Doom

# Doom Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

The benchmark data for Doom with the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti reveals a system that delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested resolutions, with the combination ranking 260th out of 2930 tested combos in this title. The measured results span three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a comprehensive view of how this hardware pairing scales under varying graphical loads.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a dramatic reduction in average frame rates across every settings preset, with the magnitude of the drop revealing important information about where the performance bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the system delivers 378 FPS at 1920x1080, but this falls to 245 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 133 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 35% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a further 46% decrease from 1440p to 4K, for a total drop of 65% from the lowest to highest resolution.

The scaling pattern at Medium settings follows a similar trajectory, with 329 FPS at 1080p dropping to 213 FPS at 1440p and 115 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 35% and 46% respectively, showing a remarkably consistent scaling factor regardless of the starting point. High settings produce 278 FPS at 1080p, 180 FPS at 1440p, and 98 FPS at 4K, which translates to 35% and 46% reductions again. Ultra settings yield 227 FPS at 1080p, 147 FPS at 1440p, and 80 FPS at 4K, with drops of 35% and 46%.

The consistent 35% and 46% scaling ratios across all four settings presets strongly suggest that the performance degradation from resolution scaling is driven by the GPU's pixel processing capabilities rather than any CPU limitation. The RTX 5070 Ti, with its 96 ROPs and 235.4 GPixel/s pixel rate, appears to be the primary constraint as resolution increases. The nearly identical percentage drops regardless of settings indicate that the rendering workload scales predictably with pixel count, a characteristic typical of GPU-bound scenarios in this engine.

At 1080p, the frame rates approach or exceed 300 FPS at lower settings, which is far beyond the refresh rate capabilities of most displays. This suggests that at this resolution, the CPU's ability to feed the GPU becomes increasingly relevant, though the consistent scaling pattern implies the CPU is not yet the limiting factor even at the highest frame rates observed. The data indicates a system that remains GPU-limited throughout the resolution range tested.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti plays the dominant role in determining Doom's performance across the tested configurations. This GPU features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 896.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The memory operates at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed, while the GPU core runs at a base clock of 2295 MHz and boosts to 2452 MHz. The card's 8960 shading units, 280 TMUs, and 96 ROPs deliver a measured FP32 throughput of 43.94 TFLOPS.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 49957 places it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (scoring 50001, a 0.1% difference), Intel Arc A550M (49737, 0.4% behind), AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (50951, 2% ahead), and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (48477, 3.1% behind). The tight clustering of scores among these rivals indicates that the RTX 5070 Ti sits in a competitive performance tier, though the direct comparison in Doom specifically shows the GPU delivering frame rates that would be considered excellent for modern FPS gaming.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is substantial for a game released in 2016, and the 896.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and memory-intensive scenes are handled without capacity-related stutters. At 4K Ultra settings, the system still manages 80 FPS, suggesting that memory bandwidth is not a limiting factor even at the highest resolution tested. The GPU's Blackwell 2.0 architecture and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 ensure broad API compatibility, though Doom's original release predates some of these standards.

Settings Recommendations

Analyzing the measured frame rates across settings presets reveals diminishing returns as quality increases, particularly at higher resolutions. At 4K, the system delivers 133 FPS on Low settings, 115 FPS on Medium, 98 FPS on High, and 80 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium costs 18 FPS (14% reduction), Medium to High costs 17 FPS (15% reduction), and High to Ultra costs 18 FPS (18% reduction). The relatively consistent cost per tier suggests that each quality level imposes a similar additional rendering burden.

At 1440p, the progression shows 245 FPS on Low, 213 FPS on Medium, 180 FPS on High, and 147 FPS on Ultra. The step from Medium to High costs 33 FPS (15% reduction), while High to Ultra costs 33 FPS (18% reduction). These percentages mirror the 4K results, indicating that the settings scaling is resolution-independent. At 1080p, the frame rates range from 378 FPS on Low to 227 FPS on Ultra, with the gap between adjacent settings remaining proportionally similar.

For players targeting 60 FPS or higher, every settings preset at every resolution exceeds this threshold comfortably. Even the most demanding configuration tested, 4K Ultra, maintains an average of 80 FPS. The data suggests that Medium settings at 4K (115 FPS) provides a balanced experience with substantial headroom over the minimum frame rate of 98 FPS recorded for that configuration. At 1440p, High settings (180 FPS) offers a strong balance, while 1080p users can comfortably run Ultra at 227 FPS. The minimum frame rates recorded for Medium settings show 98 FPS at 4K, 181 FPS at 1440p, and 280 FPS at 1080p, indicating that even the lowest measured frames remain highly playable.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti achieves a rank of 260 out of 2930 tested combos in Doom, placing it in the top 8.9% of all configurations evaluated. This ranking reflects the system's ability to deliver high frame rates across all tested scenarios, though it does not represent the absolute top tier of performance in this title. The top-ranked combos presumably feature higher-end GPUs or CPUs that extract additional performance, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU overhead becomes more significant.

