Doom

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a commanding performance profile in Doom, with benchmark data showing exceptional frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings. This combination demonstrates the classic characteristics of a high-refresh-rate gaming system, where the GPU's raw throughput becomes the primary determinant of performance at higher resolutions, while the CPU's substantial multi-core capabilities ensure headroom at lower settings where frame rates exceed 400 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, with the most dramatic shifts occurring between 1440p and 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 401 FPS, which drops to 260 FPS at 1440p and further to 141 FPS at 4K — representing a 35% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 46% reduction from 1440p to 4K. This steep decline indicates that the rendering load at 4K is substantially heavier, pushing the RTX 4080 closer to its limits.

The scaling pattern under High settings follows a similar trajectory: 295 FPS at 1080p, 191 FPS at 1440p, and 104 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops here are 35% and 46% respectively, mirroring the Low setting behavior almost exactly. This consistency suggests that the game's engine scales resolution-dependent workloads linearly, and the GPU is the limiting factor at all resolution steps.

At Ultra settings, the pattern holds with 241 FPS at 1080p, 156 FPS at 1440p, and 85 FPS at 4K — a 35% drop to 1440p and another 45% drop to 4K. The fact that the relative scaling remains nearly identical across all four quality presets strongly indicates that resolution scaling in Doom is purely a function of pixel count and GPU fill rate, with no unexpected bottlenecks emerging at higher resolutions.

The 4K results deserve special attention. Even at Ultra settings, the combo maintains an average of 85 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At High settings, 4K delivers 104 FPS, and at Low settings it reaches 141 FPS. These numbers suggest that the RTX 4080's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle 4K textures and geometry without causing frame drops or stuttering.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 plays the dominant role in determining Doom's performance, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU's compute and memory subsystems are fully exercised. The GPU's specifications include a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, with 9728 shading units and 304 texture mapping units. These specifications translate into a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s, which are the key metrics for understanding how quickly the card can fill the screen with rendered pixels.

The memory configuration is particularly relevant for Doom's performance at 4K. The card features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. This bandwidth figure is crucial because Doom's texture-heavy environments and high-resolution assets require substantial memory throughput to avoid bottlenecks. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (85 FPS) versus 4K Low (141 FPS) shows a 40% performance difference, which is directly attributable to the increased texture detail and shading complexity at higher settings rather than memory capacity limitations.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate its strong gaming performance. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the RTX 4080 scores 6567, while Geekbench Vulkan shows 263779 and OpenCL shows 214739. The PassMark G3D score of 34457 places it in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, indicating it outperforms the vast majority of competing graphics cards. The nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54209 on average benchmark score, a mere 0.1% delta, confirming that this GPU is at the top tier of performance.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU combination holds a combo rank of 215 out of 3712 tested combos, placing it in the top 5.8% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the overall system balance and its ability to deliver high frame rates across the board. The percentileVsAllCpus for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is 96, meaning it performs better than 96% of all CPUs in synthetic benchmarks, while the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus is 86.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 84003 places it slightly ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83807, delta 0.2%) and the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090, delta 1.1%). The AMD EPYC 9135 scores 82980 (delta 1.2%), and the AMD EPYC 7F72 scores 85072 (delta -1.3%), meaning the 290K Plus trails that server chip by 1.3%. These narrow deltas indicate the CPU is well-matched with its direct competitors, but the GPU's 86th percentile ranking is the more limiting factor for overall system performance in gaming workloads.

