To The Core

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D paired with the Intel Arc B390 is a combination that sits in a specific performance tier for To The Core, an idle game released on 2024-02-14. The benchmark data shows this pairing ranking 2643 out of 2991 tested combos for this game, placing it in the lower portion of the overall distribution. The 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 5800X3D, based on the Zen 3 Vermeer architecture, provides substantial processing power, while the Intel Arc B390, an integrated graphics solution from the Panther Lake generation, delivers modest frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings. The following analysis details how these components interact, what the measured FPS values indicate, and where the bottleneck lies.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU pairings for To The Core?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D + Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 2643 out of 2991 tested combos for this specific game. This places it in the bottom 12% of all configurations tested, indicating that while it can run the game, it does not deliver top-tier performance relative to the full database of pairings.

Q: How does the CPU's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 5800X3D has an avgBenchmarkScore of 27896. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U, scores 27887 with a deltaPct of 0, meaning they are essentially tied. The Intel Core i9-10900K scores 27872 (0.1% slower), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 scores 27932 (0.1% faster), and the Intel Core i5-12600KF scores 27799 (0.3% slower). The CPU is therefore competitively matched with these parts.

Q: What is the GPU's benchmark percentile, and what does that imply?

A: The Intel Arc B390 has a percentileVsAllGpus of 9, meaning it performs better than only 9% of all GPUs in the database. Its avgBenchmarkScore is 1482, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% slower), NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% slower), NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% slower), and NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (1443, 2.7% slower). This indicates very low absolute GPU performance.

Q: What are the best and worst measured average FPS values for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS measured is 147 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest average FPS is 33 at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. Across all 12 measured configurations, the average FPS ranges from 33 to 147, with 4K Ultra representing the most demanding scenario and 1080p Low the least demanding.

Q: Does the CPU have a high single-thread or multi-thread score?

A: In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 14317 for multi-core and 1452 for single-core. In Geekbench, it scores 11765 for multi-core and 2017 for single-core. The 3DMark tests show 7299 for 16 threads, 1746 for 2 threads, 3392 for 4 threads, 5906 for 8 threads, 7285 for max threads, and 884 for single-thread. These scores indicate a balanced profile, with strong multi-threaded performance given the 8-core, 16-thread design.

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

A: At Ultra settings, the average FPS at 1920x1080 is 86. At 2560x1440, it drops to 58. At 3840x2160, it falls to 33. This represents a 32.6% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 61.6% reduction from 1080p to 4K, showing a significant scaling penalty as resolution increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame field places this specific pairing at 2643 out of 2991 tested combinations for To The Core. This rank is low, indicating that the majority of other CPU-GPU pairings deliver higher performance in this game. The percentileVsAllGpus for the Intel Arc B390 is 9, which aligns with this low overall rank — the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU, by contrast, has a percentileVsAllCpus of 80, meaning it outperforms 80% of all CPUs in the database. This disparity between a high-performing CPU and a low-performing GPU creates a configuration where the graphics card cannot keep pace with the processor's capabilities.

The data suggests that this combo is not optimized for high frame rates in To The Core. With the GPU ranking in the 9th percentile, it is expected that the system will struggle at higher resolutions and settings. The CPU's strong benchmark scores, such as a passmark_multithread score of 28309 and a passmark_single_thread score of 3234, do not translate into proportional FPS gains because the GPU's raw throughput is severely limited. The avgBenchmarkScore of the GPU is 1482, which is minimal compared to what would be needed for smooth high-end gameplay. The rank of 2643/2991 confirms that users with this combo will experience performance in the lower quartile of all tested systems, making it suitable only for low-demand scenarios or older titles.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a 3 nm process node from Intel. Its base clock is 300 MHz, and it boosts to 2500 MHz. The memory is System Shared, meaning it uses a portion of the system's main RAM rather than dedicated VRAM. The memory bus width is also System Shared, and the bandwidth is System Dependent. This lack of dedicated memory is a critical factor for gaming performance, as it relies on the CPU's memory subsystem, which for this AMD CPU is DDR4 with a dual-channel bus and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth.

The GPU has 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 24 raster operation pipelines (ROPs). It also includes 12 ray tracing cores. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 7.680 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 15.36 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio. These specifications place it in the entry-level segment, as evidenced by its benchmark score of 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, scores 1463, which is a 1.3% difference. The GT 710, another low-end part, is 2.7% slower.