The CPU component of this combo ranks in the 96th percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 84003. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (scoring 83807, just 0.2% behind), AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090, 1.1% behind), AMD EPYC 9135 (82980, 1.2% behind), and AMD EPYC 7F72 (85072, 1.3% ahead). The GPU, meanwhile, sits in the 86th percentile with an average benchmark score of 49957. The combination of a top-tier CPU with a very capable GPU yields a system that excels in Doom's demanding scenes, though the 260th rank suggests that some headroom exists for even faster configurations.

The rank relative to the 2930 total combos indicates that Doom rewards systems with strong GPU performance, and the RTX 5070 Ti's position in the upper echelon of GPUs contributes significantly to this result. The data implies that users with this combo can expect a highly playable experience in Doom, with the system's strengths being most apparent at higher resolutions where the GPU's capabilities are fully utilized.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus serves as the central processing unit in this configuration, bringing 24 cores and 24 threads to the system. It operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boosts up to 5.80 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU is built on a 3 nm process node by TSMC, featuring 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. Cache configuration includes 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache.

The CPU's benchmark results demonstrate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 51731 in multi-core and 7303 in single-core tests. PassMark results show a multi-thread score of 60860 and a single-thread score of 4823, with additional scores of 214760 in floating point math, 166194 in integer math, and 698346 in data compression. These figures place the CPU in the 96th percentile of all processors, indicating exceptional capability for demanding workloads.

In Doom, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the consistent resolution scaling patterns discussed earlier. At 1080p Low settings, where CPU overhead typically becomes more pronounced, the system still achieves 378 FPS, suggesting that the 24-core processor with its 5.80 GHz boost clock provides ample headroom for the game's engine. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores just 0.2% lower on average, indicating that the 290K Plus offers marginal improvements over its predecessor in synthetic benchmarks, though in Doom specifically, the difference may be negligible given the GPU-bound nature of the workload.

The CPU's memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 115.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures that memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck in this system. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 CPU lanes provides high-speed connectivity to the GPU, though Doom's 2016 release likely does not fully utilize these modern capabilities. The data suggests that the CPU is more than sufficient for Doom, with performance headroom to spare even at the highest frame rates recorded.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 378 FPS, Medium settings average 329 FPS with minimum and maximum values of 280 and 379 FPS respectively, High settings average 278 FPS, and Ultra settings average 227 FPS. The spread from lowest to highest settings at this resolution is 151 FPS, demonstrating the significant impact of quality presets on performance.

At 2560x1440, frame rates remain impressively high. Low settings average 245 FPS, Medium settings average 213 FPS with a minimum of 181 FPS and maximum of 245 FPS, High settings average 180 FPS, and Ultra settings average 147 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 98 FPS, showing that even the most demanding settings maintain highly playable frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the system still delivers excellent performance. Low settings average 133 FPS, Medium settings average 115 FPS with a minimum of 98 FPS and maximum of 133 FPS, High settings average 98 FPS, and Ultra settings average 80 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 53 FPS at this resolution, reflecting the increased GPU load that reduces the relative impact of settings changes.

The data shows that the RTX 5070 Ti maintains playable frame rates at every resolution and settings combination tested. The minimum recorded frame rate across all configurations is 80 FPS (4K Ultra), which is well above the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered the minimum for smooth gameplay. The maximum recorded frame rate of 379 FPS occurs at 1080p Medium settings, though the Low preset's average of 378 FPS suggests that frame rates in excess of 400 FPS may be achievable with framerate caps removed and additional settings tweaks.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo in Doom?

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 378 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The maximum observed frame rate across any test is 379 FPS, recorded at 1080p Medium settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the system averages 80 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. Even the most demanding configuration tested remains well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83807). It also leads the AMD EPYC 4584PX by 1.1% and the AMD EPYC 9135 by 1.2%, while trailing the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%.

Q: What is the performance cost of increasing resolution from 1440p to 4K?

A: Across all settings presets, the frame rate drops by approximately 46% when moving from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160. For example, High settings fall from 180 FPS to 98 FPS, and Ultra settings fall from 147 FPS to 80 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5070 Ti scores 49957 on average. This is 0.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50001, with the negative delta indicating the rival scores slightly higher), 0.4% higher than the Intel Arc A550M (49737), 2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (50951), and 3.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (48477).

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

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings average 378 FPS while Ultra settings average 227 FPS, representing a difference of 151 FPS. This is the largest absolute gap between settings at any resolution tested.