To The Core

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 pairing delivers extraordinary performance in To The Core, an idle game released in 2024. Measured data shows the system producing frame rates well beyond typical display refresh rates at every preset and resolution, from 343 FPS at 1080p Low to 130 FPS at 4K Ultra. This page breaks down how the CPU and GPU contribute to those results, how the combo ranks against other tested pairs, and what the measurements imply for choosing in-game settings.

Resolution Scaling

Resolution scaling in To The Core is handled predictably. At the lowest quality preset, the average FPS falls from 343 at 1920×1080 to 300 at 2560×1440, then to 220 at 3840×2160. The Medium preset drops from 323 at 1080p to 283 at 1440p, and further to 186 at 4K. The High preset goes 307 → 269 → 161 across the three resolutions. The Ultra preset, the most demanding, records 284 at 1080p, 227 at 1440p, and 130 at 4K. Every setting shows a clear diminishing return as the pixel count increases, which indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at higher resolutions. However, the absolute frame rates remain extremely high—even the worst case (4K Ultra at 130 FPS) exceeds most monitors’ refresh rates.

The relative scaling between Low and Ultra is worth noting. At 1080p, the gap between Low (343 FPS) and Ultra (284 FPS) is 59 FPS. At 1440p, the gap widens to 73 FPS (300 vs 227). At 4K, it becomes 90 FPS (220 vs 130). This progressive widening suggests that as resolution increases, the CPU setup (6 cores, 12 threads, base 3.40 GHz) is able to feed the GPU with more consistent job, and the GPU becomes more responsible for the quality difference. The game is inherently forgiving on hardware, but the numerical trend confirms that lowering quality has a larger absolute impact at 4K than at 1080p.

Another observation is the minimal difference between Medium and High at 1080p: 323 FPS vs 307 FPS—a 16 FPS gap. At 1440p the gap is 14 FPS (283 vs 269), and at 4K it is 25 FPS (186 vs 161). The drop from Medium to Ultra is more significant at every resolution: 323→284 (1080p), 283→227 (1440p), and 186→130 (4K). This pattern indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a sizable extra cost, but the engine still remains perfectly playable.

GPU Role

The RTX 5080 is a GeForce 50-series card built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory runs at 1875 MHz effective (30 Gbps) with a 256-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock is 2617 MHz, the base is 2295 MHz. In To The Core’s measurements, the GPU’s role is to convert those resources into frame rate. The high VRAM capacity (16 GB) is more than sufficient for a tile-based idle game at any of the tested settings; the 960 GB/s bandwidth ensures that texture reads and frame buffers remain far from limiting at 4K.

In synthetic workloads, the RTX 5080 scores 36560 on PassMark’s G3D benchmark and 21789 on the GPU compute test. Its benchmark cloud places it at the 87th percentile of all GPUs. When compared to its closest rivals, the AMD Radeon 8060S has an average score of 55757, which is within 0.6% of the RTX 5080’s 56083 average, while the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698) and Radeon Pro W5700X (54828) are also on par. These similar average scores confirm that the RTX 5080’s peak potential is at least as high as its neighbors, although the actual game FPS will depend on the specific title.

The GPU memory behavior is particularly noticeable at 4K Ultra: the 130 FPS is still above the 120 Hz class of many monitors, so the 16 GB pooled memory is unlikely to be a bottleneck. The high bandwidth also explains why lowering the preset from Ultra to Medium gives a 56 FPS gain at 4K (130→186), which is the largest relative jump. This is typical of a card whose memory system can handle extreme resolutions, but where shader and geometry load grows with preset complexity.

FAQ

Q: What is the measured average FPS at 1920×1080 with Ultra quality?

A: The measured average FPS for the Ultra preset at 1920×1080 is 284 FPS.

Q: How much lower is the 4K64E (3840×2160) at Low settings compared to 1440p Low?

A: The 3840×2160 Low average is 220 FPS, while the 1440p Low average is 300 FPS, so a decrease of 80 FPS when moving from 2560×1440 to 3840×2160.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 2600 bottleneck the RTX 5080 at 1440p?

A: The data shows that at 1440p Medium the average is 283 FPS, and the Ryzen 5 2600’s 6-core/12-thread design with a boost clock up to 3.90 GHz is sufficient to feed the GPU; the performance scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, indicating the CPU beyond the more pixel-heavy 4K scenario.

Q: What is the lowest FPS recorded among all measurements?

A: The lowest average in the dataset is at 3840×2160 Ultra, which measures 130 FPS.

Q: What is the percentile placement of the RTX 5080 among all GPUs?

A: According to the benchmark percentile, the RTX 5080 ranks at the 87th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the CPU and GPU?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has a launch MSRP of $199, and the RTX 5080 has a launch MSRP of 999 USD.

Settings Recommendations

Given that the game is an idle title, the metric of “best practice” is not a hard requirement, but the measured frame rates allow for clear guidance based on the numbers.

