Doom

# Doom: Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 — Performance Analysis

The benchmark data for Doom (released 2016-05-12) with this Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination reveals a system capable of extreme frame rates across all tested configurations. With the combo ranking 45th out of 2,930 tested combinations, this pairing sits in the top 2% of all recorded systems, yet the measured FPS numbers tell a nuanced story about where the bottlenecks truly lie in this classic FPS title. The data shows a system that can push well beyond typical display refresh rates at 1080p, but the scaling behavior across resolutions and settings provides insight into how this modern hardware handles a game built for an earlier era of graphics technology.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a pronounced resolution scaling curve that shifts from GPU-bound at 4K to increasingly CPU-limited at lower resolutions. At Ultra settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p yields a drop from 273 FPS to 177 FPS, a 35% reduction, while moving from 1440p to 4K brings the average down to 96 FPS, another 46% decrease. This steep decline indicates that at Ultra, the RTX 5090 remains the primary limiting factor even at 1080p, though the gap narrows considerably at lower settings.

Looking at Low settings, the scaling pattern changes character. The system delivers 454 FPS at 1080p, 294 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop), and 159 FPS at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). The percentage drops are nearly identical to those seen at Ultra, suggesting that the GPU is still the dominant constraint even with minimal graphics load. However, the absolute numbers at 1080p Low — 454 FPS — approach the range where CPU frame pacing and game engine limitations begin to matter, even though the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus with its 24 cores and 24 threads should provide ample headroom.

The Medium preset offers the most complete data with min and max FPS recorded at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the average sits at 396 FPS with a range of 336-455 FPS, while 1440p Medium drops to 256 FPS (218-295 FPS range), and 4K Medium reaches 139 FPS (118-160 FPS range). The consistency of the FPS ranges, with spreads of roughly 40-42 FPS at each resolution, suggests stable frame pacing rather than erratic spikes, which points to predictable GPU workload scaling rather than CPU-induced stuttering.

What the resolution scaling implies is that Doom's rendering engine, while efficient for its 2016 vintage, still exercises the GPU heavily enough that the RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth become the defining factor. The 5 nm Blackwell 2.0 chip with a 2407 MHz boost clock maintains a linear relationship between pixel count and frame rate, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario across all four settings presets tested.

Settings Recommendations

For players seeking the optimal balance between visual fidelity and frame rate, the High preset emerges as the standout choice in the measured data. At 4K High, the system maintains 117 FPS average, which comfortably exceeds the standard 60 FPS threshold and approaches the 120 Hz refresh rate common on modern displays. Moving to 1440p High delivers 216 FPS, and 1080p High reaches 334 FPS — both figures that would satisfy even the most demanding competitive players.

Ultra settings, while visually superior, exact a heavy toll: 96 FPS at 4K, 177 FPS at 1440p, and 273 FPS at 1080p. The jump from High to Ultra costs roughly 18-21% of performance at each resolution, a significant penalty for what is typically a modest visual improvement in a game from 2016. The data suggests that Ultra's additional effects and draw distances push the GPU's shading units and texture units harder without proportionally improving the experience.

Medium settings provide a viable alternative for players prioritizing maximum frame rates without dropping to the lowest visual quality. The 4K Medium average of 139 FPS is 36% higher than High, while 1440p Medium at 256 FPS and 1080p Medium at 396 FPS offer substantial headroom over High settings. However, the min FPS values at Medium — 118 FPS at 4K, 218 FPS at 1440p, and 336 FPS at 1080p — still remain well above playable thresholds, meaning there is little risk of dropping below monitor refresh rates.

Low settings push the system to its measured limits with 454 FPS at 1080p and 159 FPS at 4K, but given the RTX 5090's immense compute capacity (104.8 TFLOPS FP32) and the game's age, Low settings likely disable features that modern players would expect. The recommendation from the data leans toward High as the best experience per the measured rows — it retains visual quality while keeping frame rates high enough that the GPU is never the limiting factor at any resolution tested.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus brings substantial compute resources to this pairing, with 24 cores and 24 threads operating at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on TSMC's 3 nm process, includes 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 192 KB of L1 cache per core, with 3 MB of L2 per core. These specifications place the CPU in the 96th percentile of all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 93,785.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the Intel Xeon 6520P at 93,786 (0% delta), AMD EPYC 4564P at 95,183 (-1.5%), AMD EPYC 9175F at 95,615 (-1.9%), and AMD EPYC 4565P at 95,764 (-2.1%). This clustering shows that the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus performs within 2% of several high-end server and workstation processors, though those rivals typically feature different core counts and memory configurations suited to data-center workloads.

In Doom specifically, the CPU's role becomes apparent in the resolution scaling data. At 1080p Low, where the GPU workload is lightest, the system achieves 454 FPS. This figure, while impressive, represents a ceiling that likely reflects the game engine's single-threaded performance constraints rather than the CPU's full capability. The 24 threads provide massive parallel headroom, but Doom's 2016 architecture may not fully utilize them, leaving performance dependent on the boost clock of 5.50 GHz for single-threaded game logic and draw call processing.

The passmark physics score of 4,064 and single-thread score of 5,068 suggest strong per-core performance that should handle Doom's game simulation efficiently. The data compression score of 804,322 and multithread score of 68,574 indicate the CPU can handle background tasks without impacting game performance, though these metrics matter less for FPS in a GPU-bound title. The memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s via dual-channel DDR5 provides ample throughput for feeding the GPU's 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, ensuring no data starvation occurs at high resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 45 out of 2,930 tested combinations places this system in the top 1.5% of all recorded pairings. This rank reflects the combination of a top-tier CPU (96th percentile) and a top-tier GPU (92nd percentile), though the GPU's percentile is notably lower than its raw performance might suggest. The RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 79,842 places it near the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605, 0.3% delta), Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396, 0.6%), and AMD Radeon RX 6850 MXT (78,940, 1.1%), with the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X trailing at 80,959 (-1.4%).

