To The Core

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for To The Core shows that this combo of AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is exceptionally strong across all presets, with average frame rates well above display refresh rate thresholds in every tested configuration. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 390.5 FPS, while Medium reaches 368.6 FPS, High hits 354.1 FPS, and even Ultra maintains 328.4 FPS. The differences between presets are relatively modest at this resolution, with a spread of 62.1 FPS from Low to Ultra, suggesting the game is not heavily taxing the hardware at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. Low produces 346 FPS, Medium 321.8 FPS, High 300.1 FPS, and Ultra 242.3 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra widens to 57.8 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings introduce a more significant load. At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes clearer: Low hits 234.5 FPS, Medium 197.7 FPS, High 169.9 FPS, and Ultra 139.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K remains playable, but the drop from Medium to Ultra is 57.9 FPS.

For the best experience balancing visual fidelity and frame rate, the High preset appears to be the sweet spot. It delivers 354.1 FPS at 1080p, 300.1 FPS at 1440p, and 169.9 FPS at 4K, all of which are comfortably above 144 Hz or even 240 Hz class displays. The Ultra preset only yields a 25.7 FPS gain over High at 1080p (328.4 vs 354.1), which is negligible in practical terms. At 4K, the difference is more pronounced — High is 30.1 FPS faster than Ultra — making High the pragmatic choice for maintaining high refresh rates at higher resolutions. Medium is a viable alternative if you want a small bump over High, but the data suggests High offers the best combination of quality and performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why To The Core runs at such high frame rates. The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, yielding 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for an idle-style game like To The Core, which does not appear to stress memory capacity or bandwidth at any tested resolution. The 16384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 render output units provide immense raw throughput, reflected in the 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 compute rating.

Clock speeds are equally impressive. The base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with the Ada Lovelace architecture's efficiency on a 5 nm TSMC process, allow the GPU to maintain high utilization across all settings. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s are far beyond what a game of this genre typically requires. In benchmark terms, the RTX 4090 scores a Passmark G3D of 38194, with a percentile ranking of 91 against all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla T4, scores 66733 on average — a delta of -0.4% — while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 sits at 67097 with a -0.9% delta, meaning the RTX 4090 is effectively at the top of its class.

The GPU's 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores are present but largely irrelevant for To The Core, which is an idle game without demanding ray-traced effects. The 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler are overkill for this title, but the headroom ensures the card never throttles. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 139.8 still exceeds 120 Hz, demonstrating that even the heaviest settings fail to bottleneck the RTX 4090. The data indicates the GPU is the primary driver of frame rates, as the CPU becomes less relevant at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It features a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache. For an idle game like To The Core, the CPU's role is largely about maintaining a stable frame pacing rather than breaking performance records. The benchmark results support this: the CPU achieves a Passmark multithread score of 17700 and a single-thread score of 2562, with a percentile ranking of 76 among all CPUs.

In comparison to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 3600 is tightly clustered. The Intel Core i5-11400 scores an average of 18150 with a delta of -0.1%, while the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS scores 18101 with a +0.2% delta. The AMD Ryzen 5 1600 scores 18158 with a -0.2% delta, and the AMD EPYC 9274F scores 18189 with a -0.3% delta. This means the Ryzen 5 3600 is effectively at parity with these parts, with differences of less than 0.3% in aggregate benchmark scores. In To The Core specifically, the CPU is unlikely to be a limiting factor at 1080p, but the data shows that frame rates improve as resolution decreases — from 169.9 FPS at 4K High to 354.1 FPS at 1080p High — which suggests some CPU involvement at lower resolutions.

The 3dmark scores illustrate the CPU's threading characteristics: single-thread score of 696, 2-thread score of 1361, 4-thread score of 2579, and 8-thread score of 3844, scaling up to 4605 at 16 threads. For a game like To The Core, which likely uses a handful of threads, the 6-core/12-thread configuration provides ample headroom. The 65 W TDP and unlocked multiplier allow for overclocking, though the data does not include overclocked results. At 4K, the CPU's impact diminishes, as the frame rates at High (169.9 FPS) and Ultra (139.8 FPS) are more consistent with GPU-bound behavior.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 174th out of 1756 tested combos in To The Core, placing it in the top 9.9% of all configurations. This ranking is impressive given the CPU's age and mid-range positioning; the RTX 4090's raw power compensates for the Ryzen 5 3600's relative age. The percentileVsAllCpus of 76 and percentileVsAllGpus of 91 indicate that the GPU is the stronger component, and the combo ranking reflects a blend of these factors.

