To The Core

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G paired with the Intel Arc B570 presents a fascinating case study in bottleneck dynamics within the idle game To The Core. The measured frame rates reveal a system that scales impressively with resolution, demonstrating that the combination of a Zen 3 APU and a Battlemage GPU is well-balanced for this title, though the data suggests the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at lower resolutions while the CPU holds its ground admirably at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The performance trajectory from 1080p to 4K is revealing. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves a staggering 225 FPS average. This drops to 152 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 87 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 61% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which is a substantial decline that clearly indicates the GPU is being pushed to its limits at higher pixel counts.

However, the scaling pattern shifts when examining Medium settings. The 1080p result of 191 FPS falls to 128 FPS at 1440p and 73 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops between resolutions are 33% and 43% respectively, showing that the performance penalty of increasing resolution becomes more pronounced at higher quality presets. This suggests that while the Arc B570 has enough headroom to render the simpler Low preset at high rates, the added complexity of Medium settings begins to tax the GPU more severely as resolution climbs.

The High preset tells a similar story: 165 FPS at 1080p, 111 FPS at 1440p, and 64 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 33%, and from 1440p to 4K is 42%. This consistent pattern across presets indicates that the limiting component is the GPU, as the CPU has enough processing power to feed frames at even the most demanding resolution tested. The fact that the Ryzen 5 5600G's 6 cores and 12 threads are not causing a plateau at any resolution reinforces this interpretation.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling, with 133 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 4K drop is 62%, which is the steepest of all presets. This suggests that at Ultra, the combination of high resolution and maximum quality settings pushes the Arc B570's 10 GB of GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth to their absolute limits. The 160-bit memory bus becomes a significant constraint, as the data shows the GPU struggling to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The data shows a peak of 225 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The system never dips below 51 FPS in any tested configuration, even at 4K Ultra.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600G's average benchmark score of 21088 puts it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i3-1220P (21066) and 0.1% behind the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V (21112). It ranks in the 74th percentile among all CPUs.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking?

A: The Intel Arc B570 sits in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20556. It is 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750 (20582) and 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534).

Q: Does this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, at 4K with High settings it averages 64 FPS, and at Medium it averages 73 FPS. However, 4K Ultra drops to 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested combinations?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600G and Arc B570 combination ranks 2380 out of 2991 tested combos for To The Core, placing it in the bottom 20% of all configurations.

Q: How much faster is 1080p compared to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, 1080p averages 165 FPS while 4K averages 64 FPS. This means 1080p is approximately 158% faster than 4K, or to put it another way, 4K delivers 61% lower performance.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570's specifications directly explain its behavior in To The Core. The GPU features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, with a boost clock of 2500 MHz. This configuration yields 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 360.0 GTexel/s of texture rate, which are substantial figures for a card in this class.

The 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This proves adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as evidenced by the high frame rates at those resolutions. However, at 3840x2160, the bandwidth becomes a bottleneck, particularly at Ultra settings where the 51 FPS average indicates the GPU is struggling to feed its shaders with enough data.

The Arc B570's position relative to its rivals is informative. It scores 0.1% higher than the RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% lower than the Arc A750 (20582). This tight grouping suggests that the B570 is a mid-range performer, which aligns with its 65th percentile ranking. The fact that it can achieve 87 FPS at 4K Low in this idle game demonstrates that its raw compute power is sufficient for less demanding titles, but the steep drop-off at Ultra settings highlights its memory bandwidth limitations.

The GPU's 150 W TDP and PCIe 4.0 x8 interface are noteworthy. The x8 bus width could theoretically limit performance, but the data does not show any obvious signs of this constraint, as the frame rates scale consistently with resolution. The 18 ray tracing cores are present but likely underutilized in an idle game, which does not typically employ ray-traced effects.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, all settings are playable, but the difference between Low (225 FPS) and Ultra (133 FPS) is 92 FPS. For gamers with 144Hz monitors, High settings at 165 FPS provides the best balance of visual quality and smoothness, while those with 240Hz displays would need to drop to Low to fully utilize their refresh rate.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 128 FPS offers an excellent experience for 120Hz displays. High settings at 111 FPS are also viable for 100Hz monitors, but Ultra at 89 FPS may feel less fluid. Low at 152 FPS is the clear choice for competitive play or maximum responsiveness, though the visual compromises are significant.

