Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers playable performance in Doom, but the data reveals a system where the GPU is the decisive factor. The measured frame rates show a clear hierarchy of settings, with the RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB of VRAM proving sufficient across the board, though the scaling of frame rates from 1080p to 4K highlights the GPU's limitations as resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a straightforward guide for optimizing the experience in Doom. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset achieves an average of 115 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay. However, the Medium preset jumps to 167 FPS, and the Low preset reaches 192 FPS. The High preset sits at 141 FPS. For players prioritizing frame rate above all else, the Low preset at 1080p offers the highest average at 192 FPS, but the Medium preset at 167 FPS is the sweet spot, delivering a 45% improvement over Ultra while still maintaining a substantial 26 FPS margin over High. The difference between Low and Medium is 25 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns beyond Medium.

Moving to 2560x1440, the picture changes. The Ultra preset drops to 75 FPS, which is still playable but begins to show the GPU's strain. The High preset at 91 FPS is a more comfortable target, while Low and Medium hit 124 FPS and 108 FPS respectively. The Medium preset at 1440p offers the best balance, providing 33 FPS more than Ultra and 17 FPS more than High, while staying within 16 FPS of the Low preset. This suggests that at 1440p, the Medium preset is the recommended choice for maintaining high frame rates without sacrificing too much visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 2060 SUPER is clearly out of its comfort zone. The Ultra preset averages just 40 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for a fast-paced FPS. The High preset improves to 50 FPS, but it is the Low preset at 67 FPS that offers the only truly playable experience at 4K. The Medium preset sits at 59 FPS. For 4K gameplay, the Low preset is the only viable option, as it provides a 27 FPS advantage over Ultra and an 8 FPS advantage over High. The data indicates that at 4K, the GPU is the limiting factor, and players must accept significant compromises in visual quality to achieve acceptable frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1470 MHz and boost clock is 1650 MHz, and it has a TDP of 175 W. The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 62nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 18093. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile, which scores 18159 (a 0.4% difference), and the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 at 18189 (a 0.5% difference). These close scores indicate the RTX 2060 SUPER is positioned in a competitive mid-range tier.

In Doom, the 8 GB VRAM is not a bottleneck at any resolution measured. The game's texture demands are evidently within this capacity, as frame rates do not show sudden drops that would indicate memory swapping. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is sufficient to feed the rendering pipeline at all settings, as evidenced by the consistent scaling of FPS from Low to Ultra at each resolution. However, the GPU's raw compute power, measured at 7.181 TFLOPS FP32, is the primary constraint. At 1080p, the GPU can push 192 FPS on Low, but this drops to 115 FPS on Ultra, a 40% reduction. At 4K, the same Low-to-Ultra transition sees a drop from 67 FPS to 40 FPS, a 40% reduction as well, showing that the GPU's compute limits are consistently hit regardless of resolution.

The RTX 2060 SUPER's percentile ranking of 62 against all GPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 18093, suggests it is a capable mid-range card, but the data shows it is not designed for the highest settings at high resolutions in this title. The GPU's performance in Doom is more closely aligned with its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2011, which indicates a moderate level of DirectX 12 performance, than its older DirectX 11 score of 130.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1920x1080 gaming?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 yields an average of 167 FPS, which is 52 FPS higher than Ultra (115 FPS) and 26 FPS higher than High (141 FPS). This makes Medium the optimal choice for high refresh rate displays, while Low at 192 FPS is the maximum achievable.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages only 40 FPS, which is below ideal smoothness. The Low preset achieves 67 FPS, making it the only playable option at 4K. High and Medium sit at 50 FPS and 59 FPS respectively, all indicating the GPU is the bottleneck.

Q: How much of a performance drop is there between 1080p and 4K on the High preset?