In practical terms, this rank means the combo outperforms the vast majority of tested systems, with only 173 combinations delivering higher average FPS in this game. The data does not specify which combos rank higher, but it is reasonable to infer that they feature newer, higher-end CPUs paired with the same or similar GPUs. The delta between the Ryzen 5 3600 and its nearest CPU rivals is negligible (less than 0.3%), suggesting that swapping to a Core i5-11400 or Ryzen 5 7535HS would not meaningfully change the combo's rank. The bottleneck, if any, lies in the CPU's single-thread performance, but To The Core's idle genre does not appear to penalize it severely.

For context, the combo's rank of 174 out of 1756 means it sits in the 90th percentile of all tested combinations. This is a strong showing, especially considering the Ryzen 5 3600 was released in 2019 and the RTX 4090 is end-of-life. The combination demonstrates that a high-end GPU can boost an older CPU to competitive standing in lightweight titles. However, users seeking the absolute top tier might consider a newer CPU, but the data shows diminishing returns in this specific game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use at 4K resolution with this combo?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers 169.9 FPS, which is 30.1 FPS faster than Ultra (139.8 FPS). Given that Ultra only adds visual polish without a proportional frame rate cost, High is recommended for maintaining a smoother experience at 4K.

Q: Does the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM matter for To The Core?

A: The 24 GB GDDR6X memory is far more than needed for this game. The benchmark data shows no indication of VRAM limitations at any resolution or preset, with frame rates remaining high even at 4K Ultra (139.8 FPS).

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 a bottleneck for the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: The data suggests minimal bottlenecking. At 1080p, frame rates reach 390.5 FPS on Low, which indicates the CPU can feed the GPU adequately. The combo ranks 174th out of 1756, suggesting the CPU is not severely limiting performance.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 3600 compare to its closest rivals in CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 scores an average of 18129, which is within 0.3% of the Intel Core i5-11400 (18150, delta -0.1%), AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (18101, delta +0.2%), AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (18158, delta -0.2%), and AMD EPYC 9274F (18189, delta -0.3%). Performance is effectively identical.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Ultra settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers an average of 242.3 FPS. This is well above 144 Hz and even 240 Hz display capabilities, ensuring a fluid experience.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 overkill for an idle game like To The Core?

A: In terms of raw performance, yes — the GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth are far beyond what this genre requires. However, the benchmark data shows that the combo still achieves high frame rates, and the GPU's headroom means it will handle any future updates or more demanding titles without issue.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are consistently high across all settings. Low produces 390.5 FPS, Medium 368.6 FPS, High 354.1 FPS, and Ultra 328.4 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 62.1 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between High and Ultra (25.7 FPS). This resolution shows the least sensitivity to settings changes, indicating a CPU or game engine limit rather than a GPU constraint.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but show greater differentiation. Low yields 346 FPS, Medium 321.8 FPS, High 300.1 FPS, and Ultra 242.3 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra expands to 57.8 FPS, suggesting that Ultra settings introduce more demanding effects. The drop from Low to Ultra is 103.7 FPS, which is more pronounced than at 1080p, where the same comparison yields a 62.1 FPS difference.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's workload becomes more apparent. Low achieves 234.5 FPS, Medium 197.7 FPS, High 169.9 FPS, and Ultra 139.8 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 94.7 FPS reduction, with each preset step costing roughly 30-40 FPS. The High preset at 169.9 FPS is notable for remaining above 165 Hz, while Ultra at 139.8 FPS is still above 120 Hz. Across all resolutions, the data shows a consistent pattern: the RTX 4090 provides ample performance, and the Ryzen 5 3600 keeps up well enough to avoid major bottlenecks. The combination's rank of 174th out of 1756 combos reflects this balanced performance in To The Core.