To The Core

To The Core is an idle game that rarely stresses modern hardware, yet the pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces frame rates that are nothing short of extraordinary. The data reveals a configuration that is heavily GPU-bound at lower resolutions but becomes more balanced as the load shifts to 4K, where the combination still delivers triple-digit performance across all settings. Measured results show this combo ranks 142nd out of 3725 tested configurations in this title, placing it in the top 4% of all systems. The RTX 5090, with its massive 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, proves to be overkill for this workload, while the Ryzen 7 5700's eight Zen 3 cores provide sufficient throughput to avoid becoming a bottleneck in most scenarios.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this CPU/GPU combination in To The Core?

A: The highest average frame rate is 505 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the absolute ceiling for this configuration, while the same resolution at Ultra settings still delivers a very strong 369 FPS average.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its closest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 79842, which places it 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (score 79605) and 1.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (score 80959). The GPU sits in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs tested.

Q: What is the performance gap between the Ryzen 7 5700 and its nearest rival?

A: The Ryzen 7 5700 has an average benchmark score of 25517, which is 0.1% behind the Intel Xeon D-2752TER (score 25530) and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 5825U (score 25446). This places the CPU in the 78th percentile of all processors.

Q: How much does the average FPS drop when moving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 369 FPS at 1920x1080 to 248 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 142 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 61.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating a growing reliance on GPU performance at higher resolutions.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination provides the most balanced experience with measured minimum FPS data?

A: The only preset with recorded minimum and maximum frame rates is Medium. At 3840x2160, the data shows an average of 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 FPS and maximum of 234 FPS. At 2560x1440, the average rises to 355 FPS with a minimum of 302 FPS and maximum of 409 FPS.

Q: What is the thermal and power design of the RTX 5090 in this configuration?

A: The RTX 5090 has a thermal design power of 575 W and requires a suggested power supply of 950 W. It features a dual-slot design with a single 16-pin power connector, making it a substantial physical and electrical presence in any system.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the undisputed dominant force in this configuration, and the measured FPS data reflects its capabilities. Built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB202 chip fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC, this GPU contains 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. The sheer scale of the hardware is staggering: 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 render output units work in concert to deliver the frame rates observed. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz and boosts to 2407 MHz, which are relatively modest frequencies for such a large chip but are sufficient to produce the exceptional performance seen here.

Memory bandwidth is arguably the most critical specification for this game. The RTX 5090 comes equipped with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. In To The Core, an idle game that likely relies on rapid texture streaming and UI updates, this bandwidth proves decisive. Even at 4K Ultra settings, the GPU maintains an average of 142 FPS, a figure that would be impossible without the massive memory subsystem. The 1750 MHz memory clock (28 Gbps effective) ensures that data transfer never becomes a limiting factor, even when the game engine requests large amounts of visual data at high resolutions.

The GPU's benchmark scores further contextualize its role. With an average benchmark score of 79842 and a 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, the RTX 5090 sits at the absolute top of the performance hierarchy. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 376728 demonstrate strength across different API workloads. In direct comparisons, the RTX 5090 edges out the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB by 0.3% but trails the Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4%, though these differences are negligible in real-world gaming scenarios where the 5090's architectural advantages become apparent.

The graph of FPS across settings shows a clear GPU-driven pattern. At 1080p Low, the RTX 5090 achieves 505 FPS, and even at 4K Low, it maintains 240 FPS. The transition from Low to Ultra at any resolution reveals a consistent performance penalty that scales with the increased graphical load. At 4K, the difference between Low (240 FPS) and Ultra (142 FPS) is 98 FPS, representing a 40.8% drop. This indicates that the GPU is being progressively taxed by higher settings, but even at maximum load, it never approaches its limits in this idle game.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 provides the computational foundation for this system, and its role in To The Core is less demanding than the GPU's but still essential. This eight-core, sixteen-thread processor is based on the Zen 3 architecture with the Cezanne codename, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process node. It houses 10,700 million transistors on a 180 mm² die, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The 65 W TDP is modest for a desktop processor with this core count, making it an efficient choice that doesn't generate excessive heat in sustained gaming sessions.

For an idle game like To The Core, the CPU's single-thread performance is often more critical than multi-thread capabilities. The Ryzen 7 5700 delivers a 3DMark single-thread score of 901 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2916, figures that position it well for handling game logic, UI updates, and background simulation. The 16 MB of L3 cache, along with 512 KB of L2 cache per core and 64 KB of L1 cache per core, provides ample fast memory for the processor to access frequently used data without waiting on the slower DDR4 memory subsystem.

Benchmark data reveals a balanced processor. The PassMark multithread score of 24303 and Geekbench multicore score of 9959 show strong parallel performance, while the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20655 indicates sustained multi-threaded capability. The CPU's average benchmark score of 25517 places it in the 78th percentile of all processors, with rivals like the Intel Xeon D-2752TER (25530, 0.1% faster) and AMD Ryzen 5 7640U (25485, 0.1% slower) in close proximity. This tight grouping suggests the Ryzen 7 5700 is a well-balanced part that neither excels nor lags significantly in any particular workload.