The 4K results are more constrained. High settings at 64 FPS is the recommended preset for a 60Hz display, as it provides the best visual fidelity while maintaining smooth gameplay. Medium at 73 FPS offers a slight performance buffer, but the visual difference is minimal. Ultra at 51 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold and should be avoided, while Low at 87 FPS sacrifices too much visual quality for the modest performance gain.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this combo across all resolutions. At 1080p it delivers 191 FPS, at 1440p it achieves 128 FPS, and at 4K it maintains 73 FPS. This consistency indicates that Medium settings are well-matched to the Arc B570's capabilities, providing a balanced workload that does not overburden any single component.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2380 out of 2991 tested combos for To The Core. This places it in the 20th percentile, meaning 79.6% of all tested configurations perform better. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the high frame rates measured, but it reflects the fact that this is an idle game where many high-end systems can achieve much higher frame rates.

The CPU's 74th percentile ranking (21088 average score) is significantly higher than the combo's overall rank, suggesting that the CPU is not the limiting factor. Similarly, the GPU's 65th percentile (20556 average score) is also above the combo's ranking. This discrepancy indicates that the combination itself is not optimally configured, possibly due to the CPU's integrated graphics taking up system resources or the PCIe Gen 3 interface limiting GPU performance.

The nearest rival CPUs show how close the 5600G is to other processors. The Intel Core i3-1220P (21066) is nearly identical, with just a 0.1% difference. The Intel Core Ultra 7 256V (21112) is 0.1% faster, and the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U (21133) is 0.2% faster. These marginal differences suggest that the CPU choice has minimal impact on this game's performance, reinforcing the notion that the GPU is the primary factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 225 FPS on Low, 191 FPS on Medium, 165 FPS on High, and 133 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 162 FPS and a maximum of 219 FPS, indicating a stable frame delivery with minimal variance.

At 2560x1440, the results are 152 FPS on Low, 128 FPS on Medium, 111 FPS on High, and 89 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset's range of 109-147 FPS shows a slightly wider variance than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is working harder to maintain frame rates.

The 3840x2160 results are 87 FPS on Low, 73 FPS on Medium, 64 FPS on High, and 51 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset here ranges from 62 to 84 FPS, which is a notable spread and indicates that the GPU is under significant load at this resolution.

The scaling between settings at each resolution is consistent. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 92 FPS (41% reduction). At 1440p, it is 63 FPS (41% reduction). At 4K, it is 36 FPS (41% reduction). This uniform percentage across resolutions suggests that the settings presets provide a consistent workload increase, regardless of pixel count.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G's specifications are well-suited for To The Core. With 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, it provides ample processing power for an idle game that likely does not heavily utilize multiple threads. The base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz ensure that single-threaded performance is strong, which is critical for games that rely on a primary rendering thread.

The CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are sufficient for feeding the Arc B570 with data. The dual-channel DDR4 memory support is standard for the AM4 platform, and the 65 W TDP indicates efficient power consumption. The 74th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms that this processor is above average in overall performance.

The nearest rival comparisons show that the 5600G is competitively positioned. It is 0.1% faster than the Intel Core i3-1220P and 0.1% slower than the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V. The differences of 0.2% and 0.4% against the Ryzen 5 7530U and Core Ultra 7 155U respectively are negligible in real-world gaming. This suggests that any of these CPUs would perform similarly in To The Core, and the GPU is the more important component.

The CPU's benchmark scores provide context for its capabilities. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10551 and single-core score of 1409 indicate solid performance for a 65 W part. The Geekbench multicore score of 8428 and single-core of 1801 reinforce this assessment. The 3DMark scores show strong scaling from 2 threads (1705) to 16 threads (5451), demonstrating that the CPU can effectively utilize its available threads when needed. However, for an idle game, the single-thread performance is likely the more relevant metric, and the 3DMark single-thread score of 872 is respectable.