To The Core

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 forms a striking contrast in age and capability: the 2018-era Zen+ CPU with 6 cores and 12 threads meets a 2025 Blackwell flagship GPU with 12 GB of GDDR7. In _To The Core_, an idle game that released in February 2024, the measured frame rates are extremely high across the board—the combination never dips below 105 FPS even at 4K Ultra, and reaches 343 FPS at 1080p Low. This pair secures rank 1012 out of 3725 tested combos, placing it in the top 27% of system configurations, which indicates that the CPU’s age is not a severe handicap for this particular title.

How This Combo Ranks

According to the measured data, the Ryzen 5 2600 + RTX 5070 combination occupies the 1012th position out of 3,725 tested systems in _To The Core_. That rank places the pairing in the 27th percentile of all measured configurations—a solidly above-average result, but not among the very elite systems. The individual components trend similar percentiles: the CPU sits in the 75th percentile across all CPUs, while the GPU sits in the 82nd percentile for all GPUs. However, the game’s low computational demand means that even a mid-range CPU can be held back by the GPU’s frame output. The result is a combination that provides far more performance than needed for native 1080p, and ample headroom at 4K.

When viewed against the nearest rivals, the CPU’s aggregate score of 21484 is within 0.2% of the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (score 21440) and 0.5% of the Core i9-11900H (21367). The GPU’s aggregate 40377 similarly sits within 0.1% of the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40318) and 0.8% of the Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40063). These tight deltas indicate that both components are performing in line with their class, but not exceeding it significantly. The game’s ranking reflects the CPU–GPU interaction in a scenario where even the 65W 6-core CPU is not the primary limiter.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 2600 is a Zen+ design, fabricated on 12 nm by GlobalFoundries, with 6 cores and 12 threads. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz and boost is 3.90 GHz, it also supports a shared L3 cache of 16 MB. Released in 2018 with a launch MSRP of $199, the CPU has a TDP of 65W, a dual-channel memory controller with 46.9 GB/s bandwidth, and PCIe 3.0. In the benchmark bundle, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R15 multi‑core score of 1248 points and single‑core score of 157.3, while its Geekbench single‑core 1154 and multi‑core 5648 illustrate its balanced throughput.

In the context of _To The Core_, the CPU is rarely taxed. The measured frame rates scale almost purely with resolution and settings; the same setting – e.g., at High settings, the 1080p average of 307 FPS drops to 227 at 2560x1440 and 130 at 3840x2160. The CPU generates a constant workload that does not change with resolution, yet the FPS fall indicates that the GPU is the principal gate. A 2018 CPU with a 2019‑era boost clock is more than enough to sustain the frame in an idle game—the game’s minimal thread count and lack of physics heavy workloads allow the GPU to run nearly free. The CPU’s 75 percentile aggregate score also suggests it has positive margin for less-demanding titles.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, produced on a 5 nm process at TSMC, and features 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, 80 ROPs, and 48 RT cores. The GPU runs at a base of 2325 MHz and boosts to 2512 MHz, with evulated memory clock of 1750 MHz effective 28 Gbps. The 12 GB GDDR7 frame buffer is attached across a 196‑bit interface, delivering 672.0 GB/s bandwidth. On synthetic packages, the GPU’s 3DMark Steal Nomad DX12 score is 5077 and its G‑3D motor on PassMark reaches 29137. Its overall aggregate 40377 places it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs.

For _To The Core_, the GPU’s strengths are overwhelmingly apparent. At 1080p Low, the frame rate touches 343 FPS; even at 1780x1080 Ultra it retains 272 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the GPU still maintains 105 FPS — enough for high refresh displays. The scaling from resolution is almost entirely inhabited by the GPU: for example, moving from 1080p High to 1440p High drops the average from 307 to 227 FPS, and on to 4K High yields 130 FPS. This proportional decline suggests the GPU’s computation (shader throughput) is the primary determinant. The large memory bus and high bandwidth eliminate any memory headroom worries; the 12 GB code is ample for the textures in this idle title.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest measured average frame rate for this combination?

