GPU's raw compute specifications further contextualize the results. It features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 24 raster output units (ROPs), with a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is rated at 7.680 TFLOPS. These numbers place the Arc B390 in a very low performance bracket, as evidenced by its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482, which sits at the 9th percentile of all GPUs. The benchmark data shows that this GPU's performance is closely matched with legacy NVIDIA parts, such as the GeForce GT 520MX, which trails by 1.3%, and the GeForce GT 710, which trails by 2.7%. This comparison underscores that the Arc B390's capabilities are akin to entry-level discrete GPUs from over a decade ago, making high-resolution or high-settings gaming an unrealistic expectation.

The GPU's clock speeds do scale with load, but the fundamental limitation is the absence of dedicated VRAM and the low overall throughput. In Doom, this manifests as the GPU being unable to maintain adequate frame rates at higher resolutions, where the rendering load increases substantially. The fact that the 4K Ultra preset yields only 22 FPS, while 1080p Low yields 107 FPS, illustrates how sensitive this GPU is to resolution and settings changes. The data indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint in this combo, as the CPU has ample headroom to handle the game's logic but the GPU cannot keep up with the rendering demands.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2580 out of 2930 tested combinations in Doom, placing it in the bottom 12% of all tested systems. This rank is a direct reflection of the GPU's limitations, as the CPU is a high-end desktop processor with a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The disparity between the CPU's strong synthetic benchmark scores and the combo's poor in-game rank highlights how the integrated GPU drags down the overall experience.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals provides context on the processor's potential. The Core Ultra 7 265K has an average benchmark score of 70879, which is nearly identical to the Intel Xeon 6511P (71051, -0.2%) and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (71370, -0.7%). It is slightly ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163, +1%) and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69996, +1.3%). These deltas are minimal, indicating that the CPU is competitive with other high-end parts. However, this strength is irrelevant in Doom when paired with the Arc B390, as the GPU's 9th percentile ranking completely dominates the performance outcome.

The GPU's nearest rivals are all legacy low-end parts, with the Arc B390 scoring 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad. The GeForce GT 520MX scores 1463 (+1.3% delta), the GeForce 800M scores 1460 (+1.5%), and the GeForce GT 625 OEM scores 1446 (+2.5%). This places the Arc B390 at the very bottom of the GPU performance spectrum. The combo rank of 2580 out of 2930 is therefore unsurprising, as it reflects the GPU's position in the overall hierarchy. For a user expecting desktop-class gaming performance from this CPU, the data shows that the integrated GPU severely limits the system's capability in Doom.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance across all combinations of resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 107 FPS, while the Medium preset yields 93 FPS, with a recorded minimum of 79 FPS and maximum of 107 FPS. The High preset drops to 78 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 64 FPS. This progression shows a clear linear relationship between settings and performance, with each step up in quality costing roughly 14-15 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly. The Low preset averages 69 FPS, the Medium preset averages 60 FPS (with a minimum of 51 FPS and maximum of 69 FPS), the High preset averages 51 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 41 FPS. The trend from 1080p to 1440p shows a reduction of roughly 35-40% in average FPS across all settings, which is consistent with the increased pixel count. The 1440p Medium preset's minimum of 51 FPS indicates that frame pacing may become inconsistent, which could be noticeable during intense combat scenes.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates. The Low preset averages 37 FPS, the Medium preset averages 33 FPS (with a minimum of 28 FPS and maximum of 37 FPS), the High preset averages 28 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 22 FPS. None of these averages reach the 30 FPS threshold that is often considered the absolute minimum for playability, and the Ultra preset's 22 FPS average makes the game feel like a slideshow. The data shows that 4K gaming is simply not viable with this combo, regardless of settings.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior in Doom reveals significant insights into the limiting component of this system. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 107 to 69, a reduction of 38 FPS or approximately 35%. From 1440p to 2160p at the same preset, the average drops from 69 to 37, a reduction of 32 FPS or approximately 46%. This non-linear scaling, where the percentage drop increases at higher resolutions, is a classic indicator of a GPU-bound scenario.

At the Medium preset, the FPS drops from 93 at 1080p to 60 at 1440p (a 35% reduction) and then from 60 to 33 at 4K (a 45% reduction). The High preset shows a similar pattern: 78 at 1080p, 51 at 1440p (a 35% drop), and 28 at 4K (a 45% drop). The consistent ~35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~45% drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings suggests that the GPU's rendering pipeline is saturated, and the increased pixel count directly translates to proportionally lower frame rates.

This scaling pattern indicates that the Intel Arc B390 is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would remain relatively flat across resolutions, as the CPU would max out at a certain FPS regardless of resolution. Instead, the data shows that FPS scales inversely with pixel count, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound workload. The CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic, but the Arc B390 simply cannot process the rendering workload fast enough at higher resolutions. The result is that users must drop to 1080p to achieve acceptable performance, and even then, only at Low or Medium settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Doom with this combo?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only viable resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 107 FPS and the Medium preset achieves 93 FPS, while at 2560x1440, even the Low preset only reaches 69 FPS. At 3840x2160, all presets fall below 37 FPS, making the game unplayable.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to other GPUs?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, placing it at the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% slower), the GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% slower), and the GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% slower). This indicates it performs at the level of entry-level GPUs from over a decade ago.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K a bottleneck in Doom?

A: No, the data indicates the CPU is not the bottleneck. The Core Ultra 7 265K scores 70879 on average, ranking in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The frame rates scale heavily with resolution, which is a sign of GPU limitation. The CPU is far more capable than the GPU, so the Arc B390 is the definitive limiting factor.

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

A: The measured data shows an average of 51 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings. This is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the experience may feel less fluid, especially during fast-paced action sequences.

Q: Does the Medium preset offer better frame consistency than High?

A: Yes, at 1080p, the Medium preset averages 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS, while the High preset averages 78 FPS with no recorded minimum. At 1440p, Medium averages 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 FPS, while High averages 51 FPS. The Medium preset provides a higher minimum frame rate, suggesting better consistency.

Q: What is the performance difference between Ultra and Low settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset averages 64 FPS, while the Low preset averages 107 FPS. This represents a 43 FPS difference, with Low settings providing a 67% higher frame rate. The Ultra preset's 64 FPS is still playable, but Low is significantly smoother for competitive play.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a high-end desktop processor that provides substantial computational headroom, but in this combo, its role is largely relegated to feeding the underpowered integrated GPU. The CPU features 20 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. It is built on the Arrow Lake architecture using a 3 nm process from TSMC, with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration delivers strong synthetic performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35850 and a single-core score of 2020, along with a Geekbench multi-core score of 23085.

The CPU's memory support includes dual-channel DDR5 with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, which is relevant to the GPU's performance since the Arc B390 uses shared system memory. The CPU's memory bandwidth is the only source of data for the GPU, and this shared arrangement can create contention. However, the CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 58594 and floating-point math score of 189629 indicate that it has ample processing power to handle Doom's game logic and physics without breaking a sweat.

In the context of Doom, the CPU's role is to prepare frames for the GPU, but the GPU's low throughput means the CPU is often idle waiting for the GPU to catch up. This is confirmed by the resolution scaling analysis, which shows that frame rates drop significantly as resolution increases, a clear sign that the CPU is not the bottleneck. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Xeon 6511P (-0.2% delta) and the Intel Core i7-14700KF (+1% delta), show that it is competitive with other top-tier processors. However, this strength does not translate to gaming performance in this configuration, as the GPU's 9th percentile ranking effectively caps the system's capability. For a user who upgrades the GPU in the future, the CPU would provide ample headroom, but with the Arc B390, it is severely underutilized.