Doom

Doom, the 2016 reboot of the classic FPS franchise, remains a demanding benchmark for modern hardware due to its fast-paced action and the need for high, consistent frame rates. This analysis examines the performance of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 across a range of resolutions and settings. The data indicates that this combination delivers exceptional performance, capable of handling the game at its highest settings with room to spare for high-refresh-rate displays.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination shows that the "Ultra" preset is the most demanding, yielding an average of 94 FPS at 4K, 173 FPS at 1440p, and 267 FPS at 1080p. While playable, the 4K Ultra result is the only one that dips below the 100 FPS threshold, suggesting that for the absolute smoothest experience at 4K, a slight adjustment may be preferred. However, the "High" preset provides a significant boost in performance with a minimal visual trade-off, making it the optimal choice for 4K gaming. At 4K High, the system achieves an average of 115 FPS, which is a 22% improvement over Ultra.

At 1440p and 1080p, the "Ultra" preset is entirely viable, with frame rates of 173 FPS and 267 FPS, respectively. These numbers are high enough to fully utilize most high-refresh-rate monitors. For users seeking maximum frame rates, particularly at 1080p, the "Medium" preset offers a substantial increase, reaching 387 FPS, but this comes at the cost of some visual fidelity. The data suggests that for a balanced experience, the "High" preset is the sweet spot, providing a 327 FPS average at 1080p and 211 FPS at 1440p, which are both excellent figures. Given the diminishing returns in visual quality beyond the "High" setting and the significant performance headroom, the "High" preset is recommended as the best overall experience across all resolutions, ensuring high and stable frame rates without sacrificing key graphical features.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a formidable graphics card, and its role in Doom's performance is clearly defined by the data. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides a massive 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, ensuring that texture streaming and high-resolution assets are not a bottleneck. The card's architecture, Ada Lovelace, with its 16,384 shading units and boost clock of 2520 MHz, delivers immense raw compute power. This is reflected in the benchmark scores, with a Passmark G3D score of 38194, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU's performance is the primary driver of frame rates at higher resolutions. As the resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, the pixel fill rate demand grows, and the RTX 4090's capabilities are increasingly taxed. This is evident in the frame rate drops observed when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings. At "Ultra" settings, the average frame rate falls from 267 FPS at 1080p to 94 FPS at 4K, a 65% reduction, which is a direct consequence of the increased GPU workload. The GPU is clearly the limiting factor at 4K, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed it frames. The data confirms that the RTX 4090 is a top-tier GPU, with its nearest rivals being professional workstation cards like the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, which it outperforms by 2.5% in average benchmark scores, though this is not directly indicative of gaming performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K serves as a high-end desktop processor, and while its role is less dominant than the GPU in Doom, it is critical for maintaining high frame rates, especially at lower resolutions. With 20 cores and 20 threads, it offers substantial multi-threading capability, which is reflected in its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35850. Its single-thread performance is also strong, as shown by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2020, which is important for games that rely on a few fast cores. The processor's 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per core L2 cache help reduce latency and improve data access for game logic and physics.

In Doom, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p, where the GPU is not as heavily stressed. At 1080p Low, the system achieves an average of 444 FPS, a figure that is likely to be limited by the CPU's ability to process game state and issue draw calls. As the resolution increases, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, and the frame rate differences between CPU-heavy and GPU-heavy scenarios diminish. The CPU's percentile ranking of 94% against all CPUs puts it in the top tier, and its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, scores 1% higher in average benchmarks. This indicates that the 265K is a highly capable gaming CPU, providing sufficient performance to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4090 in most scenarios, particularly at 1440p and 4K. The data shows that at 4K, the frame rate difference between "Low" and "Ultra" settings is 62 FPS, which is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's workload, confirming the CPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks exceptionally well for Doom. According to the data, this combo is ranked 88th out of 3712 tested configurations, placing it in the top 2.4% of all systems. This high ranking reflects the synergy between the two components. The RTX 4090's raw power is complemented by the 265K's strong single and multi-core performance, ensuring that neither component is a significant bottleneck.