A: The High preset at 1080p averages 141 FPS, while at 4K it drops to 50 FPS. This represents a 64.5% reduction in frame rate, demonstrating a substantial performance penalty as resolution increases.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data shows the GPU is the limiting factor. At 4K, the frame rates drop significantly across all settings, with the Low preset at 67 FPS being the highest. The CPU, with its high benchmark scores, is not the constraint, as frame rates scale predictably with resolution changes.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like on the Medium preset?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 shows a minimum FPS of 142 and a maximum of 192, with an average of 167. This indicates a relatively wide range, but the average is high enough that occasional drops to 142 FPS would still be smooth. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset ranges from 92 to 125 FPS with an average of 108.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in raw performance?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 18093. Its nearest rival, the RTX 3060 Mobile, scores 18159, which is a 0.4% difference. The AMD Radeon Pro 5700 scores 18189, a 0.5% difference. These are all statistically similar scores, indicating the RTX 2060 SUPER performs on par with these cards in general compute.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings was measured. The Low preset delivers the highest average of 192 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 167 FPS, with a minimum of 142 FPS and a maximum of 192 FPS. The High preset achieves 141 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 115 FPS. This shows a clear progression, with Ultra being 40% slower than Low.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset still leads with 124 FPS. The Medium preset is next at 108 FPS, with a range of 92 to 125 FPS. The High preset reaches 91 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 75 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra at this resolution is 39.5%, which is slightly less than at 1080p, indicating the GPU is still the primary limit.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset is the only one above 60 FPS, averaging 67 FPS. The Medium preset averages 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS. The High preset averages 50 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 40 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 40.3%, nearly identical to the 1080p gap, underscoring that the GPU's compute is consistently the bottleneck across all resolutions. The data shows that at no point does the CPU limit performance, as the frame rates scale uniformly with resolution changes.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and reveals the GPU as the limiting component. On the Low preset, the average FPS goes from 192 at 1080p to 124 at 1440p, a 35.4% drop, and then to 67 at 4K, a 46.0% drop from 1440p. On the High preset, the average FPS goes from 141 at 1080p to 91 at 1440p, a 35.5% drop, and then to 50 at 4K, a 45.1% drop from 1440p. On the Ultra preset, the average FPS goes from 115 at 1080p to 75 at 1440p, a 34.8% drop, and then to 40 at 4K, a 46.7% drop from 1440p.

The consistency of these percentage drops across settings is telling. The GPU is being tasked with rendering more pixels, and its frame rate scales almost linearly with the pixel count increase. From 1080p to 1440p, the pixel count increases by 77.8%, but the FPS drop is around 35%, which is less than the pixel increase, suggesting some headroom in the GPU's memory bandwidth. However, from 1440p to 4K, the pixel count increases by 125%, and the FPS drop is around 46%, which is closer to the pixel increase. This indicates that the GPU's compute units are becoming the primary limit at 4K, where the increased pixel count overwhelms the available processing power. The CPU, with its high single-core and multi-core scores, does not appear to be a factor, as the frame rate scaling is consistent with GPU-bound behavior.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. It has a TDP of 125 W and is built on a 3 nm process node from TSMC. Its benchmark scores are exceptionally high, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51731 and a single-core score of 7303. The Passmark multi-thread score is 60860, and the single-thread score is 4823. The CPU is in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84003.

In Doom, the CPU's role is largely supportive. The game's engine is not heavily threaded, and the 24 cores are more than sufficient to handle the game's logic and physics. The data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking. At 1080p with the Low preset, the GPU is pushing 192 FPS, and the CPU is able to feed it without issue. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau at lower resolutions, but the data shows a steady increase from 4K to 1080p. The nearest rivals to the CPU include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which scores 83807 (a 0.2% difference), and the AMD EPYC 4584PX at 83090 (a 1.1% difference). These rivals have similar scores, indicating the 290K Plus is at the top of the desktop CPU performance tier, making it a non-issue for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 2056th out of 2930 tested combinations in Doom. This places it in the 70th percentile of all combos, meaning it outperforms 70% of the systems tested. This ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's performance, as the CPU is in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 62nd percentile. The high-ranking CPU cannot compensate for the mid-range GPU in a GPU-bound scenario like Doom.

The ranking suggests that for a system with such a powerful CPU, the GPU is the weak link. Many other combos with less capable CPUs but more powerful GPUs would likely rank higher in this game. The data shows that the combo is positioned for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can achieve high frame rates, but it falls short at 4K. The 2056th rank out of 2930 is a reflection of the GPU's limitations, not the CPU's strengths. In a game like Doom, which is not CPU-intensive, the CPU's power is underutilized, and the overall system performance is capped by the GPU. This indicates that the combo is best suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p or 1440p gaming, where the GPU can deliver the frame rates the CPU is capable of handling.