A: At 1920x1080 with the Low preset, the average FPS is 343, the fastest row in the dataset.

Q: How does the combo rank among tested systems?

A: It is the 1012th best combo out of 3725 tested configurations, which puts it in the top 27% of all systems in _To The Core_.

Q: Does the CPU’s multi‑core performance impact the game?

A: The CPU’s Cinebench R15 multi‑core score is 1248 and the PassMark multi‑thread score is 13160, but the game does not appear to stress many threads; the FPS drop between 1080p and 4K shows GPU limiting rather than CPU.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth and VRAM size?

A: The RTX 5070 has a 12 GB GDDR7 frame on a 192 bit bus with a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s.

Q: Which resolution/setting is the lowest average FPS?

A: At 3840×2160 with the Ultra preset, the average is 105 FPS—still above the basic 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What are the nearest competitor scores for the CPU in general computing benchmarks?

A: The CPU aggregate 21484 is within 0.2% of the Intel Core i5-228V (21440) and 0.8% of the Core i9-11900H (21367), showing competitive overall performance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS row shows clear GPU‑dominated scaling. At 1080p High the average is 307; stepping to 2560×1440 reduces it to 227 (–80 FPS); then to 3840×2160 it lands at 130. This pattern repeats across the entire settings set. For instance, at Low: 343 → 300 → 177. At Medium: 323 → 262 → 150. At Ultra: 272 → 183 → 105. The glide path steepens between 1080p and 4K at every preset, which indicates the render load grows faster than the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU in the same constant pattern. Because 1080p results exceed 300 FPS at most settings, the CPU has leftover throughput; if the CPU were the limiting factor, we would observe a flat FPS wall as resolution rises. Instead, the numbers decline consistently with the GPU, confirming the GPU as the performance limiter.

A CPU clocked at 3.90 GHz and carry 6 cores is far ahead of the requirement for an idle title. The 3 GB mainstream of RTX 5070’s 192‑bit memory bus also shows no constraint, as even 4K Ultra remains as high as 105 FPS. Users hunting 240 Hz on 1440p or 4K will need a monitor capable of those refresh times—the data shows the GPU can deliver 108 quickly enough.

Settings Recommendations

Given the wide cushion of FPS, the optimal setting hinges on whether visual fidelity or maximum refresh is the goal. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 343 FPS, Medium is 323, High 307, and Ultra 272. Even Ultra is enough to saturate a 240 Hz panel, so one can truly run every graphic option without dropping below the supported refresh for most displays. At 2560×1440, the Ultra preset still yields 183 FPS, letting high‑Hz QHD monitors run at maximal smoothness. At 4K UHD, The Ultra preset returns 105 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS console standard and provides a buttery on high‑refresh UHD screens.

For quality‑first players, Ultra is the clear recommendation—it maxes out settings without any measurable performance penalty in real‑world play. If the main goal is to hit ultra‑high refresh rates (e.g., 240 Hz at 1080p), the Low preset at 1080p gives a numeric ceiling of 343 FPS, but the visual difference to Medium or High is more noticeable, still retaining 307 or 323. Medium is a good middle‑wing: at 1080p it yields 323 FPS with a minimum of 275 FPS and maximum of 371 FPS, demonstrating good percentile consistency. For 4K gaming, High is a balanced pick: 130 FPS average, which provides plenty of headroom for any action. In all cases, the combination of a dated CPU and a top‑tier GPU creates a system that never needs to compromise on frame rate; the data shows _To The Core_ is exceptionally light on compute, leaving the RTX 5070 to flex its strength.

The measured data in this analysis reflects that the CPU and GPU combination rank within the top 27% of tested systems, largely because the GPU so far outclasses the needs of the idle title. With a 6‑core CPU at 3.9 GHz and a GPU that delivers 30 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, the interaction leaves no bottleneck that drops the experience below buttery smoothness. Longevity in this pairing will depend on future games that hammer multi‑core CPUs more, but for _To The Core_, the recommendation is to enable Ultra settings at any resolution and enjoy ‑ saturated framerates.