Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers a consistently playable experience in Doom, but the data reveals a clear progression from a CPU-bound scenario at 1080p to a strictly GPU-bound scenario at 4K. This combination ranks in the 54th percentile of tested combos for this title, placing it in the middle of the pack, and the performance scaling between resolutions indicates that the RTX 5070 is the decisive component at higher pixel counts.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable and steep decline in performance as resolution increases, which is classic behavior for a game like Doom that relies heavily on raw GPU throughput. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces an average of 165 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 drops that figure to 107 FPS, a reduction of approximately 35%. The jump to 3840x2160 yields just 58 FPS on High settings, which is a further 46% decline from the 1440p result. This scaling pattern suggests that the RTX 5070 is the limiting factor at 1440p and 4K, as the frame rate drops in near-direct proportion to the increase in pixel count.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens significantly at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low (224 FPS) and Ultra (135 FPS) is 89 FPS, indicating that the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU even when pixel shading demands are at their lowest. At 1440p, that gap narrows to 58 FPS (145 FPS on Low vs. 87 FPS on Ultra), and at 4K it shrinks further to 32 FPS (79 FPS on Low vs. 47 FPS on Ultra). This narrowing delta is a strong indicator that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck at 4K, as even dropping to Low settings cannot recover the frame rates seen at lower resolutions.

The 4K Ultra result of 47 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS average in the entire dataset, while the 4K High setting barely clears the 60 FPS threshold at 58 FPS. For a fast-paced FPS, the data suggests that 1440p is the sweet spot for this combo, where High settings (107 FPS) provide a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS target and Ultra (87 FPS) remains highly playable. At 1080p, the combo is clearly CPU-limited at Low and Medium settings, as the 224 FPS and 195 FPS results far exceed what most displays can refresh, but the Ultra setting at 135 FPS still shows the GPU is not fully saturated.

How This Combo Ranks

Out of 2,930 tested combinations for Doom, this pairing of the Core Ultra 9 185H and RTX 5070 holds the 1,577th position. This places it just past the midpoint of the database, which is a notable result given the specifications of both components. The CPU itself sits in the 85th percentile of all processors tested, while the GPU is in the 82nd percentile of all graphics cards, yet the combination does not crack the top half of the rankings for this specific game. This suggests that Doom's engine is not particularly sensitive to the strengths of this hardware configuration, or that other combos with different balance characteristics simply outperform it in this title.

The CPU's nearest rivals in general benchmark scores are the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (deltaPct -0.1%), the Intel Core 7 250H (deltaPct -0.2%), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (deltaPct -0.4%), and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (deltaPct -0.7%). All of these processors score within 1% of the Core Ultra 9 185H, indicating that the CPU's raw compute power is essentially matched by several alternatives. However, the combo ranking in Doom is not directly tied to these synthetic CPU scores, as the game's performance is more dependent on the GPU at higher resolutions.

The GPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (deltaPct 0.1%), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (deltaPct 0.8%), the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (deltaPct -1.2%), and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (deltaPct 2%). These deltas are larger than those seen for the CPU, with the RTX A500 Mobile scoring 2% higher on average. This hints that the RTX 5070's performance in Doom could be sensitive to driver optimizations or specific feature sets, as the synthetic benchmark deltas do not translate directly to the 1,577th rank observed here. The data shows that while both components are above-average performers individually, the combined result in Doom is decidedly mid-pack.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 31,100 million transistors on a 263 mm² die. It comes with 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 2325 MHz with a boost clock of 2512 MHz, and the memory runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective throughput. With 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation units, the card is well-equipped for modern rendering workloads, and its 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores provide substantial compute for advanced effects.

In Doom, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p, the 165 FPS average on High settings suggests that the RTX 5070 is not fully utilized, as the CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads are able to feed the graphics pipeline faster than the GPU can render frames. However, the 12 GB VRAM buffer is sufficient for this title, as none of the measured results indicate any memory-related stuttering or frame drops. The 192-bit memory bus and 672.0 GB/s bandwidth are more than adequate for the texture and geometry loads in Doom, even at Ultra settings.

