Doom

Resolution Scaling

Doom’s frame rate behavior across the three tested resolutions tells a clear story about where this system’s bottleneck lies. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 212 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 at Low drops that to 137 FPS, a 35.4% reduction. The jump to 3840x2160 at Low yields 74 FPS, which is another 46.0% decline from the 1440p figure. This scaling curve is steep and consistent, indicating that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary limiting component as pixel count rises.

The pattern holds across all quality presets. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 156 FPS at 1080p to 101 FPS at 1440p (a 35.3% drop), then to 55 FPS at 4K (a 45.5% drop from 1440p). Medium settings follow the same trajectory: 184 FPS at 1080p, 119 FPS at 1440p (35.3% lower), and 65 FPS at 4K (45.4% lower). Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling, with 127 FPS at 1080p falling to 82 FPS at 1440p (35.4% down) and then to 45 FPS at 4K (45.1% down from 1440p).

The fact that every preset exhibits nearly identical percentage drops between resolutions—roughly 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 45% from 1440p to 4K—is a hallmark of GPU-bound performance. If the CPU were the constraint, the scaling would flatten out at higher resolutions, but here the FPS continues to fall in lockstep with pixel count. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, with its 24 cores and 24 threads, is clearly not the bottleneck in this title. The data suggests that at 4K, even the lowest preset cannot exceed 74 FPS, while at 1080p Low the system reaches 212 FPS, demonstrating that the RTX 2070 SUPER’s rendering throughput is what caps performance.

Another notable observation is the min/max frame range at Medium settings. At 1080p, the minimum is 157 FPS and maximum 212 FPS, a 55 FPS spread. At 1440p, the range narrows to 101–137 FPS, and at 4K it tightens further to 55–74 FPS. This compression of frame variance as resolution increases is typical of GPU-limited scenarios, where the render pipeline becomes more saturated and frame pacing stabilizes relative to the average.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for settings optimization, and the choice depends heavily on target resolution. At 1920x1080, all presets deliver playable frame rates, but the differences are substantial. Low settings hit 212 FPS, Medium 184 FPS, High 156 FPS, and Ultra 127 FPS. For competitive play on a high-refresh monitor, Low or Medium is the obvious pick, as the 28 FPS gap between them is smaller than the 56 FPS gap between Low and Ultra. However, the step from High to Ultra costs 29 FPS (from 156 to 127), which is a significant sacrifice for what is typically a modest visual gain in Doom’s fast-paced action.

At 2560x1440, the picture changes. Low produces 137 FPS, Medium 119 FPS, High 101 FPS, and Ultra 82 FPS. The Medium preset offers a strong balance, maintaining triple-digit frame rates while providing better visual fidelity than Low. High is still playable at 101 FPS, but Ultra dips below the 90 FPS threshold that many players consider the floor for smooth gameplay on 1440p panels. The data shows that the transition from Medium to High costs 18 FPS, while High to Ultra costs another 19 FPS, meaning the quality curve is linear but the frame rate penalty is cumulative.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 2070 SUPER struggles to maintain high refresh rates regardless of settings. Low yields 74 FPS, Medium 65 FPS, High 55 FPS, and Ultra 45 FPS. The best experience at 4K is clearly the Low preset, which stays above 60 FPS average. Medium drops to 65 FPS, which is still technically playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. High and Ultra fall below 60 FPS, making them questionable for smooth gameplay. Given that the minimum frame rate at 4K Medium is 55 FPS, even that preset risks noticeable stutter during intense combat.

The overall recommendation based on the measured rows is to prioritize frame rate at higher resolutions. At 1080p, Medium or High provides an excellent experience without sacrificing too much visual quality. At 1440p, Medium is the sweet spot, offering 119 FPS average with a minimum of 101 FPS. At 4K, Low is the only preset that maintains a 60+ FPS average, making it the default choice for 4K users. For players who value visual fidelity over raw speed, High at 1440p (101 FPS) is the highest preset that remains comfortably above 60 FPS, while 4K Ultra (45 FPS) should be reserved for screenshot purposes rather than actual gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on a 3 nm process with an 18,600 million transistor count. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, and it carries 36 MB of shared L3 cache. In Doom, a game from 2016 designed for lower core counts, this CPU’s role is primarily to feed the GPU without becoming a limiting factor. The benchmark results confirm this: even at 1080p Low, where CPU overhead is highest relative to GPU load, the system achieves 212 FPS, indicating that the processor is more than capable of keeping up.

The CPU’s benchmark scores reinforce its high-end positioning. In Cinebench R23, it scores 51,731 multicore and 7,303 single-core. The PassMark multithread score is 60,860, with a single-thread score of 4,823. These figures place it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,003. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83,807, a mere 0.2% difference, while the AMD EPYC 4584PX is 1.1% behind at 83,090. The EPYC 9135 trails by 1.2% at 82,980, and the EPYC 7F72 is actually 1.3% ahead at 85,072.

