Doom

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a compelling 1080p and 1440p experience in Doom, but 4K gaming requires compromises. This analysis breaks down the measured performance data, ranking, and the specific roles of the CPU and GPU in shaping these results.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern: performance degrades as resolution increases, but the rate of that degradation reveals where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 227 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 147 FPS, a reduction of 80 FPS. At 4K Low, the average falls to 80 FPS, which is another 67 FPS drop. This steep decline from 1080p to 1440p indicates that the GPU is already becoming the primary limiting factor at 1440p, even on Low settings.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced when examining the High settings tier. At 1080p High, the system produces 167 FPS. At 1440p High, that number falls to 108 FPS, a 59 FPS drop. Pushing to 4K High yields just 59 FPS, a further 49 FPS decline. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is substantial, showing that the RTX 4070's compute and memory bandwidth are heavily taxed by the higher pixel counts.

Interestingly, the gap between Low and Ultra settings narrows as resolution increases, but the absolute FPS values remain distinct. At 1080p, the spread from Low (227 FPS) to Ultra (137 FPS) is 90 FPS. At 1440p, the spread from Low (147 FPS) to Ultra (89 FPS) is 58 FPS. At 4K, the spread from Low (80 FPS) to Ultra (48 FPS) is just 32 FPS. This tightening spread at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is the dominant constraint; when the pixel workload is massive, the difference between Low and Ultra settings has a smaller relative impact on the final frame rate.

The data suggests that for smooth 4K play, users must stick to Low settings to maintain an 80 FPS average. Medium settings at 4K yield 69 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced FPS. High and Ultra settings at 4K drop to 59 and 48 FPS respectively, indicating that this combo is not suited for maximum visual fidelity at 4K. Conversely, at 1080p, the combo is exceptionally strong, with all settings tiers exceeding 137 FPS, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 1554 out of 2930 tested combos for Doom. This places it in the upper-middle tier of all possible pairings, which is a reasonable result given the hardware involved. The rank indicates that while this setup is far from the top of the charts, it outperforms a significant majority of other combinations tested for this game.

The ranking is influenced by both components. The RTX 4070 sits in the 81st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37648. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (deltaPct 0.1), the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (deltaPct 0.4), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (deltaPct -1.3). The RTX 4070's score is nearly identical to the Tesla P4 and RX Vega 56, showing that its raw compute performance is competitive with those older or specialized cards. However, the RTX 4080 Mobile holds a 1.3% advantage, which is a small but measurable lead.

The CPU, the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, is in the 88th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44466. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (deltaPct -0.2), Intel Core i9-13950HX (deltaPct 0.3), AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 (deltaPct 0.4), and Intel Core i5-13600 (deltaPct 0.5). The X9 388H is essentially tied with these rivals, with the largest delta being only 0.5% against the i5-13600. This indicates strong, balanced CPU performance that is not a weak link in the system.

The combination of a top-tier CPU and a strong mid-to-high-tier GPU results in the 1554 rank. The data shows that the CPU is more than capable of feeding the GPU, so the final rank is largely determined by the GPU's ability to render frames at the target resolutions. The rank suggests that for Doom, this combo is a solid choice for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it will not compete with systems featuring higher-end GPUs at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 167. This indicates a very smooth experience on standard 1080p monitors, easily clearing the 144 Hz threshold for high-refresh displays.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: At 4K, the average FPS ranges from 48 on Ultra to 80 on Low. Medium settings provide 69 FPS, while High provides 59 FPS. For a competitive FPS, Low or Medium settings are required for a playable frame rate, while Ultra is too demanding.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44466, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D's score of 44573. This makes the two processors effectively identical in overall performance.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The data includes minimum FPS readings only for Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 168 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it is 109 FPS; and at 4K Medium, it is 59 FPS. These minimums suggest consistent frame pacing without severe stutters.

Q: Is the RTX 4070's performance closer to the RTX 4080 Mobile or the RX Vega 56?