At 1920×1080, all presets are above 284 FPS (Ultra). The difference between Low and Ultra is only 59 FPS—a 17% increase in frame time. Since even Medium hits 323 FPS, choosing Ultra at 1080p is harmless and yields the most visual fidelity. For panels with refresh rates beyond 240 Hz, Medium or High remain excellent, but the Ultra selectable preset does not compromise the refresh target.

At 2560×1440, High provides 269 FPS, Medium 283 FPS, and Low 300 FPS. The Ultra preset at 227 FPS is still above 200 FPS, and any of these are smooth on a 144 Hz display. If sustained >250 FPS is preferred, Low or Medium are ideal. For visual quality without sacrificing numerical smoothness, High at 269 FPS is a sensible middle ground.

At 3840×2160, the resolution where the GPU is stressed most, the numbers are still respectable: Low 220, Medium 186, High 161, and Ultra 130. Each step adds roughly a proportional visual lift, but the FPS still grants a headroom for 120 Hz monitors. The Medium preset at 186 FPS offers a balanced compromise; if the user values frame rate above all, Low at 220 FPS is optimal. Forsette on 4K 60 Hz or even 144 Hz, Ultra at 130 FPS will also suffice. Thus, no resolution in this game forces a downgrade to low settings for playability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table and lists give the exact measured average FPS from the dataset for each resolution and quality combination.

1920×1080

• Low: 343 FPS
• Medium: 323 FPS (min 275, max 371)
• High: 307 FPS
• Ultra: 284 FPS

2560×1440

• Low: 300 FPS
• Medium: 283 FPS (min 241, max 325)
• High: 269 FPS
• Ultra: 227 FPS

3840×2160

• Low: 220 FPS
• Medium: 186 FPS (min 158, max 214)
• High: 161 FPS
• Ultra: 130 FPS

These are the only frame rates measured in the benchmark. The minimum and maximum FPS values are available only for the Medium preset at each resolution, where they span 161 FPS (4K), 84 FPS (1440p), and 96 FPS (1080p). The other presets do not have per-frame low/high variants, so the minimum values are not provided. The data establishes that the card never dips below the specified thresholds for the Medium preset at any resolution, and the averages suggest that the engine is well within the GPU’s capability.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series built on the Zen architecture (Pinnacle Ridge). It runs at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boosts to 3.90 GHz. The L3 cache is 16 MB shared, memory bandwidth is DDR4 at 46.9 GB/s (dual-channel), and it uses the two its memory bus. In synthetic multi-thread benchmarks, the CPU scores 1,246 in Cinebench R15 multi-core, 157.3 in single-core, 5,628 on Geekbench multi-core, and 1,154 on Geekbench single-core. These numbers place it at the 75th percentile of all CPUs.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the average score for the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is 21,485, while four other CPUs sit extremely close: the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V has an average score of 21,440, just 0.2% lower; the Intel Core i9-11900H is 21,367 (0.5% lower); the Intel Xeon D-1746TER is 21,635 (0.7% higher); and the AMD EPYC 9454 is 21,223 (1.2% lower). These sub-1% deltas indicate that the Ryzen 5 2600 performance-wise sits in a narrow band with these other processors, meaning its relative compute capacity is essentially identical for this game’s CPU load.

In To The Core specifically, the CPU is not a limiting factor at any of the tested settings. The high minimum FPS at 1080p (275 in Medium) and 1440p (241) indicate that the 6-core architecture can feed the GPU without dipping below certain fill levels. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows no evidence of a CPU bottleneck until even the GPU’s frame rate tanks at 4K Ultra—a situation where the GPU load is fully stressed. Despite the CPU being launched in 2018, it proves sufficient for this title, informed by its 12 threads and boost clock.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database’s ranking of tested CPU/GPU combos in To The Core, the Ryzen 5 2600 + RTX 5080 placed 714th out of 3,725 total combinations. That puts it in the top 19% of all pairings, all things equal. The rank for this combo is not about absolute performance (since many combos contain newer CPUs or stronger GPUs), but about how the frame rates scale for this specific game. Given that the game is designed to run on low-end hardware, this combination’s placing is substantial—it indicates that the combination can achieve high metrics while not being in the elite top 100. Still, the high frame rate at all settings means that the combo is more than sufficient for the expected usage, and the 714th rank shows that many lower-tier CPUs might also keep up at lower settings, but the Keith numbers in this test put this pairing near the top of the performance envelope.

The 87th GPU percentile and the 75th CPU percentile also frame the pairing’s relative strengths. The CPU is above-average and the GPU is much higher, and the combined result is that the CPU is rarely meal, allowing the GPU to stretch its legs even at 1080p. The 714th rank is a reflection of top-tier GPUs being paired with faster CPUs, not a knock on the 2600; the data still shows this system is capable of smashing 240 HZ monitors even at 4K without breaking a sweat.