Doom

# Doom: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 — Benchmark Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a striking performance profile in Doom, a 2016 FPS title that remains demanding at high resolutions. Across the measured resolution ladder, this combo produces frame rates ranging from a fluid 78 FPS at 4K High to an exceptional 301 FPS at 1080p Low. The data reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at 4K, progressively shifting toward CPU-bound behavior as resolution drops, with the 24-core Arrow Lake Refresh processor showing its strength primarily at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K in Doom follows a predictable but steep curve, with the most dramatic drops occurring at the highest quality settings. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 181 FPS at 1080p to 117 FPS at 1440p, then to 63 FPS at 4K — a cumulative reduction of roughly 65% across the resolution ladder. This pattern indicates that the RTX 3080's 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth become increasingly strained as pixel count climbs, with the 4K Ultra result sitting just barely above playable thresholds.

The scaling picture changes notably at lower settings. At Low, the average frame rate drops from 301 FPS at 1080p to 195 FPS at 1440p, then to 105 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is about 35%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is roughly 46%. This non-linear scaling suggests that at 1080p Low, the system is approaching a CPU or engine-level ceiling, with the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus's 5.80 GHz boost clock proving sufficient to push frame rates well past 300 FPS. As resolution increases, the GPU's shading workload — 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 across 8704 shading units — becomes the dominant factor.

Medium settings show the most consistent scaling behavior, with averages of 262 FPS at 1080p, 170 FPS at 1440p, and 92 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result includes a minimum of 78 FPS and maximum of 106 FPS, indicating some frame-time variance but no catastrophic dips. High settings produce a similar pattern: 221 FPS at 1080p, 143 FPS at 1440p, and 78 FPS at 4K. Across all settings, the 1440p-to-4K transition exacts a heavier toll than the 1080p-to-1440p step, confirming that the RTX 3080's memory subsystem and pixel throughput — 164.2 GPixel/s — are the primary limiting factors at ultra-high resolutions.

The data also reveals that the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically as resolution increases. At 1080p, the spread between Low (301 FPS) and Ultra (181 FPS) is 120 FPS, or about 40%. At 1440p, the spread narrows to 78 FPS (195 vs. 117), and at 4K it shrinks to 42 FPS (105 vs. 63). This convergence at higher resolutions is a classic sign of GPU-bound operation, where the cost of additional shading and texture work becomes proportionally smaller relative to the fixed cost of rasterization.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor built on a 3 nm TSMC process, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. In Doom, a game from 2016 that typically leverages fewer threads than modern titles, the CPU's single-thread performance is likely more relevant than its massive core count. The processor's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7303 and Passmark single-thread score of 4823 indicate strong per-core capability, which aligns with the high frame rates observed at 1080p where CPU overhead can become a bottleneck.

The CPU's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core provide ample on-die storage for game data, likely reducing memory stalls in a fast-paced FPS like Doom. With dual-channel DDR5 memory support and 115.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth, the platform can feed the GPU efficiently at lower resolutions. The 1080p Low result of 301 FPS strongly suggests that the processor's 5.80 GHz boost clock is being fully utilized, as frame rates at this level typically require extremely low latency and high instruction throughput.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus posts an average benchmark score of 84003, which is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83807), 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090), and 1.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9135 (82980). It trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 (85072) by 1.3%. These margins are small, suggesting that the 290K Plus offers no dramatic CPU advantage over its closest competitors in general workloads, but the 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates top-tier overall performance.

The Passmark physics score of 3315 and multithread score of 60860 further characterize the CPU's capability. The physics score, while modest, reflects the processor's ability to handle game-specific physics calculations, and the high multithread score (nearly double the 285K's nearest rival delta) suggests headroom for heavily threaded workloads. However, in Doom specifically, the benchmark results indicate that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor except at 1080p Low, where the 301 FPS average likely approaches the engine's own frame-rate ceiling.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, built on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, provides the graphical horsepower for this combo. Its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus delivers 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is substantial but not unlimited — and the 4K results suggest that VRAM capacity and bandwidth become constraints at the highest resolutions. The GPU's 8704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs deliver a 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, with a texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s.

At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 63 FPS, which is below the 78 FPS achieved at 4K High. The 15 FPS difference between High and Ultra at 4K indicates that the highest preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GPU, likely including advanced lighting or shadow techniques that stress the 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores, even though Doom does not natively use ray tracing. The 4K Medium result of 92 FPS with a 78 FPS minimum shows that dropping settings from High to Medium yields a 14 FPS improvement, suggesting that High preset includes features that push the GPU near its limits.

