Doom

# Doom (2016) — Intel Core Ultra X9 388H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

This combination of Intel's 16-core Core Ultra X9 388H mobile processor and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Doom, with the data showing that the GPU is the clear performance driver at higher resolutions while the CPU's strong single-thread performance prevents bottlenecks at 1080p. The measured results span from a minimum of 67 FPS at 4K Ultra to a maximum of 316 FPS at 1080p Low, making this combo suitable for high-refresh-rate displays at lower resolutions and smooth 4K gameplay at reduced settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of how settings impact performance at each resolution. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset delivers 67 FPS average, which is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. Dropping to High raises the average to 81 FPS, a 21% improvement over Ultra that makes High the recommended choice for 4K if visual fidelity matters. Medium at 4K yields 96 FPS, and Low reaches 111 FPS — both are strong options for competitive play or for users prioritizing frame rate over eye candy. Given that the minimum FPS is only recorded for Medium (82 FPS at 4K), the data suggests Medium provides a more consistent frame pacing experience than the presets without min/max data.

At 2560x1440, the story shifts toward high-refresh gaming. Ultra produces 123 FPS, which is sufficient for most 144Hz displays. High jumps to 150 FPS, Medium to 178 FPS, and Low to 204 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 151 FPS and a maximum of 205 FPS, indicating that even at worst-case moments, gameplay remains well above 144 FPS. For 1440p users with 165Hz or 240Hz monitors, Medium or Low are the sensible picks; the 178 FPS average on Medium closely aligns with 165Hz refresh rates, while Low's 204 FPS suits 200Hz-class displays.

At 1920x1080, the combo is clearly CPU-limited at lower settings. Ultra runs at 190 FPS, High at 232 FPS, Medium at 275 FPS, and Low at 316 FPS. The Medium preset records a minimum of 234 FPS and a maximum of 316 FPS, showing that even the worst-case frame time remains above 200 FPS. For esports-style play, Low's 316 FPS average is the clear choice, particularly for 300Hz monitors. However, the gap between High and Ultra (232 vs 190 FPS) is modest compared to the jump from Medium to Low (275 vs 316 FPS), which suggests diminishing returns at the very bottom of the settings range.

The optimal preset depends on the target display. For 4K, High balances visual quality (81 FPS) against the performance drop to Ultra (67 FPS). For 1440p, Medium or High both exceed 144 FPS, with Medium offering a 19% advantage over High. For 1080p, Low maximizes frame rate (316 FPS), but High's 232 FPS is sufficient for most high-refresh monitors and retains better image fidelity.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Doom at 4K with high settings?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings is 81 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Ultra settings drop to 67 FPS, still playable but with less headroom.

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play?

A: 1920x1080 with Low settings delivers a 316 FPS average, which is the highest measured frame rate in the dataset. If you prefer Medium settings, 275 FPS is still extremely high, and the Medium preset shows a minimum of 234 FPS, ensuring no dips below 200 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance at lower resolutions?

A: At 1080p, the frame rate scales significantly with settings (190-316 FPS), which indicates the CPU's single-thread performance is sufficient to feed the RTX 4090. The Core Ultra X9 388H has a boost clock of 5.10 GHz and scores 4280 in Passmark single-thread, contributing to the high frame rates at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 overkill for this game?

A: The data suggests it is not overkill if you want maximum refresh rates. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 316 FPS, and at 1440p Medium, 178 FPS. These results are only achievable with a top-tier GPU like the RTX 4090, which has an average benchmark score of 60347 across all tests.

Q: What settings should I use for a 144Hz 1440p monitor?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 produce a 178 FPS average with a 151 FPS minimum, which keeps gameplay above 144 Hz at all times. High settings also work at 150 FPS average, but the minimum is not recorded, so Medium offers more certainty for consistent frame delivery.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: It ranks 614th out of 2930 tested combos for Doom, placing it in the top 21% of all combinations. This is a strong result, though the rank reflects the specific pairing of this mobile CPU with a flagship desktop GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows how performance scales as resolution increases, revealing the balance between CPU and GPU load. Starting at 1080p Low, the combo produces 316 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 204 FPS, a 35% reduction. At 4K Low, the frame rate falls to 111 FPS, another 46% drop from 1440p. This pattern indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution rises, since the CPU workload remains relatively constant while pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

For High settings, the scaling is similar: 232 FPS at 1080p, 150 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop), and 81 FPS at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across settings suggest that the game's rendering load scales predictably with resolution, and the RTX 4090's compute resources are the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

The gap between Low and High settings widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, Low (316 FPS) is 36% faster than High (232 FPS). At 4K, Low (111 FPS) is 37% faster than High (81 FPS). This similar relative gap indicates that settings changes affect the GPU workload proportionally across resolutions, rather than introducing a CPU bottleneck at any particular resolution.

