Doom

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows for Doom show a clear hierarchy across the four available presets at each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 212 FPS, Medium drops to 184 FPS, High to 156 FPS, and Ultra to 127 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 85 FPS, which represents a 40% reduction from the lowest preset's performance. For competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays, the Low preset is the only option that reaches beyond the 200 FPS threshold, while Medium remains above 180 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds with compressed margins: Low averages 137 FPS, Medium 119 FPS, High 101 FPS, and Ultra 82 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra here is 55 FPS, proportionally smaller than at 1080p. This compression suggests the GPU is beginning to assert more influence over the frame rate as pixel count increases, but even at this resolution, all presets remain comfortably above 60 FPS, making Ultra a viable choice for visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

At 3840x2160, the situation tightens considerably. Low averages 74 FPS, Medium 65 FPS, High 55 FPS, and Ultra 45 FPS. Here, the Ultra preset dips below the 60 FPS threshold, which many users consider the minimum for fluid gameplay. Medium maintains 65 FPS on average, while High sits at 55 FPS. The data indicates that for 4K, the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and playable frame rates, as it stays above 60 FPS while providing a substantial visual upgrade over Low. The measured min and max values for Medium at 4K were 55 and 74 FPS respectively, suggesting some variance but no catastrophic drops.

The recommendation across all resolutions is to prioritize the Medium preset at 4K, since it is the highest quality tier that remains above 60 FPS on average. At 1440p and 1080p, users with high refresh rate monitors should consider Low or Medium for maximum frame rates, while those with standard 60 Hz displays can comfortably select Ultra at 1440p or High at 1080p. The data does not show any settings preset causing instability or anomalous frame time behavior, so the choice comes down to the target frame rate and resolution combination.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture using the TU104 chip on a 12 nm process node. It carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, with 14 Gbps effective data rate. The GPU's base clock is 1605 MHz and the boost clock reaches 1770 MHz. These specifications place the card in the upper-midrange tier of its generation, with a benchmark percentile ranking of 65 among all GPUs.

In Doom, the GPU's memory configuration appears adequate for the tested resolutions. At 4K with Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 45 FPS, which suggests the combination of pixel throughput and memory bandwidth is being stressed. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is not directly measured in the FPS data, but the scaling from Medium to Ultra at 4K — a drop from 65 to 45 FPS — indicates that the higher preset demands more from the GPU's compute and memory subsystems. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 9.062 TFLOPS, and the pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s sets a theoretical ceiling for rasterization throughput.

The RTX 2070 SUPER's 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs are the primary drivers for Doom's fill-rate requirements. The texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s supports the game's texture-heavy environments, but the measured FPS at 4K Ultra shows that the card cannot maintain 60 FPS under maximum load at that resolution. The GPU's 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present in the architecture, though Doom's release predates widespread ray tracing adoption, so these units are unlikely to contribute significantly to the measured results. The card's 215 W TDP and dual-slot design are physical characteristics that do not directly appear in the FPS data but contextualize its performance class.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER achieves a combo rank of 2153 out of 3712 tested combinations in Doom. This places the pairing in the 58th percentile of all combos, meaning roughly 42% of tested configurations outperform it while 58% rank below. Given that the GPU is a previous-generation midrange card and the CPU is a current-generation high-end processor, this ranking reflects the GPU as the limiting factor in the pairing.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 70879 places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals are the Intel Xeon 6511P (delta -0.2%), Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (delta -0.7%), Intel Core i7-14700KF (delta +1%), and AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (delta +1.3%). These deltas are all within 1.5% of the Ultra 7 265K's score, indicating that the CPU's compute capability is well above average. In contrast, the GPU's average benchmark score of 20282 places it in the 65th percentile, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (delta -1%), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (delta -1.2%), Intel Arc B570 (delta -1.3%), and Intel Arc A750 (delta -1.5%).