The combo rank of 215 suggests that while this is a high-performing system, there are 214 other tested combinations that deliver higher average frame rates in Doom. This is likely due to the RTX 4080 being an end-of-life product (released 2022-09-19) and not the absolute fastest GPU available, even though it remains highly capable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce 401 FPS average, Medium settings yield 350 FPS with a minimum of 297 and maximum of 402, High settings achieve 295 FPS, and Ultra settings still maintain 241 FPS. These frame rates are far beyond what any standard 60Hz or 144Hz monitor can display, meaning the system is heavily CPU-bound at this resolution — the GPU has so much headroom that it is waiting for the CPU to feed it instructions.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains extremely high but begins to show the GPU's influence. Low settings produce 260 FPS, Medium settings average 226 FPS with a minimum of 192 and maximum of 260, High settings achieve 191 FPS, and Ultra settings deliver 156 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p ranges from 35% at Low to 36% at High, showing a consistent scaling factor that indicates the GPU is now becoming a more significant contributor to the performance equation.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's role becomes fully dominant. Low settings yield 141 FPS, Medium settings average 123 FPS with a minimum of 104 and maximum of 141, High settings achieve 104 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 85 FPS. The minimum frame rates recorded at Medium settings (104 FPS at 4K, 192 FPS at 1440p, 297 FPS at 1080p) suggest that even in the most demanding moments, the system maintains playable performance without severe frame time spikes.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Doom?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 401, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the absolute ceiling for this combination in the benchmark data.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Doom?

A: Yes, the combo delivers 85 FPS at 4K Ultra settings, 104 FPS at 4K High, 123 FPS at 4K Medium, and 141 FPS at 4K Low. All of these are well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54247, while the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54209, a delta of 0.1%. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (delta -1.1%) and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698 (delta -2.6%).

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 215th out of 3712 tested combinations, placing it in the top 5.8% of all systems in the database for Doom performance.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor given the extremely high frame rates (401 FPS at Low). The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has a 96th percentile ranking among CPUs, but the GPU's 86th percentile ranking means it has more headroom at lower resolutions.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values recorded for this combo?

A: The minimum FPS values are only recorded for Medium settings: 297 FPS at 1080p, 192 FPS at 1440p, and 104 FPS at 4K. These represent the lowest frame rates during benchmark runs, indicating consistent performance without major drops.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus provides the computational foundation for this system, featuring 24 cores and 24 threads with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. This Arrow Lake Refresh processor, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC, has a 125 W TDP and supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s. The CPU's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data storage for game logic and physics calculations.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 290K Plus demonstrates exceptional multi-core performance. Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 51731, while single-core reaches 7303. PassMark multi-thread scores 60860, and single-thread scores 4823. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 96 means it outperforms 96% of all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 84003 is within 1.3% of the AMD EPYC 7F72 (85072), its closest rival above it.

For Doom specifically, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with rendering commands and handle game logic, physics, and AI. The 24-core configuration ensures that even the most complex scenes with many enemies and particle effects do not cause CPU-bound frame rate drops. The high boost clock of 5.80 GHz is particularly valuable for single-threaded game logic, while the 24 threads handle background tasks without contention.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s is sufficient to keep the GPU's 716.8 GB/s memory system fed with data, preventing any potential bottleneck in data transfer. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes provides high-bandwidth connectivity to the GPU, ensuring that data flows between CPU and GPU without latency issues.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1080p gaming, all settings deliver far more FPS than any monitor can display, so players should select Ultra settings (241 FPS) for maximum visual quality without sacrificing performance. The 35% difference between Low (401 FPS) and Ultra (241 FPS) is imperceptible on standard displays, making Ultra the clear choice.

At 1440p, the situation is similar. Ultra settings deliver 156 FPS, which is above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors (typically 144Hz or 165Hz). High settings (191 FPS) provide a small performance boost with minimal visual difference, but Ultra is still recommended for the best image quality. If targeting a 240Hz monitor, Medium settings (226 FPS) or High settings (191 FPS) would be more appropriate to maintain frame rates above the refresh rate.

For 4K gaming, the recommendation shifts based on the display's refresh rate. At 85 FPS on Ultra, the experience is smooth for 60Hz displays and acceptable for 120Hz displays, though not hitting the maximum refresh rate. High settings (104 FPS) provide a significant 22% performance boost over Ultra while maintaining high visual quality. Medium settings (123 FPS) offer another 18% boost and are recommended for players prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity. Low settings (141 FPS) are only necessary for 144Hz 4K displays, which remain rare.

The data shows that the Medium preset offers the best balance, as it is the only settings level with recorded minimum FPS values, indicating the benchmark captured consistent performance without drops. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (104 FPS) matches the average FPS of 4K High (104 FPS), suggesting that Medium provides similar worst-case performance to High's average, making it a safe choice for consistent frame times.