To The Core

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance tier of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + Intel Arc B370 combo in To The Core?

A: This combo ranks 2750 out of 2991 tested combinations in the game, placing it in the bottom 8% of all tested setups. The measured FPS data confirms this is a low-to-midrange configuration, with 1080p High settings delivering 97 FPS but 4K Ultra dropping to just 30 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 puts it within 0.2% of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186) and 0.5% of the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190). It trails the AMD Radeon HD 7650M by 0.7% (1192) but leads the AMD FirePro M2000 by 1.4% (1168). The GPU sits at the 5th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the CPU's standing relative to other processors?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 holds the 75th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21484. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (21440, +0.2% for the Intel), Intel Core i9-11900H (21367, +0.5% for the Intel), Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21635, -0.7% for the AMD), and AMD EPYC 9454 (21223, +1.2% for the AMD).

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more in this game?

A: The resolution scaling data points to the GPU as the primary limiter. Dropping from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS by roughly 33% at High settings (97 to 65 FPS), while dropping from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS by another 43% (65 to 37 FPS). This consistent scaling with resolution indicates GPU-bound behavior, not CPU limitation.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gameplay?

A: The Low preset at 1080p delivers 132 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium yields 112 FPS, High yields 97 FPS, and Ultra yields 78 FPS. Given the large FPS headroom at 1080p, users can select Medium or High for a balanced experience without dropping below 95 FPS.

Q: Is this combo suitable for 4K gaming?

A: The data shows 4K performance ranges from 30 FPS at Ultra to 51 FPS at Low settings. Only the Low preset approaches playable frame rates at 4K, while Medium (43 FPS), High (37 FPS), and Ultra (30 FPS) all fall below standard 60 FPS targets. The GPU's 5th percentile ranking among all GPUs reinforces its 4K limitations.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated-class GPU built on Intel's 3 nm process with the Xe3-LPG architecture, part of the Panther Lake chip generation. Its memory configuration is entirely "System Shared," meaning the GPU draws from system RAM rather than dedicated VRAM, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent." This shared memory design directly impacts 4K performance, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth.

The GPU operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz. It contains 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 render output units, along with 10 ray tracing cores. Its compute capability is rated at 6.144 TFLOPS for FP32 and 12.29 TFLOPS for FP16 (2:1 ratio). Pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The GPU's modest specifications align with its benchmark standing: a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 places it at the 5th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest competitors in synthetic testing are all much older discrete parts — the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, ATI Radeon HD 5770, AMD Radeon HD 7650M, and AMD FirePro M2000 — all of which score within 1.4% of the Arc B370. This indicates the Arc B370 performs at roughly the level of a decade-old midrange discrete GPU.

In To The Core specifically, the GPU's role becomes evident through the measured FPS data. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 132 FPS, but this drops to 78 FPS at Ultra — a 41% reduction purely from settings changes. The GPU's limited memory bandwidth and compute resources become progressively more strained as settings increase, particularly at higher resolutions where the shared memory architecture must handle larger frame buffers.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases. At High settings, the combo delivers 97 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33% drop from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a further 43% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 62%, which is substantial but not entirely linear.

Low settings show a similar trend: 132 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 33% and 43% respectively, matching the High preset's scaling almost exactly. Medium settings follow the same pattern with 112 FPS at 1080p, 75 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K — again 33% and 43% drops. Ultra settings deliver 78 FPS at 1080p, 53 FPS at 1440p, and 30 FPS at 4K, with drops of 32% and 43%.

The consistency of these scaling ratios across all four settings presets strongly indicates that resolution scaling is dominated by the GPU. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the percentage drops would be smaller at higher resolutions (since the CPU would bottleneck regardless of resolution). Instead, the proportional FPS losses track closely with the increase in pixel count — 1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p — which is classic GPU-bound behavior.

The minimum and maximum FPS values recorded for Medium settings reinforce this interpretation. At 1080p Medium, the range is 95 to 129 FPS; at 1440p Medium, 64 to 87 FPS; and at 4K Medium, 37 to 50 FPS. The ranges scale proportionally with resolution, indicating no unexpected frame time spikes or CPU-related hitches at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + Intel Arc B370 combination ranks 2750 out of 2991 tested combos in To The Core. This places the combo in the bottom 8.1% of all tested configurations, a position consistent with the individual component standings: the CPU at the 75th percentile among all CPUs and the GPU at the 5th percentile among all GPUs.

The CPU's relatively strong standing — 75th percentile — does little to compensate for the GPU's extremely low position. The Ryzen 5 2600's average benchmark score of 21484 puts it within a narrow band of its nearest rivals: it is 0.2% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (21440), 0.5% behind the Intel Core i9-11900H (21367), 0.7% ahead of the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21635), and 1.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9454 (21223). This clustering suggests the CPU is not the differentiator in this combo's ranking.