This ranking indicates that for the vast majority of users, this system will provide a top-tier Doom experience. The high ranking is further supported by the measured frame rates, which exceed 100 FPS at 4K on "High" settings and are much higher at lower resolutions. While there are likely a few configurations with more powerful CPUs or GPUs that rank higher, the 88th position out of 3712 combos shows that this pairing is near the pinnacle of performance for this game. The data suggests that users with this setup will not be left wanting for performance, as it is capable of delivering a smooth and responsive experience in nearly all scenarios.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Doom at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes, it can. The measured average frame rate for the "Ultra" preset at 3840x2160 is 94 FPS. While this is above the 60 FPS standard for smooth play, it is not as high as the frame rates seen at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the best setting for 1440p gaming with this combo?

A: The data shows that the "Ultra" preset at 2560x1440 delivers an average of 173 FPS. This is an excellent result, making the highest settings a viable option for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors.

Q: How much faster is the "Low" preset compared to "Ultra" at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the "Low" preset produces an average of 444 FPS, while the "Ultra" preset produces 267 FPS. This represents a 66% increase in frame rate when using the "Low" preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 4K?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor at 4K. The frame rate difference between the "Low" and "Ultra" presets at 3840x2160 is 62 FPS (156 vs 94 FPS), which is a direct result of the increased graphical workload on the RTX 4090.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this system?

A: The minimum FPS is only recorded for the "Medium" preset. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 115 FPS, at 1440p Medium it is 213 FPS, and at 1080p Medium it is 329 FPS. For other settings, only the average FPS is provided.

Q: How does this system's overall performance compare to other tested configurations?

A: This specific combination of CPU and GPU ranks 88th out of 3712 tested combos in Doom. This places it in the top 2.4% of all systems tested, indicating it is a very high-performance configuration.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact average frame rates measured for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination across all tested resolutions and settings.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

|:--- |:--- |:--- |

| 3840x2160 (4K) | Ultra | 94 |

| | High | 115 |

| | Medium | 136 |

| | Low | 156 |

| 2560x1440 (1440p) | Ultra | 173 |

| | High | 211 |

| | Medium | 250 |

| | Low | 287 |

| 1920x1080 (1080p) | Ultra | 267 |

| | High | 327 |

| | Medium | 387 |

| | Low | 444 |

At 4K, the progression from "Low" to "Ultra" shows a steady decrease in performance, with a 62 FPS drop between the extremes. The "Medium" preset at this resolution offers a balanced 136 FPS, with a minimum of 115 FPS and a maximum of 156 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the lowest average frame rate is 173 FPS on "Ultra", which is still exceptionally smooth. The "Medium" preset at 1440p provides a 250 FPS average, with a recorded minimum of 213 FPS and a maximum of 288 FPS. At 1080p, even the most demanding "Ultra" setting achieves an average of 267 FPS. The "Medium" preset here reaches 387 FPS, with a minimum of 329 FPS and a maximum of 445 FPS. The "Low" preset at 1080p hits an impressive 444 FPS, showcasing the system's ability to push frame rates to extreme levels when visual fidelity is not a priority.

Resolution Scaling

The impact of resolution on performance is clear and substantial. The data shows a consistent and significant drop in average frame rates as the resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At the "Ultra" preset, the average frame rate falls from 267 FPS at 1080p to 173 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 94 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 46% reduction from 1440p to 4K. Overall, from 1080p to 4K, there is a 65% decrease in performance at "Ultra" settings.

This scaling pattern is typical for a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The RTX 4090 must render an increasing number of pixels, which directly increases the load on its shading units and memory bandwidth. The CPU's role becomes less critical as the resolution rises, as the frame time is increasingly dominated by GPU rendering. This is evident in the fact that the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is more pronounced at lower settings. For example, at the "Low" preset, the frame rate drops from 444 FPS at 1080p to 156 FPS at 4K, a 65% reductionchers. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU can feed frames quickly enough to reach 444 FPS, but the GPU's rendering time at 4K becomes the limiting factor. The data confirms that for this high-end combination, the RTX 4090 is the component that dictates performance scaling across resolutions, while the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K provides a stable and capable foundation to support it.