The disparity between the CPU's 94th percentile ranking and the GPU's 65th percentile ranking explains why the combo does not rank higher. In a game like Doom, which is known for its Vulkan and OpenGL performance scaling, the GPU's rasterization throughput becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The combo rank of 2153 indicates that while the CPU has headroom to drive faster GPUs, the RTX 2070 SUPER caps the overall system performance in this title. Users considering this pairing should understand that upgrading the GPU would yield significant FPS gains, while keeping the same GPU with a slower CPU would likely show minimal difference in Doom's measured results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows the following average frame rates across presets: Low 212 FPS, Medium 184 FPS, High 156 FPS, and Ultra 127 FPS. The Medium preset recorded a minimum of 157 FPS and a maximum of 212 FPS, while the other presets did not have min/max values reported. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 85 FPS, which is a substantial margin that highlights the performance cost of higher quality settings. Even at Ultra, the average stays above 120 FPS, making 1080p a comfortable resolution for this combo regardless of preset.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 137 FPS, Medium 119 FPS, High 101 FPS, and Ultra 82 FPS. The Medium preset's min and max were 101 and 137 FPS respectively, showing a 36 FPS variance. The step from Low to Medium is 18 FPS, from Medium to High is 18 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 19 FPS — a remarkably consistent 18-19 FPS drop per preset tier. This linear scaling suggests that each quality level adds a predictable load on the GPU, and the system maintains stable performance without anomalous behavior.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 74 FPS, Medium 65 FPS, High 55 FPS, and Ultra 45 FPS. The Medium preset's min and max were 55 and 74 FPS, matching the High average at 4K and the Low average at 1440p respectively. The preset-to-preset drops at 4K are: Low to Medium 9 FPS, Medium to High 10 FPS, and High to Ultra 10 FPS. This tighter spacing compared to 1440p indicates that at 4K, the GPU is approaching its throughput limits, and each additional quality setting has a smaller absolute impact because the baseline frame rate is lower.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently delivers the highest frame rates, with the gap between Low and Ultra widening as resolution decreases. At 1080p the Low-to-Ultra gap is 85 FPS, at 1440p it is 55 FPS, and at 4K it is 29 FPS. This trend confirms that the GPU's workload at higher resolutions dominates the settings overhead, making preset choice less impactful at 4K than at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 shows consistent FPS degradation across all presets. At Low settings, the average drops from 212 FPS at 1080p to 137 FPS at 1440p, a 35% reduction, and then to 74 FPS at 4K, a further 46% reduction from the 1440p figure. At Medium, the progression is 184 to 119 to 65 FPS, representing 35% and 45% drops respectively. High settings go from 156 to 101 to 55 FPS, with 35% and 46% reductions. Ultra goes from 127 to 82 to 45 FPS, showing 35% and 45% reductions.

The consistency of these percentage drops — approximately 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 45% from 1440p to 4K — across all four presets indicates that resolution scaling is uniform and predictable for this game and hardware combination. The pixel count increases by 78% from 1080p to 1440p and by 125% from 1440p to 4K, yet the frame rate drops are smaller proportionally, which suggests that other factors such as memory bandwidth and cache efficiency partially mitigate the raw pixel throughput demands.

The fact that the FPS drops are not linear with pixel count — a 78% pixel increase yields only a 35% FPS drop — points to the CPU being able to feed the GPU efficiently at 1080p and 1440p, while the GPU becomes the limiting component at 4K. At 1080p, the Ultra preset's 127 FPS average suggests the GPU still has headroom, but the CPU's 20-core, 20-thread configuration with a 5.50 GHz boost clock is more than sufficient for Doom's engine at that resolution. At 4K, the 45 FPS Ultra average indicates the GPU's 9.062 TFLOPS and 448 GB/s bandwidth are the binding constraints, as the CPU's workload does not scale significantly with resolution.

The data implies that for this combo, the limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p (where even Ultra stays above 120 FPS) to the GPU at 4K (where even Low drops below 75 FPS). At 1440p, the balance is intermediate, with all presets above 80 FPS, suggesting neither component is severely bottlenecked.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 3840x2160 delivers an average of 65 FPS, which is the highest quality tier that remains above 60 FPS. Ultra averages 45 FPS and High averages 55 FPS, both below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How much performance difference is there between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low averages 212 FPS while Ultra averages 127 FPS, a difference of 85 FPS. This represents a 40% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest preset.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck this system in Doom?

A: At 4K, the GPU is the limiting factor, as even Low settings only reach 74 FPS. At 1080p, the GPU still has headroom with Ultra achieving 127 FPS, while the CPU's 94th percentile benchmark ranking suggests it is not the constraint.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested systems?

A: This pairing ranks 2153 out of 3712 tested combinations in Doom, placing it in the 58th percentile of all tested systems.

Q: How consistent are frame times at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the measured min and max values show a 55 FPS spread at 1080p (157-212 FPS), a 36 FPS spread at 1440p (101-137 FPS), and a 19 FPS spread at 4K (55-74 FPS).

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for Doom?

A: The measured data does not show any VRAM-related issues, and the card maintains playable frame rates at 4K Medium (65 FPS). The 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth supports the game's requirements at all tested resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process node by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The CPU's L3 cache is 30 MB shared, and it supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. These specifications position the CPU as a high-end desktop part, with a benchmark percentile ranking of 94 among all CPUs.

In Doom, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The game's 2016 release predates the CPU's 2024 launch, meaning the engine does not leverage the newer instruction sets or IPC improvements directly, but the high single-thread performance — evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2020 — ensures that the game's main thread is well-served. The multi-core score of 35850 in Cinebench R23 indicates ample parallel processing capability, though Doom's engine is not heavily multithreaded compared to modern titles.

The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 212 FPS, which is likely approaching the CPU's limit for draw call processing in this engine. The fact that Ultra at 1080p still achieves 127 FPS suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at that resolution, as the GPU's rendering load increases with settings but the CPU-side overhead remains relatively constant. At 4K, the CPU's impact diminishes further, as the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the dominant factor — the 45 FPS Ultra average at 4K is far below what the CPU could theoretically support.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are all within 1.3% of its average score, including the Intel Core i7-14700KF at +1% and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F at +1.3%. These deltas indicate that the Ultra 7 265K sits in a tightly competitive performance band, and for Doom specifically, any of these CPUs would likely produce similar FPS results when paired with the RTX 2070 SUPER. The CPU's 20 threads and 5.50 GHz boost clock are more than sufficient for this game, and the data supports the conclusion that the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates in this pairing.