In Doom specifically, the CPU’s contribution is indirect but essential. The game’s engine is known for being well-optimized, and the data shows that scaling from 1080p to 4K is purely GPU-driven. The fact that the FPS drops by roughly 35% and 45% at each resolution step, regardless of preset, indicates that the CPU is delivering frames fast enough that the GPU is always the constraint. The 24 cores and 24 threads are far more than Doom requires, but the high single-thread performance (7,303 in Cinebench R23) ensures that the game’s main thread is never starved. This is reflected in the consistently high frame rates at 1080p, where CPU limitations would typically surface first.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Doom, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1,654 out of 2,930 combos. This places it in the 43.5th percentile, meaning that roughly 56.5% of tested configurations perform better in this specific game. Given the CPU’s top-tier status (96th percentile among all CPUs) and the GPU’s more modest standing (65th percentile among all GPUs), this ranking is heavily influenced by the graphics card.

The rank suggests that while the CPU is overqualified for Doom, the RTX 2070 SUPER holds the combo back from higher positions. Many combos ranked above this one likely pair the same or similar high-end CPUs with more powerful GPUs. The data shows that the GPU’s average benchmark score is 20,282, placing it just below the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20,480, 1% higher) and the GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20,534, 1.2% higher). The Intel Arc B570 (20,556) and Arc A750 (20,582) also edge it out by 1.3% and 1.5% respectively. These narrow margins in synthetic benchmarks translate to meaningful differences in Doom’s frame rates, particularly at higher resolutions.

The combo’s rank of 1,654 out of 2,930 is a useful reference point for buyers. It indicates that this configuration is solidly mid-pack for Doom, not a top-tier performer but far from the bottom. The 4K performance, where the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, is the main drag on the ranking. At 1080p, the combo’s performance would likely place it much higher, but the aggregate ranking across all tested resolutions pulls it down. For a 2019 GPU paired with a 2025 CPU, this result is expected, and the rank accurately reflects the GPU’s limitations in this title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU104 chip, manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It features 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, with 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1605 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its memory clock is 1750 MHz, translating to 14 Gbps effective. The GPU’s FP32 performance is 9.062 TFLOPS, and it consumes 215 W under load.

In Doom, the RTX 2070 SUPER is the determining factor for frame rates across all resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, it produces 212 FPS, but this drops to 127 FPS at Ultra, a 40.1% penalty for the highest quality preset. At 1440p, the range is 137 FPS (Low) to 82 FPS (Ultra), a 40.1% reduction as well. At 4K, the range narrows to 74 FPS (Low) to 45 FPS (Ultra), showing that even the lowest settings cannot overcome the GPU’s pixel throughput limits. The consistent 40% performance drop from Low to Ultra across all resolutions indicates that the GPU’s shading and memory subsystems are fully utilized at every quality level.

The GPU’s synthetic benchmark results provide context for its gaming performance. Its PassMark G3D score is 18,169, with a GPU compute score of 7,557. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1,651. The Geekbench OpenCL score is 83,358, and Vulkan score is 90,637. These numbers place the GPU in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20,282. Its nearest rivals are all within 1.5% of its score: the Quadro M4000M at 20,480 (1% higher), RTX 3070 Mobile at 20,534 (1.2% higher), Arc B570 at 20,556 (1.3% higher), and Arc A750 at 20,582 (1.5% higher). These close margins suggest that the RTX 2070 SUPER is competitively positioned for its era, but it is clearly outclassed by newer mid-range GPUs.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor in Doom, as the game’s 2016 engine does not require large frame buffers. However, the GPU’s raw pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s are the key specifications that determine its 4K performance. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the GPU can only muster 45 FPS, which is consistent with a card that was designed for 1440p gaming at high refresh rates, not 4K at maximum quality. At 1080p and 1440p, the RTX 2070 SUPER delivers excellent performance, but its age is evident at 4K, where even Low settings barely exceed 60 FPS.

FAQ

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

A: According to the measured data, 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all presets exceed 120 FPS, with Low at 212 FPS and Ultra at 127 FPS. At 1440p, only Low and Medium stay above 100 FPS (137 and 119 respectively), while at 4K, only Low exceeds 60 FPS at 74 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in Doom?

A: No. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has 24 cores and 24 threads with boost clocks up to 5.80 GHz, and the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows consistent drops of roughly 35% and 45% at each step, indicating the GPU is always the limiting factor.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: It ranks 1,654 out of 2,930 combos tested for Doom, placing it in the 43.5th percentile. The CPU is in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, but the GPU’s 65th percentile standing drags the overall combo rank down.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER capable of 4K gaming in Doom?

A: Only at Low settings does it achieve a 60+ FPS average (74 FPS). Medium drops to 65 FPS, High to 55 FPS, and Ultra to 45 FPS, so 4K gaming is only viable at reduced quality presets.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low produces 212 FPS while Ultra produces 127 FPS, a difference of 85 FPS or 40.1% lower performance for the highest quality preset.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: Its average benchmark score is 20,282, with the Quadro M4000M 1% higher, RTX 3070 Mobile 1.2% higher, Arc B570 1.3% higher, and Arc A750 1.5% higher. All rivals are within 1.5% of its score, indicating very close synthetic performance.