To The Core

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates show a steep but predictable curve as resolution climbs. At 1080p, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 posts 588.1 FPS on Low settings, which drops to 429.4 FPS on High and 346.5 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 1440p, the same settings yield 395.6 FPS, 289.3 FPS, and 234.8 FPS respectively. At 4K, the numbers fall further: 223.4 FPS on Low, 163 FPS on High, and 132.2 FPS on Ultra.

The scaling pattern reveals a system that remains largely GPU-bound even at lower resolutions. From 1080p Low to 4K Low, the frame rate drops by 364.7 FPS, a 62% reduction. However, the more telling metric is the gap between 1080p and 1440p at each settings tier. At Low, the drop is 192.5 FPS; at High, it is 140.1 FPS; at Ultra, it is 111.7 FPS. This narrowing delta as settings increase suggests that the CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU, and the bottleneck shifts progressively toward the graphics card as resolution rises.

The 4K Ultra result of 132.2 FPS is particularly instructive. It represents the most demanding configuration tested, and the gap between 4K High (163 FPS) and 4K Ultra (132.2 FPS) is 30.8 FPS, or roughly 19%. This is a meaningful step, but the absolute number remains high for an idle-genre title, indicating that the RTX 5080 has enough compute headroom to handle even the most punishing settings without dipping into sub-60 territory. The data suggests that this combo is over-provisioned for 1080p gaming, where the CPU's single-thread performance becomes the limiting factor, but comes into balance at 1440p and 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested CPU-GPU combinations for To The Core, this pairing ranks 72nd out of 1,756 combos. That places it in the top 4.1% of all tested configurations, a strong showing for a mid-range processor paired with a high-end graphics card. The rank reflects the combination's ability to sustain high frame rates across all resolutions, but it is not the absolute top tier — the top 71 combos presumably pair even faster CPUs with the same or more powerful GPUs.

The CPU itself sits at the 83rd percentile against all processors, with an average benchmark score of 26,617. Its nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks are the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (average score 26,574, a delta of 0.2% in favor of the 7600), the Intel Core i9-12900HK (26,672, delta of -0.2% meaning the Intel is slightly ahead), the AMD EPYC 8024P (26,555, delta of 0.2%), and the Intel Core i9-11900K (26,546, delta of 0.3%). These deltas are minuscule — within a third of a percent — meaning the Ryzen 5 7600 trades blows with several higher-tier CPUs in synthetic tests. In an idle game like To The Core, which likely does not heavily tax multi-threaded workloads, this parity means the CPU is rarely the limiting factor.

The GPU ranks at the 89th percentile against all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 59,188. Its nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks are the Intel Arc A570M (58,239, delta of 1.6% in favor of the RTX 5080), the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326, delta of -1.9%), the Intel Arc A580 (57,756, delta of 2.5%), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X (57,661, delta of 2.6%). The RTX 5080 sits comfortably above these rivals, with a clear margin over all but the Arc Pro A60, which actually edges it out by 1.9%. This GPU-centric performance is what propels the combo to its 72nd-place ranking.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this pairing, and the benchmark results reflect its capabilities. The card ships with 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 2295 MHz, boosting to 2617 MHz, with memory clocked at 1875 MHz (30 Gbps effective). The GPU features 10,752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units, along with 84 ray tracing cores and 336 tensor cores. Its pixel rate is 293.1 GPixel/s and texture rate is 879.3 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 56.28 TFLOPS.

In To The Core, the GPU's role becomes evident in the scaling from Medium to Ultra. At 1080p, the jump from Medium (492.5 FPS) to Ultra (346.5 FPS) represents a 146 FPS penalty, or roughly 30%. At 1440p, the same jump costs 99.3 FPS (from 334.1 to 234.8), and at 4K it costs 58.3 FPS (from 190.5 to 132.2). This pattern — where the absolute FPS penalty shrinks as resolution rises — indicates that the GPU's shading and rasterization workload scales with pixel count, but the card's raw throughput is sufficient to maintain triple-digit frame rates even at the highest settings.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than adequate for an idle-genre title, which typically does not have massive texture footprints. The 960 GB/s bandwidth ensures that memory bandwidth is not a constraint at 4K, where the 132.2 FPS Ultra result suggests the GPU's compute units, not its memory subsystem, are the primary bottleneck. The 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 rating provides the raw compute headroom to push high frame rates, and the data confirms that the RTX 5080 is never the limiting factor at 1080p or 1440p, where CPU-bound behavior takes over.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frames per second across all four settings presets provide a clear picture of the optimal configuration for this combo. At 1080p, even the most demanding Ultra preset delivers 346.5 FPS, which is far beyond what any display can refresh. At 1440p, Ultra still yields 234.8 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 132.2 FPS. The data shows that the Ultra preset is viable at every resolution tested, with no measurable frame rate falling below the 132 FPS mark.

For players targeting 4K, the choice between High and Ultra is the most consequential. High delivers 163 FPS compared to Ultra's 132.2 FPS, a difference of 30.8 FPS. If the goal is maximum visual fidelity and the display supports a 144 Hz refresh rate, Ultra is the better choice, as it stays within 12 FPS of that target. If a 165 Hz or higher refresh rate is the goal, High is the safer option, providing a 31 FPS buffer over Ultra.

At 1440p, the situation is less critical. Ultra produces 234.8 FPS, which exceeds any consumer display's refresh rate. The same logic applies at 1080p, where even Ultra's 346.5 FPS is overkill. The data suggests that players using this combo should default to Ultra settings and only consider dropping to High if they are chasing frame rates above 240 FPS at lower resolutions. The Medium preset offers no meaningful advantage, as it still produces frame rates well above display capabilities while sacrificing visual quality. Low settings are only relevant for competitive play at extreme refresh rates, where the 588.1 FPS at 1080p might matter, but the visual penalty is severe.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows a wide spread. Low settings produce 588.1 FPS, Medium drops to 492.5 FPS, High comes in at 429.4 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 346.5 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is 95.6 FPS, from Medium to High is 63.1 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 82.9 FPS. The largest relative drop occurs between Low and Medium, which is a 16.3% reduction, while the High to Ultra step is a 19.3% reduction.

At 2560x1440, the numbers scale down proportionally. Low delivers 395.6 FPS, Medium 334.1 FPS, High 289.3 FPS, and Ultra 234.8 FPS. The deltas between tiers are 61.5 FPS (Low to Medium), 44.8 FPS (Medium to High), and 54.5 FPS (High to Ultra). The percentage drops are 15.5%, 13.4%, and 18.8% respectively, showing similar scaling behavior to 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain high but compress further. Low produces 223.4 FPS, Medium 190.5 FPS, High 163 FPS, and Ultra 132.2 FPS. The absolute deltas shrink to 32.9 FPS (Low to Medium), 27.5 FPS (Medium to High), and 30.8 FPS (High to Ultra). The percentage drops are 14.7%, 14.4%, and 18.9%, indicating that the GPU's performance scaling is consistent across resolutions.

Comparing resolution to resolution at the same settings, the 1080p to 1440p drop is 32.7% at Low (588.1 to 395.6), 32.1% at Medium (492.5 to 334.1), 32.6% at High (429.4 to 289.3), and 32.2% at Ultra (346.5 to 234.8). The 1440p to 4K drop is 43.5% at Low (395.6 to 223.4), 43.0% at Medium (334.1 to 190.5), 43.7% at High (289.3 to 163), and 43.7% at Ultra (234.8 to 132.2). These consistent percentages confirm that the rendering workload scales predictably with pixel count, and the RTX 5080 maintains its efficiency across all tested configurations.