To The Core

# To The Core with AMD Ryzen 5 8400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers exceptional performance in To The Core, an idle game that clearly favors high frame rates across all resolution tiers. The measured data shows this combo achieving triple-digit FPS even at 4K Ultra, with 1080p Low surpassing 400 FPS, indicating a system that is heavily GPU-limited at lower resolutions and CPU-limited at the highest settings. This analysis examines how the resolution scaling, processor characteristics, and graphics card capabilities interact to produce these results, while also placing the combo's performance within the broader context of the 3,725 tested combinations in the database.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling with diminishing returns at lower resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 303 at 1920x1080 to 204 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 99 FPS, and further to 117 at 3840x2160, representing a 61.4% decrease from 1080p to 4K. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 3080's pixel-pushing capabilities become the primary constraint as resolution increases, while the CPU has ample headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions.

The scaling behavior changes noticeably when examining Low settings. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 414 FPS, which drops to 278 at 1440p and 159 at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 32.9%, while from 1440p to 4K it's 42.8%. This non-linear scaling suggests that at 1080p Low, the system is approaching a CPU-imposed ceiling, as the Ryzen 5 8400F's six cores and 12 threads begin to bottleneck the GPU's ability to render frames at extreme rates.

The Medium preset provides the only complete min/max FPS data across all resolutions, offering insight into frame time consistency. At 4K Medium, the average is 135 FPS with a minimum of 114 and maximum of 155, yielding a variance of 41 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average rises to 235 FPS with a range from 200 to 271, and at 1080p Medium, the average reaches 350 FPS with a spread from 297 to 402. The relative variance (max-min as a percentage of average) shrinks from 30.4% at 4K to 30.2% at 1440p and 30.0% at 1080p, suggesting that frame pacing remains stable regardless of resolution, though the absolute frame time variation increases at higher resolutions.

The Ultra preset demonstrates the most dramatic resolution scaling. At 1080p Ultra, the combo manages 244 FPS, falling to 164 at 1440p and 94 at 4K. The 61.5% drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra mirrors the High preset's 61.4% decline, indicating that the GPU's workload scales similarly across quality presets. However, the absolute FPS at 4K Ultra (94) is the only measured result below 100 FPS, suggesting that this is the first configuration where the RTX 3080's rendering load becomes substantial enough to approach the limits of its 10 GB GDDR6X memory and 8704 shading units.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in To The Core?*

A: The highest average FPS is 414, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the absolute ceiling for this configuration, likely limited by the CPU's single-thread performance rather than the GPU.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 94, which is the only measured result below 100 FPS across all resolution and settings combinations. This indicates that 4K Ultra is the most demanding configuration for this hardware pairing.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 278 FPS while Ultra produces 164 FPS, a difference of 114 FPS or 69.5% improvement for Low over Ultra. This substantial gap highlights the significant impact of quality presets on frame rates.

Q: Does the combo maintain stable frame times across resolutions?

A: The Medium preset data shows consistent relative variance across resolutions, with min-to-max spreads of 41 FPS at 4K, 71 FPS at 1440p, and 105 FPS at 1080p. The relative variance stays near 30% across all resolutions, suggesting stable frame pacing.

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in To The Core?*

A: The combo ranks 1049 out of 3725 tested combinations, placing it in the top 28.2% of all configurations. This mid-to-upper tier ranking reflects strong but not elite performance relative to the full database.

Q: Is the system more CPU-limited or GPU-limited at 1080p?

A: The data suggests CPU limitation at 1080p, particularly at Low settings where 414 FPS likely approaches the Ryzen 5 8400F's maximum frame delivery capability. The GPU's headroom at this resolution is evidenced by the relatively modest FPS gains from Ultra to Low (244 to 414) compared to the larger jumps at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a six-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture (codename Phoenix), fabricated on TSMC's 4 nm process node. With a base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz, this CPU delivers strong single-thread performance that directly influences frame rates in To The Core, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The 16 MB shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core provide ample data locality for game logic and physics calculations common in idle games.

Benchmark data shows the 8400F achieving a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20,851 and single-core score of 2,943, placing it in the 77th percentile among all CPUs. The 3DMark scores reveal scaling from 1,874 (2 threads) to 6,165 (max threads), demonstrating that the processor's multi-threading capabilities scale well up to its full thread count. The PassMark multithread score of 24,389 and single-thread score of 3,685 further confirm balanced performance across workloads.

In To The Core, the CPU's role becomes evident when comparing FPS across resolutions at identical settings. At High settings, the FPS rises from 117 at 4K to 204 at 1440p (74.4% increase) and then to 303 at 1080p (48.5% increase from 1440p). The diminishing returns between 1440p and 1080p suggest that the CPU is approaching its frame delivery limit, as the GPU's workload decreases but FPS gains moderate. The 1080p Low result of 414 FPS likely represents the practical ceiling for this processor in this title, as even with minimal GPU work, the CPU cannot push frames significantly higher.

The 8400F's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, shows an average benchmark score of 24,964 versus the 8400F's 25,005, a delta of just 0.2%. This near-identical performance suggests that the 8400F's architecture and clock speeds are well-optimized for gaming workloads. The Intel Core i7-13620H trails by 0.4% with a score of 24,911, while the AMD EPYC 9474F leads by 0.4% at 25,103, though the latter is a server processor unlikely to be used in gaming builds.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a rank of 1049 out of 3,725 tested combos in To The Core, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all configurations. This ranking indicates that while the combo performs well, there are over 1,000 other combinations that achieve higher frame rates in this title. The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU's 77th percentile standing and the GPU's 68th percentile ranking, suggesting that the processor is slightly stronger relative to its peers than the graphics card.

