To The Core

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 paired with the Intel Arc B580 delivers a compelling 1080p experience in To The Core, with performance scaling predictably as resolution increases. The data shows a system that is heavily GPU-limited at 4K Ultra, yet still capable of maintaining playable frame rates across most settings, making it a balanced pairing for this idle genre title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution climbs from 1080p to 4K. At the "High" preset, the average frame rate drops from 187 FPS at 1920x1080 to 126 FPS at 2560x1440, a 32.6% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 4K (3840x2160), the average FPS falls further to 72 FPS, representing a 42.9% decrease from the 1440p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that the system transitions from being primarily CPU-bound at 1080p to becoming more GPU-bound at higher resolutions, as the Arc B580's compute capacity is taxed by the increased pixel count.

This trend is consistent across all other settings. At "Low" settings, the average FPS drops from 255 at 1080p to 172 at 1440p (a 32.5% decrease), and then to 98 at 4K (a 43.0% decrease from 1440p). The "Medium" preset shows a similar pattern: 216 FPS at 1080p, 145 at 1440p (a 32.9% reduction), and 83 at 4K (a 42.8% reduction). The "Ultra" preset follows the same trend, with 150 FPS at 1080p, 101 at 1440p (a 32.7% decrease), and 58 at 4K (a 42.6% decrease from 1440p).

The consistent percentage drops between resolutions across all settings suggest a balanced architecture where the scaling factor is nearly uniform. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is always around 33%, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is always around 43%. This nonlinear scaling is typical of an idle game where the CPU (Ryzen 5 5500) can easily feed frames at lower resolutions, but the GPU (Arc B580) becomes the bottleneck at 4K, where its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth are more heavily taxed.

At 4K, the system manages to stay above 58 FPS at "Ultra" and above 72 FPS at "High", which is a playable level for an idle game that does not require twitch reflexes. The minimum FPS recorded in the data is 71 FPS at the 4K/Medium setting, showing that even at the highest resolution, the frame rate stays well above what could be considered a stutter threshold.

The data indicates that the limiting component shifts from the CPU to the GPU as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU can push the frame rate to 255 FPS at low settings, but the GPU's performance at 4K is the primary factor in the lower frame rates seen there.

FAQ

*Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 perform at 4K in To The Core?*

A: The Ryzen 5 5500, when paired with the Intel Arc B580, delivers an average FPS of 72 at the "High" preset, 83 at "Medium", and 58 at "Ultra" at 3840x2160 resolution. This indicates that the CPU is not a limiting factor at 4K, as the frame rates are still quite high for an idle game.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at the "Medium" setting?

A: At 1920x1080, the "Medium" preset achieves an average FPS of 216. At 3840x2160, the same preset drops to an average FPS of 83, a reduction of 133 FPS. This represents a 61.6% decrease in performance when scaling from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Which resolution provides the highest frame rates for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is observed at 1920x1080 with the "Low" preset, reaching 255 FPS. At the same resolution, the "Ultra" preset still achieves 150 FPS. The data shows that 1080p is the resolution where the combo excels, providing a high refresh rate experience.

Q: Can the system handle 1440p gaming with this game?

A: Yes, the system is well-suited for 1440p. At 2560x1440, the average FPS ranges from 101 at "Ultra" to 172 at "Low". This indicates that the combination of the Ryzen 5 5500 and the Arc B580 is a sweet spot for 1440p gaming in To The Core, offering high frame rates across all settings.

Q: Is the Arc B580 the primary bottleneck at 4K?

A: Yes, the data indicates that at 4K resolution, the Arc B580 becomes the limiting component. This is evidenced by the significant frame rate drops from 1440p to 4K (around 43% across all settings), while the CPU's performance is sufficient to handle the game's demands at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the performance difference between the "High" and "Ultra" presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the "High" preset achieves an average FPS of 126, while the "Ultra" preset achieves 101 FPS. The "Ultra" preset is 19.8% slower than "High" at this resolution, indicating a moderate performance hit for the higher visual fidelity.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear performance hierarchy across the four settings presets. For players prioritizing the highest frame rates, the "Low" preset is the only option that approaches the 255 FPS mark at 1080p, but it comes at the cost of visual fidelity. At 1080p, the "High" preset still delivers an average FPS of 187, which is a substantial 72 FPS increase over the "Ultra" preset's 150 FPS.

For a balance between visual quality and performance, the "Medium" preset appears to be the sweet spot across all resolutions. At 1080p, it generates 216 FPS, which is 34 FPS more than "High" and 66 FPS more than "Ultra". At 1440p, "Medium" achieves 145 FPS, which is 19 FPS higher than "High" and 44 FPS higher than "Ultra". At 4K, "Medium" delivers 83 FPS, which is 11 FPS more than "High" and 25 FPS more than "Ultra".

The "Ultra" preset is the only setting that dips below 60 FPS at any resolution, with an average of 58 FPS at 4K. This is still technically playable, but the data suggests that the performance cost of "Ultra" is not justified unless the player is on a 1080p or 1440p display. At 1080p, "Ultra" delivers 150 FPS, and at 1440p, it delivers 101 FPS, both of which are above the threshold for a smooth experience.