The 4K results highlight the GPU's raw compute limits. The 47 FPS average at Ultra settings represents a 71% drop from the 1080p Ultra result of 135 FPS, which is consistent with the 4x pixel count increase from 1080p to 4K. The boost clock of 2512 MHz is sustained under load, but even with the full FP32 throughput of 30.87 TFLOPS, the card cannot maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra. The pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s are the limiting factors here, as the shader workload at 4K exceeds what the card can process in real-time. The data indicates that for 4K gaming, the RTX 5070 requires lower settings or resolution scaling to achieve smooth performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p with High settings?

A: The combo produces an average of 107 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings, which is a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the RTX 5070 capable of 4K gaming in Doom?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High settings, the average is 58 FPS, and at 4K Low, it reaches 79 FPS. However, 4K Ultra drops to 47 FPS, which is below the ideal 60 FPS target.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 9 185H compare to its nearest CPU rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core Ultra 9 185H scores an average of 35,670, which is 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (35,719) and 0.2% lower than the Intel Core 7 250H (35,728). It is 0.4% and 0.7% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (35,802) and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (35,909), respectively.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the Low setting averages 224 FPS, while Ultra averages 135 FPS, a difference of 89 FPS. This indicates the CPU is the bottleneck at low settings.

Q: Does the GPU's synthetic benchmark score align with its Doom performance ranking?

A: No. The GPU scores an average of 40,377, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40,318) and 2% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39,568). Despite this, the combo ranks 1,577th out of 2,930, suggesting Doom's performance is not directly correlated with these scores.

Q: What is the 4K Medium average FPS and what are the min/max values?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 68, with a minimum of 58 and a maximum of 79 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low averages 224 FPS, Medium averages 195 FPS with a minimum of 166 and maximum of 224, High averages 165 FPS, and Ultra averages 135 FPS. These results show that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiter, as even the most demanding settings cannot push the frame rate below the 135 FPS mark, which is well above the refresh rate of most monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates drop but remain high. Low averages 145 FPS, Medium averages 126 FPS with a range of 107 to 145, High averages 107 FPS, and Ultra averages 87 FPS. The 1440p results demonstrate a more balanced workload between CPU and GPU, with the frame rate scaling more predictably with settings changes. The 87 FPS at Ultra is still smooth for most players, and the 107 FPS at High is excellent for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low averages 79 FPS, Medium averages 68 FPS with a minimum of 58 and maximum of 79, High averages 58 FPS, and Ultra averages 47 FPS. The data shows that 4K Ultra is the only configuration that dips below 60 FPS on average, and even 4K High is right at the edge. The Medium setting at 68 FPS provides a playable experience, but the minimum of 58 FPS indicates occasional dips below the 60 FPS threshold. For a consistent 60+ FPS experience at 4K, the Low setting at 79 FPS is the safest choice.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a 16-core, 22-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a 45 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR5 via a dual-channel bus, providing 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU's integrated graphics are Arc Xe-LPG with 128 execution units, though these are not utilized when the discrete RTX 5070 is active.

In Doom, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p with lower settings. The 224 FPS result at Low and 195 FPS at Medium indicate that the CPU can process game logic and draw calls faster than the GPU can render frames, creating a CPU-bound scenario. The 5.10 GHz boost clock is critical here, as Doom's engine benefits from high single-thread performance for physics and game state updates. The 16 cores and 22 threads provide ample multi-threading headroom, but the game does not scale perfectly with core counts, so the high boost clock is more impactful.

At 1440p and 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes. The frame rate differences between settings at these resolutions are primarily driven by GPU load, not CPU capabilities. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17,984.5 and single-core score of 1,810.5, place it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, but this does not translate to top-tier Doom performance. The combo rank of 1,577th out of 2,930 suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor, but it also does not provide a unique advantage in this title. The 24 MB of L3 cache is sufficient for Doom's working set, and the dual-channel memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s prevents any data starvation for the GPU. The data shows that the Core Ultra 9 185H is a capable processor for Doom, but its performance is not the reason this combo lands in the middle of the rankings.