Doom

Doom at 4K Ultra with an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 lands at 65 FPS average. That is the headline number from the measured data, and it tells a clear story about where this combo’s limits sit. The RTX 5080 is the dominant component here, but the 388H is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions either — the scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K shows a system that is balanced enough for high-refresh 1440p and solid 4K play.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep, predictable drop as resolution climbs. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 309 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 200 FPS, and 4K Low lands at 108 FPS. That is a 65% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which is a massive hit — but it is also exactly what you would expect when pixel count quadruples. The RTX 5080’s 16 GB of GDDR7 and 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth are being pushed harder at each step, and the data reflects that.

At High settings, the pattern repeats: 227 FPS at 1080p, 147 FPS at 1440p, and 80 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 35%, and from 1440p to 4K is 46%. The 4K High result of 80 FPS is playable, but it is close to the edge of what you would want for a fast-paced FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 65 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire set, and it shows that Ultra settings at 4K are where this GPU finally runs out of headroom.

The scaling behavior reveals the limiting component. At 1080p, the CPU matters more because the GPU can render frames quickly, but the data shows the 388H keeps up — 309 FPS at Low and 227 FPS at High are both far beyond typical 144Hz monitor refresh rates. The gap between Low and High at 1080p is 82 FPS, which is a GPU-side effect from increased shading and texture work. At 4K, the gap between Low and Ultra is 43 FPS, again GPU-bound. The CPU is not the constraint at any resolution; the RTX 5080 is doing the heavy lifting, and the 388H’s 16 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock are sufficient to feed it.

How This Combo Ranks

In Doom specifically, this combo ranks 745 out of 2930 tested combinations. That places it in the top 25.4% of all CPU-GPU pairings tested for this game. The percentile data for the individual components reinforces this: the 388H sits at the 88th percentile among all CPUs, and the RTX 5080 sits at the 87th percentile among all GPUs. Both are above-average parts, but neither is near the absolute top, which explains the mid-pack ranking among 2930 combos.

The ranking is more about the game’s age and the sheer number of faster combos tested than about this pairing being weak. Doom is a 2016 title, and modern flagship GPUs can push extremely high frame rates in it. The RTX 5080’s nearest rivals in the overall GPU benchmark data are the AMD Radeon 8060S (0.6% higher average score), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (0.7% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE (2.2% lower). The 5080 is effectively in a tight cluster with those cards, with delta percentages under 2.3% in either direction. That means the 745th rank is not a sign of a weak pairing; it is a sign that many other combos with slightly stronger GPUs or CPUs have been tested.

For the CPU side, the 388H’s nearest rivals are all within 0.5% of its average benchmark score. The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is 0.2% lower, the Intel Core i9-13950HX is 0.3% higher, the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 is 0.4% higher, and the Intel Core i5-13600 is 0.5% higher. This is a tightly packed field, and the 388H is not meaningfully ahead or behind any of those chips. In Doom, where frame rates are already high, that CPU performance level is more than adequate.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a mobile processor with 16 cores and 16 threads, a base clock of 2.10 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. It has 18 MB of shared L3 cache, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 192 KB of L1 per core. The architecture is Panther Lake, built on Intel’s 3 nm process. The TDP is 25 W, which is low for a 16-core part, but the boost clock of 5.10 GHz compensates in single-threaded workloads.

In Doom, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The measured FPS at 1080p Low — 309 FPS — is a strong indicator that the 388H is not holding the RTX 5080 back. If the CPU were the bottleneck, you would see a ceiling around a certain frame rate regardless of resolution or settings. Instead, the data shows FPS scaling with both resolution and settings, which means the GPU is the primary limiter. The 388H’s single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 single-core at 2200.5 points, is high enough to avoid becoming a constraint in a game like Doom that is well-optimized for multi-threading.

The multi-core results are consistent with a capable mid-range mobile chip. Cinebench R23 multi-core is 18911 points, Cinebench R20 multi-core is 13101, and Cinebench R15 multi-core is 2955. PassMark multi-thread is 36811, and single-thread is 4280. These scores place the 388H in the 88th percentile of all CPUs, which is a solid position. In Doom, the 16 threads are more than enough; the game does not scale infinitely with core count, but the 388H’s combination of high boost clock and adequate thread count keeps it out of the way.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full measured FPS table shows 12 distinct configurations across three resolutions and four settings tiers.

At 1080p, the results are: Low 309 FPS, Medium 269 FPS (min 229, max 310), High 227 FPS, and Ultra 186 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 123 FPS, which is a 40% reduction. The Medium setting shows a min of 229 FPS and max of 310 FPS, indicating that even in heavy scenes, the frame rate stays well above 200 FPS. This is a high-refresh-rate sweet spot. The 388H and RTX 5080 together are capable of driving a 240Hz or 360Hz monitor at 1080p with High settings, and even Ultra stays above 180 FPS.

At 1440p, the results are: Low 200 FPS, Medium 174 FPS (min 148, max 200), High 147 FPS, and Ultra 120 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant — roughly 35-40% at each settings tier — but the absolute numbers remain strong. Ultra at 1440p delivers 120 FPS exactly, which is ideal for a 120Hz or 144Hz display. High at 1440p gives 147 FPS, which is within the range of a 144Hz monitor with VRR. Low at 1440p hits 200 FPS, which is a hard ceiling for many monitors but shows the combo is not GPU-limited in lighter scenes.