The discrepancy between the GPU's 92nd percentile ranking and its position among nearest rivals highlights how benchmark databases can produce unexpected comparisons. The RTX 5090, with its 21,760 shading units and 680 texture mapping units, should theoretically outclass the older Tesla P100 and Radeon RX 6850 MXT, yet the average benchmark scores cluster tightly. This could reflect differences in benchmark workloads that favor compute-heavy architectures or driver optimization levels for specific test suites.

For Doom specifically, the combo's 45th place ranking suggests that some other combinations — potentially with older or differently balanced components — achieve higher frame rates in this particular title. Given that Doom is from 2016, its engine may respond better to certain hardware configurations, and the data indicates that raw benchmark scores do not always translate directly to game-specific performance. The rank of 45 out of 2,930 is still exceptional, but it creates an interesting question: what combinations rank above this pairing, and what characteristics allow them to outperform in Doom?

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 anchors this system's gaming performance with its GB202 chip, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process. The GPU contains 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 122.9 million per square millimeter. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) across a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth — a figure that becomes crucial for 4K texture streaming and high-detail rendering.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base of 2017 MHz and boost of 2407 MHz, with pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. These specifications translate directly to the measured FPS values in Doom. At 4K Ultra, the 96 FPS average represents the GPU working at its visual-quality limits, while at 1080p Low, the 454 FPS average shows the GPU operating well within its capabilities, likely constrained by other system components.

The RTX 5090's 176 ROPs and 170 ray tracing cores contribute to its ability to maintain high frame rates, though Doom's 2016 release predates widespread ray tracing adoption, meaning these features may go unused. The 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute power and 104.8 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio) provide ample headroom for the game's shading and post-processing effects, which explains why even Ultra settings at 1080p maintain 273 FPS.

The GPU's 575 W TDP and dual-slot design with a single 16-pin power connector indicate a power-hungry component, though the suggested 950 W PSU provides adequate margin. The 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth is particularly relevant for Doom at 4K, where large textures and high resolutions demand rapid data transfer. The measured FPS at 4K Medium (139 FPS) versus 4K High (117 FPS) shows only a 16% difference, suggesting that memory bandwidth is not the limiting factor — rather, the GPU's shading and texture units determine performance as settings increase.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160 (4K), the system delivers its lowest but still highly playable frame rates across all settings. Ultra settings produce 96 FPS average, High settings reach 117 FPS, Medium settings hit 139 FPS with a min of 118 and max of 160, and Low settings achieve 159 FPS. The progression from Ultra to Low shows a 66% improvement in frame rate, indicating that GPU workload scales significantly with visual quality at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440 (1440p), the performance jumps substantially. Ultra settings average 177 FPS, High settings reach 216 FPS, Medium settings average 256 FPS with a range of 218-295 FPS, and Low settings hit 294 FPS. The percentage improvement from 4K to 1440p ranges from 84% at Ultra to 85% at Low, showing consistent scaling with pixel count reduction (which reduces total pixels by 56%).

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the system achieves its peak measured performance. Ultra settings average 273 FPS, High settings reach 334 FPS, Medium settings average 396 FPS with a range of 336-455 FPS, and Low settings hit 454 FPS. The gap between Medium and Low narrows to just 58 FPS at 1080p, compared to 20 FPS at 4K, suggesting that at lower resolutions, the game engine or CPU begins to cap performance even with this powerful processor.

Examining the settings scaling within each resolution reveals diminishing returns. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium costs 58 FPS (13% reduction), Medium to High costs 62 FPS (16% reduction), and High to Ultra costs 61 FPS (18% reduction). At 4K, the same transitions cost 20 FPS (13%), 22 FPS (16%), and 21 FPS (18%) respectively. This consistent percentage-based scaling confirms that the GPU is the primary factor across all settings, with the CPU maintaining frame pacing throughout.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Doom?

A: The data shows 1440p High delivers 216 FPS and 1440p Ultra reaches 177 FPS, both well above typical high-refresh displays. 4K High at 117 FPS is also viable for 120 Hz monitors, while 1080p pushes beyond 273 FPS even at Ultra settings.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark performance compare to its rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus scores 93,785 on average benchmarks, placing it in the 96th percentile. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6520P, scores 93,786 (0% delta), while the AMD EPYC 4564P trails at 95,183 (-1.5%) and the AMD EPYC 9175F at 95,615 (-1.9%).

Q: Why does the RTX 5090 rank only 92nd percentile among GPUs?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 79,842 places it near the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605, 0.3% delta) and AMD Radeon RX 6850 MXT (78,940, 1.1%). This clustering suggests benchmark workloads may not fully differentiate modern gaming GPUs from older compute-focused cards.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 4K with High settings?

A: The measured data shows 117 FPS average at 3840x2160 with High settings. This represents a good balance between visual quality and performance, with Ultra dropping to 96 FPS and Medium rising to 139 FPS.

Q: Is this system CPU or GPU limited in Doom?

A: The data indicates GPU limitation across most tested configurations, as shown by consistent percentage-based FPS drops when increasing resolution or settings. At 1080p Low (454 FPS), the system may approach CPU or engine limits, but the 24-core processor provides ample headroom.

Q: How does the combo's rank of 45 out of 2,930 reflect its overall performance?

A: This top 1.5% ranking confirms exceptional performance, though the gap between the CPU's 96th percentile and the GPU's 92nd percentile suggests the GPU may be the weaker link in this pairing for overall benchmark scores, even though game-specific performance remains outstanding.