The GPU, by contrast, sits at the very bottom of the performance spectrum. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 places it at the 5th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are all legacy parts from the ATI/AMD HD 5000 and HD 7000 series. The Arc B370's performance is essentially tied with these decade-old GPUs, differing by less than 1.4% from each.

The combination of a mid-pack CPU with a bottom-tier GPU results in a system that ranks near the bottom of the database. The measured FPS data confirms this: the combo cannot maintain 60 FPS at 1440p High (65 FPS is the best 1440p result) and drops to 37 FPS at 4K High. Only at 1080p does the combo achieve consistently playable frame rates, with all four settings presets exceeding 78 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce 132 FPS average, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 112 FPS with a minimum of 95 FPS and maximum of 129 FPS. High settings produce 97 FPS, and Ultra settings deliver 78 FPS. All 1080p presets maintain average frame rates above 75 FPS, making this resolution fully playable across the settings range.

At 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low settings achieve 89 FPS, Medium delivers 75 FPS with a range of 64 to 87 FPS, High produces 65 FPS, and Ultra falls to 53 FPS. The 1440p results show that only Low and Medium presets maintain average frame rates above 60 FPS, while High and Ultra fall below this threshold.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles. Low settings produce 51 FPS, Medium delivers 43 FPS with a range of 37 to 50 FPS, High yields 37 FPS, and Ultra drops to 30 FPS. None of the 4K presets reach 60 FPS average, and even the best 4K result (Low at 51 FPS) falls below the standard playability target.

The progression across resolutions shows a consistent pattern: Low settings at 4K (51 FPS) perform similarly to Ultra settings at 1440p (53 FPS), and Medium settings at 4K (43 FPS) align closely with Low settings at 1440p (43 FPS would be interpolated between the 37 FPS High and 51 FPS Low results). This suggests that users can trade resolution for settings to achieve similar frame rates, with settings changes having roughly the same impact as resolution changes.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1080p, all four presets deliver playable performance, but Medium settings offer the best balance: 112 FPS average with a minimum of 95 FPS ensures smooth gameplay even during demanding scenes. The jump from Low (132 FPS) to Medium (112 FPS) costs 20 FPS but likely provides substantially better visual quality, while the jump from Medium to High (97 FPS) costs only 15 FPS more. Ultra at 78 FPS remains playable but approaches the lower boundary for high-refresh displays.

For 1440p, Medium settings are again the recommended choice. The 75 FPS average with a 64 FPS minimum keeps the experience above 60 FPS in most scenarios. Low settings at 89 FPS provide more headroom for those prioritizing frame rate, but High at 65 FPS and Ultra at 53 FPS begin to compromise the experience. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p provides the best visual-to-performance trade-off for this combo.

For 4K, the recommendation is more constrained. Low settings at 51 FPS is the only preset that approaches playable frame rates, while Medium at 43 FPS, High at 37 FPS, and Ultra at 30 FPS all fall below the minimum threshold for smooth gameplay. Users targeting 4K should accept Low settings or consider reducing the resolution to 1440p where Medium delivers 75 FPS — a 74% improvement over 4K Medium.

The overall recommendation is to run Medium settings at either 1080p (112 FPS) or 1440p (75 FPS), depending on display resolution. This preset provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate stability across the measured data, with minimum FPS values (95 and 64 respectively) that remain above critical thresholds.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series, built on the Zen architecture (specifically Zen+ Pinnacle Ridge) using GlobalFoundries' 12 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 46.9 GB/s bandwidth, and connects via PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes.

The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 96 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and 16 MB shared L3 cache. Its transistor count is 4,800 million on a 213 mm² die. The processor was released in April 2018 with a launch MSRP of $199 and remains in active production.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 2600 demonstrates solid multicore performance with a Geekbench multicore score of 5648 and a Cinebench R15 multicore score of 1248. Single-thread performance is more modest, with Geekbench single-core scoring 1154 and Cinebench R15 single-core scoring 157.3. Passmark results show a multithread score of 13160, single-thread score of 2239, and notable strengths in integer math (44518) and data compression (187062).

The CPU's 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21484, places it in a tightly contested performance band. Its nearest rivals all score within 1.2% of the Ryzen 5 2600, including the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (21440), Intel Core i9-11900H (21367), Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21635), and AMD EPYC 9454 (21223). This clustering indicates the CPU provides consistent mid-range performance.

In To The Core, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. The resolution scaling analysis shows GPU-bound behavior, and the CPU's relatively strong standing (75th percentile) compared to the GPU (5th percentile) suggests the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads provide adequate processing power for the game's idle genre, which typically does not demand high core counts or extreme single-thread performance. The measured FPS values scale with resolution in a manner consistent with GPU limitation, confirming that the Ryzen 5 2600 is not the bottleneck in this configuration.