The GPU's 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23172, places it in the upper-midrange tier. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, 0.3% higher), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, 0.3% higher), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, 0.4% higher), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, 0.4% higher). These deltas are negligible, indicating that the RTX 3080's synthetic benchmark performance is closely matched by several other GPUs, though its real-world Doom performance benefits from its specific architectural strengths.

The GPU's memory clock of 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) and boost clock of 1710 MHz are moderate by modern standards, but the Ampere architecture's efficiency at 8 nm (Samsung foundry) allows for sustained performance. The 320 W TDP and dual-slot design require robust cooling, but the benchmark results show no evidence of thermal throttling, as frame rates remain consistent across repeated runs. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4407 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 33620 provide additional context, with the latter indicating strong Vulkan performance — relevant for Doom's Vulkan API support.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 301 FPS, with Medium at 262 FPS (minimum 223, maximum 301), High at 221 FPS, and Ultra at 181 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 120 FPS drop, with each settings tier costing between 39 and 41 FPS. This linear degradation suggests that at 1080p, the GPU has ample headroom and the CPU's 5.80 GHz boost clock is the primary enabler of the highest frame rates.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages remain high but show the GPU taking on more work. Low settings yield 195 FPS, Medium 170 FPS (minimum 144, maximum 195), High 143 FPS, and Ultra 117 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is consistent: 106 FPS at Low, 92 FPS at Medium, 78 FPS at High, and 64 FPS at Ultra. These reductions are proportionally smaller than the 1440p-to-4K drops, reinforcing that 1440p is a sweet spot for this hardware.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more modest. Low settings average 105 FPS, Medium 92 FPS (minimum 78, maximum 106), High 78 FPS, and Ultra 63 FPS. The Ultra result is the only one that dips below 60 FPS territory, though it technically stays above it. The Medium preset's minimum of 78 FPS indicates that even the lowest frames remain playable, but the Ultra preset's lack of a reported minimum suggests potential variance that could occasionally drop below 60 FPS. The 4K results clearly show that this combo is best suited for Medium or High settings at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos for Doom, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 787th out of 2930 combinations. This places it in the 73rd percentile of all tested systems, which is a strong showing given the GPU's age (released in 2020) and its 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking helps boost the combo's position, but the GPU's mid-tier status prevents a higher overall rank.

The gap between the CPU's high percentile (96th) and the GPU's lower percentile (68th) highlights a performance imbalance in this pairing. The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is clearly capable of driving faster GPUs, as evidenced by its 1080p Low result of 301 FPS, which likely exceeds what many older or slower GPUs could achieve. However, the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM and Ampere architecture, while competent, are not top-tier by current standards, limiting the combo's overall standing.

The combo rank of 787 out of 2930 suggests that roughly 27% of tested systems outperform this pairing in Doom, many of which likely pair newer GPUs with similar or faster CPUs. The RTX 3080's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — the P106-100, Radeon Pro Vega 16, RX 6600M, and R9 M290X — all have similar average scores, but none of these are likely to be paired with a CPU as powerful as the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus in practice, which explains why this combo still ranks in the top quartile.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K gaming, the data points to Medium settings as the optimal choice. The average of 92 FPS with a minimum of 78 FPS provides a smooth experience that stays well above 60 FPS even during demanding scenes. High settings at 4K reduce the average to 78 FPS, which is playable but offers less headroom for frame-time spikes. Ultra at 4K, at 63 FPS, is borderline and not recommended for competitive play.

At 1440p, High settings (143 FPS) offer the best balance, providing a significant visual uplift over Medium (170 FPS) while remaining comfortably above 120 FPS. Ultra at 117 FPS is also viable for those prioritizing image quality, but the 26 FPS difference between High and Ultra at this resolution suggests diminishing returns. For 1080p, Ultra settings (181 FPS) are the clear recommendation, as the GPU and CPU combination has sufficient headroom to maintain high frame rates even with all features enabled.

The Low presets across all resolutions produce frame rates that are only useful for competitive play or for users with high-refresh-rate displays (195 FPS at 1440p, 105 FPS at 4K). For most users, Medium at 4K, High at 1440p, and Ultra at 1080p represent the settings where visual quality and performance converge most favorably, based on the measured averages and minimums in the data.