Based on the measured results, the "Medium" preset is recommended for most users, as it provides the highest average FPS for the second-highest visual quality. The "High" preset is a viable alternative, offering a 18% reduction in FPS at 1080p compared to "Medium", but still maintaining an average of 187 FPS. For users with 4K displays, the "High" preset is the best option, as it keeps the frame rate above 70 FPS, while "Medium" and "Low" are not far behind.

How This Combo Ranks

In the comprehensive benchmark database, the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + Intel Arc B580 combo ranks 2790th out of 3725 tested combinations for To The Core. This places it in the 74.9th percentile of all tested combos, indicating that it performs better than roughly three-quarters of the systems tested in this game.

This ranking is a reflection of the individual components, both of which sit at the 73rd and 68th percentiles for CPUs and GPUs, respectively. The Ryzen 5 5500's average benchmark score is 19593, while the Arc B580's average score is 23021. The combo ranking is not simply the sum of these two, but rather a result of how they work together in this particular game's workload.

The Ryzen 5 5500 has a single-thread score of 836 in 3DMark, and its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 16429. The Arc B580's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 3068. These individual metrics contribute to the combo's overall performance, which is on par with the nearest rivals for the CPU and GPU separately.

For the CPU, the nearest rival is the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430, which has an average score of 19617 and a deltaPct of -0.1%. The Intel Core i5-12500 also sits close, with an average score of 19668 and a deltaPct of -0.4%. The GPU's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP, which has an average score of 23061 and a deltaPct of -0.2%. These small deltaPct values indicate that the components are very closely matched in synthetic benchmarks.

The combo's rank of 2790 out of 3725 in the game's specific benchmark shows that while the individual components are average performers, the game This game is not particularly demanding, and the high frame rates achieved at 1080p and 1440p suggest that the combo is well-suited for this type of casual, idle gameplay.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 5000 series, based on the Zen 3 architecture with the Cezanne codename. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The CPU is built on a 7 nm process node and supports up to 16 MB of L3 cache.

In the context of To The Core, the CPU's role is to handle the game's logic and frame generation. The game is an idle genre title, which typically does not require heavy multi-threading. The Ryzen 5 5500's 12 threads and 6 cores are more than sufficient for this workload. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is not a bottleneck, as frame rates of 150-255 FPS are achieved across all settings. The single-thread performance, as measured by 3DMark's single-thread test (836 points) and Cinebench R23's single-core score (2319 points), is solid for an idle game.

The CPU's average benchmark score is 19593, with a percentile rank of 73rd among all CPUs. This places it in the upper-middle tier of processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 and the Intel Core i5-12500, both of which have average scores within 0.5% of the Ryzen 5 5500. This proximity in performance is reflected in the game's frame rates, where the CPU is not the limiting factor.

The Ryzen 5 5500 supports PCIe Gen 3 and uses dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. This is adequate for the Arc B580, which uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, but the CPU's PCIe Gen 3 could theoretically limit the GPU's bandwidth. However, in this game, the high frame rates across all resolutions indicate that this is not a practical limitation.

Overall, the CPU's role in this system is to provide a stable foundation for the GPU to render frames. The data shows that the CPU is not limiting the system at any resolution, as the frame rates are consistently high. The bottleneck at 4K is the GPU, not the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the average FPS, along with minimum and maximum FPS where available, for each resolution and settings preset combination measured.

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Low: 255 FPS average
• Medium: 216 FPS average (min 183, max 248)
• High: 187 FPS average
• Ultra: 150 FPS average

At 1080p, the system delivers a very high frame rate, even at the "Ultra" preset. The difference between "Low" and "Ultra" is 105 FPS, showing a significant performance impact from the settings.

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Low: 172 FPS average
• Medium: 145 FPS average (min 123, max 167)
• High: 126 FPS average
• Ultra: 101 FPS average

At 1440p, the frame rates are still very high, with the "Ultra" preset maintaining an average above 100 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent, with each setting losing around 32-33% of its performance.

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: 98 FPS average
• Medium: 83 FPS average (min 71, max 95)
• High: 72 FPS average
• Ultra: 58 FPS average

At 4K, the system is most taxed, with the "Ultra" preset dropping to an average of 58 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider ideal for smooth gameplay. However, the "Medium" and "High" presets remain above 72 FPS, making 4K playable.

The minimum FPS data is only available for the "Medium" preset at each resolution, showing that at 4K, the minimum is 71 FPS, which is still a comfortable margin above stutter territory. The maximum FPS for the "Medium" preset is 95 at 4K, 167 at 1440p, and 248 at 1080p, indicating that the system can burst to high frame rates when the scene allows.

The data shows a clear and predictable pattern: the Arc B580 GPU is the primary limiter at 4K, while the Ryzen 5 5500 CPU has enough headroom to maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions. This makes the combo an excellent choice for 1080p and 1440p gaming in To The Core, with 4K being feasible at the "Medium" or "High" settings.