In the context of To The Core, the CPU's role becomes more pronounced at lower resolutions where the GPU can produce frames faster than the processor can issue draw calls. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 505 FPS, a figure that likely approaches the CPU's maximum throughput for this game engine. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 6628 and 8-thread score of 5585 demonstrate that the processor scales well with thread count, but the single-thread score of 901 suggests that per-core performance is the limiting factor at extreme FPS levels. The Ryzen 7 5700's ability to boost to 4.60 GHz helps mitigate this, but in an idle game with relatively simple logic, the CPU is unlikely to become a bottleneck until frame rates exceed 500 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive picture of how this configuration performs across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across the board. Low settings produce an average of 505 FPS, which drops to 476 FPS at Medium (with a minimum of 404 FPS and maximum of 547 FPS), 453 FPS at High, and 369 FPS at Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 26.9% performance reduction, which is relatively modest given the significant visual quality improvements typically associated with each preset tier.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain remarkably high but show a clearer delineation between settings. Low settings achieve 420 FPS, Medium hits 355 FPS (with a minimum of 302 FPS and maximum of 409 FPS), High delivers 308 FPS, and Ultra maintains 248 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 172 FPS, a 41.0% reduction that indicates the GPU is starting to feel the pressure of increased pixel count combined with higher graphical fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the performance remains impressive but the scaling pattern intensifies. Low settings produce 240 FPS, Medium averages 203 FPS (with a minimum of 173 FPS and maximum of 234 FPS), High delivers 176 FPS, and Ultra drops to 142 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 98 FPS, a 40.8% reduction. Notably, the 4K Medium preset shows the tightest minimum-maximum range of all measured data points, with only a 61 FPS spread between the floor and ceiling, suggesting stable frame delivery under load.

The data reveals that this configuration never drops below 142 FPS in any tested scenario, which is remarkable for an idle game. Even at the most demanding settings of 4K Ultra, the system maintains a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The minimum FPS values recorded only for Medium settings indicate that this preset provides the most consistent performance, with the 4K Medium minimum of 173 FPS being particularly strong for a 4K workload.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K illustrates a classic resolution scaling pattern that reveals the system's bottleneck characteristics. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 505 at 1080p to 420 at 1440p (a 16.8% reduction) and then to 240 at 4K (a 52.5% reduction from 1080p). This steep decline at 4K indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, requiring substantially more fill rate and memory bandwidth.

At High settings, the scaling is more gradual but still pronounced. The system achieves 453 FPS at 1080p, 308 FPS at 1440p (a 32.0% reduction), and 176 FPS at 4K (a 61.1% reduction from 1080p). This pattern suggests that higher settings amplify the GPU's workload disproportionately at each resolution step, making the RTX 5090's capabilities the determining factor in performance. The 176 FPS at 4K High is still exceptional, but the scaling curve indicates that the GPU is being pushed harder relative to its 1080p performance.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling. From 369 FPS at 1080p, the frame rate drops to 248 FPS at 1440p (a 32.8% reduction) and then to 142 FPS at 4K (a 61.5% reduction from 1080p). The 4K Ultra result of 142 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset, but it still represents a playable experience on most displays. The consistency of the scaling pattern across settings—roughly 30-40% drops from 1080p to 1440p and 50-60% drops from 1080p to 4K—indicates that the RTX 5090's rendering pipeline scales predictably with resolution.

The resolution scaling data also provides insight into the CPU's role. At 1080p Low, the 505 FPS result is likely approaching the CPU's limit for this game, as the GPU is capable of far more. The relatively small drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings (16.8%) compared to the larger drop at Ultra (32.8%) suggests that the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output at lower settings, but the GPU becomes more dominant at higher settings and resolutions. This is a textbook example of a system where the GPU is the primary performance driver in an idle game, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a limiting factor until extreme frame rates are reached.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions. This is the only settings tier with recorded minimum and maximum frame rates, providing the most complete picture of performance stability. At 4K Medium, the system averages 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 FPS and maximum of 234 FPS, which represents an excellent combination of visual quality and performance. The 61 FPS spread between minimum and maximum indicates consistent frame delivery, which is crucial for a smooth gaming experience.

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, the Ultra preset remains viable at all resolutions. Even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains an average of 142 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most standard 60 Hz displays and matches many 144 Hz monitors. The 248 FPS at 1440p Ultra and 369 FPS at 1080p Ultra provide substantial headroom for high-refresh-rate displays, making this preset a strong choice for users who value image quality above all else.

The High preset offers a middle ground that may be preferable for competitive play. At 4K High, the system achieves 176 FPS, which is 34 FPS higher than Ultra at the same resolution. This represents a 23.9% performance improvement for what is typically a modest visual quality reduction. At 1440p High, the 308 FPS result is well above the 240 Hz refresh rate of many gaming monitors, providing a comfortable margin for frame time consistency.

The Low preset is unlikely to be necessary for this configuration, but it does reveal the system's absolute performance ceiling. The 505 FPS at 1080p Low is the highest measured value and would be suitable for extreme competitive scenarios or for users with 480 Hz displays. However, the visual quality sacrifices at Low settings are typically not worth the performance gains in an idle game where frame rates above 200 FPS provide diminishing returns. The Medium preset remains the recommended choice for most users, offering the best balance of visual fidelity and performance stability, with the Ultra preset serving as the premium option for those who want the best-looking experience possible.