A: The RTX 4070's average benchmark score is 37648. The RTX 4080 Mobile is 1.3% faster, while the RX Vega 56 is 0.4% slower. The delta to the Vega 56 is smaller, making the RTX 4070's performance most comparable to that older AMD card.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the average FPS on Low is 147, while on Ultra it is 89. This represents a 58 FPS difference, showing that visual quality settings have a significant impact on performance at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides a comprehensive view of performance across all combinations of resolution and settings.

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers high frame rates across the board. With Low settings, the average FPS is 227. Medium settings produce an average of 198 FPS, with a minimum of 168 and a maximum of 228. High settings yield an average of 167 FPS. Ultra settings bring the average down to 137 FPS. All 1080p results are exceptionally playable, even at Ultra, which maintains a frame rate well above standard 60 Hz monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance scales down as expected. Low settings average 147 FPS. Medium settings average 128 FPS, with a minimum of 109 and a maximum of 148. High settings average 108 FPS. Ultra settings drop to an average of 89 FPS. The 1440p results are still strong, with even Ultra settings remaining above the 60 FPS threshold, making this resolution a sweet spot for the combo.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings average 80 FPS. Medium settings average 69 FPS, with a minimum of 59 and a maximum of 80. High settings average 59 FPS. Ultra settings average 48 FPS. The data shows a steep drop-off at 4K, where only Low settings can reliably hold a frame rate above 75 FPS. Medium and High settings are on the edge of playability, while Ultra is not recommended for smooth gameplay.

The measured FPS data is definitive: the combo is a 1080p powerhouse, a very capable 1440p performer, and a 4K machine that requires settings adjustments to maintain a fluid experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the main driver of the FPS differences across resolutions. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K results suggest that the memory interface and the GPU's raw compute power are stressed by the higher pixel fill rate required at 3840x2160.

The GPU's base clock is 1920 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz. Its memory operates at 1313 MHz, or 21 Gbps effective. The chip, AD104, is built on a 5 nm process and contains 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. It has 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations pipelines. The GPU also includes 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, though these are not the primary factors for Doom's rasterized performance.

The GPU's FP32 performance is 29.15 TFLOPS, and its texture rate is 455.4 GTexel/s. These figures explain its ability to handle 1080p and 1440p easily. However, the 4K data shows that the RTX 4070 cannot maintain high frame rates at that resolution. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 48, which is below the playable threshold for many users. This is not a CPU limitation; it is the GPU struggling to fill the massive pixel count.

The RTX 4070's average benchmark score of 37648 places it in the 81st percentile. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 Mobile, is only 1.3% faster, yet the measured FPS at 4K Ultra is 48. This indicates that the 4070's performance is adequate for mainstream gaming but not for enthusiast-level 4K. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 26927 and passmark GPU compute score of 14720 further support its mid-to-high-tier positioning. For Doom, the RTX 4070 is the primary bottleneck at 4K, while at lower resolutions it provides ample headroom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor based on the Panther Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration provides solid single-threaded and multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its benchmark scores.

In Cinebench R23, the CPU scored 18911 in multi-core and 2200.5 in single-core. These scores are strong, indicating that the CPU can handle demanding workloads. Its Passmark single-thread score is 4280, and its multi-thread score is 36811. The CPU's percentile ranking of 88th among all CPUs shows that it is a high-performance part, and its nearest rivals are all within 0.5% of its average score.

For Doom, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The data indicates that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 227 FPS, which is a frame rate that requires a very capable CPU to avoid bottlenecking. The fact that the FPS scales down significantly as resolution increases points to the GPU being the constraint, not the CPU.

The CPU's memory support is LPDDR5X with a dual-channel bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 153.6 GB/s. This is sufficient for gaming workloads. The CPU also has integrated graphics (Arc B390), but the discrete RTX 4070 handles all rendering. The Core Ultra X9 388H's performance is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, which is a highly regarded gaming CPU. This parity confirms that the X9 388H provides no significant bottleneck in Doom, allowing the RTX 4070 to perform to its full potential. The CPU's high boost clock of 5.10 GHz is likely a key factor in maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios, though the data shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.