The limiting component analysis is clear: at 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance (4280 Passmark score, 5.10 GHz boost) is sufficient to push frame rates above 300 FPS, but the RTX 4090's raw power (82.58 TFLOPS FP32) still governs the scaling curve. At 4K, the GPU's memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s and 24 GB of GDDR6X memory become critical, as the frame rate drops to 111 FPS on Low settings — still high, but a far cry from the 316 FPS at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo holds rank 614 out of 2930 tested combinations for Doom, which places it in the top 21% of all CPU-GPU pairs in the database. This is a strong showing, though not a top-tier placement, which reflects the unusual pairing of a mobile-oriented CPU with a desktop flagship GPU. The Core Ultra X9 388H, with its 16 cores and 16 threads, scores 44466 on average across all CPU benchmarks, placing it at the 88th percentile of all CPUs. The RTX 4090, with an average benchmark score of 60347, also sits at the 88th percentile of all GPUs.

The rank of 614 suggests that many other combos achieve higher frame rates in Doom, likely because the game is not particularly demanding on modern hardware. The RTX 4090's nearest rivals include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (deltaPct 0), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (deltaPct 0.3), AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (deltaPct -2.5), and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (deltaPct 2.9). These deltas are small, indicating that the RTX 4090's raw compute performance is closely matched by several workstation GPUs in synthetic benchmarks, though real-world gaming performance may differ.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing achieves 316 FPS at 1080p Low, which is among the highest measured values. The rank being lower than the raw performance might suggest that combos with higher-clocked desktop CPUs or GPUs with better game-specific optimizations score higher. However, the 614th rank out of 2930 still places this combo ahead of roughly 79% of all tested configurations, making it a very capable system for Doom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor based on the Panther Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with an 18 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core and 3 MB of L2 per core. This configuration delivers strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Passmark single-thread score of 4280 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2200.5.

For Doom, single-thread performance is critical because the game's engine (id Tech 6) relies heavily on a few primary threads for game logic and rendering command submission. The CPU's 5.10 GHz boost clock ensures that these threads are serviced quickly, which is why the combo achieves 316 FPS at 1080p Low — a frame rate that would be impossible with a weaker single-thread performer. The multi-thread performance, measured at 36811 in Passmark multithread and 18911 in Cinebench R23 multicore, is ample for background tasks and streaming, but it is not the primary driver of Doom's frame rate.

The CPU's memory support for LPDDR5X with dual-channel and 153.6 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for feeding the RTX 4090's data demands. The 16 threads match the 16 cores, meaning no hyper-threading, but this is not a limitation for Doom since the game rarely uses more than a few threads effectively. The CPU's 88th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44466, places it just 0.2% below the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (44573) and 0.3% above the Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342). These rivals are all strong performers, suggesting the X9 388H is well-matched to the RTX 4090 for gaming workloads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce a 316 FPS average, Medium 275 FPS (with a minimum of 234 FPS and maximum of 316 FPS), High 232 FPS, and Ultra 190 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 40% performance drop (316 to 190 FPS), which is relatively modest compared to the scaling at higher resolutions, indicating that the CPU is not the bottleneck here — the GPU's fill rate and shading units (16384 shading units, 176 ROPs) handle the increased settings load well.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the GPU's growing load. Low settings average 204 FPS, Medium 178 FPS (minimum 151, maximum 205), High 150 FPS, and Ultra 123 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 40% (204 to 123 FPS), similar to 1080p. The Medium preset's minimum of 151 FPS confirms that even the most demanding moments stay above 144 FPS, making this resolution ideal for high-refresh gaming.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily taxed. Low settings average 111 FPS, Medium 96 FPS (minimum 82, maximum 111), High 81 FPS, and Ultra 67 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 40% (111 to 67 FPS), consistent with the other resolutions. The Medium preset's maximum of 111 FPS matches the Low average, suggesting that the GPU's performance ceiling at 4K is around 111 FPS regardless of settings when the CPU can keep up. The 67 FPS at Ultra is the only sub-60 FPS result in the entire dataset, but it remains playable.

Across all resolutions, the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth provides ample headroom for texture streaming at 4K, and the 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 compute ensures that even Ultra settings maintain playable frame rates. The data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming at maximum refresh rates, while 4K requires a compromise on settings to maintain high FPS.