At 4K, the results are: Low 108 FPS, Medium 94 FPS (min 80, max 109), High 80 FPS, and Ultra 65 FPS. The Medium setting’s min of 80 FPS is notable — it shows that even in the worst-case scenes, the frame rate does not dip below 80 FPS. High at 4K is exactly 80 FPS average, which is playable but not ideal for competitive play. Ultra at 4K is 65 FPS, which is the only measured configuration that falls below the 70 FPS mark. For a game like Doom, which rewards high frame rates, 4K Ultra is the weakest option in this dataset.

The Medium settings at each resolution are the only rows with min and max values. At 1080p Medium, the min is 229 FPS and max is 310 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the min is 148 FPS and max is 200 FPS. At 4K Medium, the min is 80 FPS and max is 109 FPS. These ranges suggest that Medium settings produce more consistent frame pacing than Low or High, likely because the GPU is neither fully saturated nor underutilized.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the star of this pairing. It has 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. The base clock is 2295 MHz and the boost clock is 2617 MHz. The chip is GB203, built on TSMC’s 5 nm process with 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die. The shader count is 10752, with 336 TMUs and 112 ROPs. The RT cores number 84, and the tensor cores are 336. The FP32 performance is 56.28 TFLOPS, and the texture rate is 879.3 GTexel/s. The TDP is 360 W, and the launch MSRP is 999 USD.

In Doom, the RTX 5080’s raw rasterization power is what matters most. The game does not use ray tracing heavily, and the 84 RT cores are largely idle. The measured FPS at 1080p Low — 309 FPS — is close to what you would expect from a GPU with 56.28 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The 16 GB of VRAM is more than enough for Doom at any settings; the game’s texture requirements are modest by modern standards. The 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth helps at 4K, where the memory bus is stressed more. The 4K Low result of 108 FPS and 4K High result of 80 FPS both indicate that the GPU is the limiting factor at that resolution, not the memory capacity or bandwidth.

The RTX 5080’s benchmark scores are consistent with a high-end GPU. In PassMark G3D, it scores 36565, and in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 8637. Geekbench OpenCL is 235901, and Geekbench Vulkan is 255450. The GPU sits at the 87th percentile of all GPUs, which is slightly below the CPU’s 88th percentile. The nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark data are all within 2.3% of the 5080’s average score, which means this GPU is not a class leader but is firmly in the upper tier. In Doom, that translates to frame rates that are high enough for smooth play at 1440p and acceptable at 4K with settings adjustments.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium as the best overall settings preset for this combo, especially at higher resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 269 FPS average with a min of 229 FPS. That is a 42 FPS improvement over High (227 FPS) and a 83 FPS improvement over Ultra (186 FPS). The visual difference between Medium and High in Doom is noticeable but not dramatic, and the frame rate gain is substantial. For competitive play at 1080p, Medium is the clear choice — it keeps the frame rate above 229 FPS even in the worst-case scenes, which is well into high-refresh territory.

At 1440p, Medium delivers 174 FPS average with a min of 148 FPS. That is a 27 FPS improvement over High (147 FPS) and a 54 FPS improvement over Ultra (120 FPS). The min of 148 FPS means the frame rate never drops below the 144Hz refresh rate mark, which is ideal for a 144Hz monitor. High at 1440p is also playable at 147 FPS average, but the min is not recorded, and the average is only 3 FPS above the Medium min. Medium is the safer choice for consistent frame pacing.

At 4K, Medium delivers 94 FPS average with a min of 80 FPS. That is a 14 FPS improvement over High (80 FPS) and a 29 FPS improvement over Ultra (65 FPS). The min of 80 FPS means the frame rate stays above 80 FPS in all tested scenes, which is smooth for a 4K panel. High at 4K is exactly 80 FPS average, but without a recorded min, you are risking dips below that. Ultra at 4K is 65 FPS, which is too close to the 60 FPS line for comfort in a fast-paced FPS.

The pattern is clear: Medium settings give the best combination of average FPS and minimum FPS across all resolutions. At 1080p, the Medium min of 229 FPS is higher than the High average of 227 FPS, which is a striking indicator of consistency. At 1440p, the Medium min of 148 FPS is nearly identical to the High average of 147 FPS. At 4K, the Medium min of 80 FPS matches the High average exactly. In every case, Medium provides a floor that is equal to or better than the next-higher preset’s average.

For users with a 144Hz monitor, the recommendation is straightforward: run 1440p Medium for a locked 148+ FPS experience, or 4K Medium for a 94 FPS average that never dips below 80. For users with a 240Hz monitor at 1080p, Medium gives 269 FPS average, which is above the refresh rate in most scenes. Low settings are only worth considering if you are chasing absolute maximum frame rates — 309 FPS at 1080p Low is the highest measured value in the dataset, but the visual downgrade is significant. Ultra settings are only viable at 1080p (186 FPS) or 1440p (120 FPS), and even then, the frame rate gains from dropping to Medium outweigh the visual improvements for most players. The data supports Medium as the balanced choice, with High as a fallback for users who prioritize visuals over frame rate consistency.