The combo's position in the middle-upper tier of results makes sense given the game's nature as an idle title, which may favor certain hardware configurations over others. The RTX 3080's 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23,172, places it below some newer or higher-end cards, while the 8400F's 77th percentile CPU ranking provides a solid foundation for frame generation. The combination of a strong CPU with a mid-high-end GPU results in a system that excels at high frame rates in less demanding titles like To The Core but may struggle in more graphically intensive games.

The data shows that this combo sits just above the 28th percentile of all tested combinations, meaning that while it outperforms roughly 72% of configurations, it also falls short of the top quartile. This suggests that users seeking maximum FPS in To The Core would need a more powerful GPU, as the CPU's performance ceiling appears sufficient for the game's demands. The 1049 rank also implies that the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth provide adequate resources for this title, but the GPU's overall compute capabilities (29.77 TFLOPS FP32) become the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, based on the GA102 chip and Ampere architecture, is fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process with 28,300 million transistors across a 628 mm² die. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for To The Core's demands even at 4K Ultra settings. The 8,704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output pipelines provide substantial compute throughput, while 68 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores offer additional capabilities that may be leveraged by the game's rendering pipeline.

The GPU's clock speeds are 1,440 MHz base and 1,710 MHz boost, with memory running at 1,188 MHz (19 Gbps effective). These specifications result in a pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s, which directly impact the game's ability to render high-resolution textures and effects. The 320 W TDP and suggested 700 W PSU requirement indicate that this is a power-hungry component, but the measured FPS data shows that it delivers accordingly.

In To The Core, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 4K, the GPU's rendering workload limits FPS to between 94 (Ultra) and 159 (Low), with the gap between these settings (65 FPS) demonstrating the GPU's sensitivity to quality presets. At 1440p, the range expands to 164-278 FPS, and at 1080p, it reaches 244-414 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 3080's compute resources are fully utilized at 4K, while at 1080p, the CPU becomes the primary constraint.

The GPU's benchmark scores reflect its mid-high-end positioning. The PassMark G3D score of 25,086 places it in the 68th percentile, while the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4,407 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 152,423 demonstrate strong compute performance. The GPU's nearest rivals show interesting anomalies: the NVIDIA P106-100 (a mining card) scores 23,249, just 0.3% lower, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 and RX 6600M score 23,250 and 23,273 respectively, both within 0.4% of the RTX 3080. These near-identical scores suggest that the benchmark database's average scores may not fully capture gaming performance differences, as the RTX 3080's architectural advantages become apparent in actual game tests.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 414 FPS, Medium yields 350 FPS (with min/max of 297/402), High achieves 303 FPS, and Ultra manages 244 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 41.0% decrease in average FPS, with each step up in quality costing approximately 50-60 FPS. The Medium preset's min/max spread of 105 FPS (297-402) represents the largest absolute variance at any resolution, indicating that frame rates fluctuate significantly even at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the FPS drops meaningfully but remains highly playable. Low settings average 278 FPS, Medium 235 FPS (min/max 200/271), High 204 FPS, and Ultra 164 FPS. The percentage decrease from 1080p to 1440p ranges from 32.9% at Low to 34.4% at Ultra, showing consistent scaling across quality presets. The Medium preset's min/max spread narrows to 71 FPS (200-271), suggesting slightly better frame consistency at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's workload becomes substantial. Low settings average 159 FPS, Medium 135 FPS (min/max 114/155), High 117 FPS, and Ultra 94 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K ranges from 42.8% at Low to 42.7% at Ultra, indicating that the GPU's pixel processing demands scale linearly with resolution. The Medium preset's min/max spread narrows further to 41 FPS (114-155), demonstrating improved frame consistency at 4K despite the lower average FPS.

The data reveals that the RTX 3080 maintains playable frame rates (above 60 FPS) at all settings and resolutions, even at 4K Ultra with 94 FPS. The highest FPS recorded (414 at 1080p Low) suggests that this combo is well-suited for high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p, while 1440p users can enjoy 165+ FPS at Ultra settings. At 4K, the combo delivers 94-159 FPS depending on quality settings, making it viable for 4K gaming with some quality compromises.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the user's resolution and refresh rate priorities. For 1080p users with high-refresh-rate displays (144Hz or higher), the Medium preset offers the best balance, delivering 350 FPS with a min/max range of 297-402. This ensures that frame rates remain well above typical refresh rates even during demanding scenes. High settings at 1080p also provide excellent performance at 303 FPS, making it a viable alternative for users seeking better visual quality without sacrificing frame rates.

For 1440p displays, the High preset at 204 FPS provides an excellent experience for 144Hz or 165Hz monitors, while the Ultra preset at 164 FPS remains suitable for 144Hz displays with minimal frame drops. The Medium preset at 235 FPS offers additional headroom for users with 240Hz monitors, though the visual quality reduction may not be worth the extra FPS for most users. The Low preset at 278 FPS is only recommended for competitive play where maximum frame rates are prioritized over visual fidelity.

For 4K displays, the High preset at 117 FPS provides a smooth experience for 120Hz panels, while the Medium preset at 135 FPS offers additional headroom for variable refresh rate displays. The Ultra preset at 94 FPS is playable but may result in occasional frame drops on 120Hz displays, making it less ideal for fast-paced gameplay. The Low preset at 159 FPS is the best choice for 4K users with 144Hz monitors, though the visual quality trade-off is significant.

The Medium preset consistently provides the most stable frame times across all resolutions, with relative variance (max-min divided by average) of approximately 30%. This consistency makes Medium the recommended choice for users who prioritize smooth gameplay over maximum visual quality. For users with high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p or 1440p, the High preset offers an excellent compromise between visual fidelity and performance, delivering 303 FPS at 1080p and 204 FPS at 1440p, both well above typical refresh rate thresholds.