In To The Core, the GPU's role is to render frames at the chosen resolution and settings. The measured FPS values show that it can handle 1080p Low at 147 FPS, but this drops significantly as load increases. At 4K Ultra, the FPS falls to 33, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The GPU's TDP is 80 W, and it is an IGP, so it shares power and thermal resources with the CPU. The data indicates that the Arc B390 is the primary bottleneck in this combo, as its performance is far below what the CPU could support.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 147 at Low to 86 at Ultra. Specifically, Low yields 147 FPS, Medium yields 124 FPS with a min of 105 and max of 143, High yields 107 FPS, and Ultra yields 86 FPS. This shows a clear progression: as settings increase, FPS decreases by roughly 20-30 FPS per step from Low to Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the numbers drop. Low produces 99 FPS, Medium produces 83 FPS (min 71, max 96), High produces 72 FPS, and Ultra produces 58 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is approximately 33% across settings — for example, 147 to 99 at Low (33% drop) and 86 to 58 at Ultra (33% drop). This consistent decrease suggests that resolution scaling is the primary factor, with the GPU struggling to fill more pixels.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal. Low yields 56 FPS, Medium yields 48 FPS (min 41, max 55), High yields 41 FPS, and Ultra yields 33 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is steeper in percentage terms — 99 to 56 at Low is a 43% reduction, and 58 to 33 at Ultra is a 43% reduction. This indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are insufficient for 4K, even at Low settings, where the FPS barely exceeds 50.

The data shows that only 1080p Low through High settings achieve average FPS above 100. At 1440p, only Low and Medium exceed 80 FPS. At 4K, no setting reaches 60 FPS, with the best being Low at 56 FPS. For a game like To The Core, which is an idle game and likely not graphically intensive, these numbers suggest that the GPU is severely underpowered for this resolution range.

Resolution Scaling

Resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the system's limiting component responds to increased pixel counts. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 147 at 1080p to 99 at 1440p, a drop of 48 FPS (32.7%). From 1440p to 4K, it goes from 99 to 56, a drop of 43 FPS (43.4%). At Medium settings, the FPS drops from 124 at 1080p to 83 at 1440p (33.1% reduction) and then to 48 at 4K (42.2% reduction from 1440p). At High settings, 107 FPS at 1080p falls to 72 at 1440p (32.7% reduction) and then to 41 at 4K (43.1% reduction). At Ultra, 86 FPS at 1080p drops to 58 at 1440p (32.6% reduction) and then to 33 at 4K (43.1% reduction).

The consistent pattern — approximately 33% drop from 1080p to 1440p and 43% drop from 1440p to 4K — indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions because the CPU work per frame (draw calls, physics, etc.) does not scale with resolution. Instead, the FPS decreases nearly proportionally with the number of pixels, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance. The number of pixels at 1440p is 1.78 times that of 1080p, and the FPS drops by about 1.5 times at Low (147 to 99), which is close to a linear relationship. At 4K, the pixel count is 4 times that of 1080p, and the FPS drops by about 2.6 times at Low (147 to 56), showing that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are overwhelmed.

The CPU's high performance — with a 3dmark_max_threads score of 7285 and a passmark_multithread score of 28309 — ensures that it is not limiting the frame rate at any resolution. The data supports this conclusion because the FPS scaling follows the GPU's theoretical limits rather than the CPU's capabilities. The Intel Arc B390, with its System Shared memory and 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 performance, simply cannot maintain high frame rates as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is an 8-core, 16-thread processor from the 5000 series, based on the Zen 3 architecture with the codename Vermeer. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. The L3 cache is 96 MB shared, which is a large amount and beneficial for gaming. The CPU supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. It has a TDP of 105 W and uses the AMD Socket AM4. The process node is 7 nm from TSMC, with 8,850 million transistors on a 74 mm² die.

In benchmarks, the CPU scores 14317 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1452 in single-core. Geekbench shows 11765 multi-core and 2017 single-core. The PassMark tests show 28309 for multithread and 3234 for single-thread. The 3DMark scores are 7299 for 16 threads, 7285 for max threads, 5906 for 8 threads, 3392 for 4 threads, 1746 for 2 threads, and 884 for single-thread. These scores indicate that the CPU is well above average, with a percentileVsAllCpus of 80.

For To The Core, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI, and frame preparation. Given that this is an idle game, the CPU workload is likely light, but the 5800X3D's high single-thread and multi-thread performance ensures it is not a bottleneck. The nearest rivals — the Ryzen 7 6800U, Core i9-10900K, Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340, and Core i5-12600KF — have avgBenchmarkScores within 0.3% of the 5800X3D, showing that this CPU is competitive with those parts. However, the measured FPS in this combo is entirely limited by the GPU. For example, at 1080p Low, the CPU could theoretically support much higher frame rates, but the GPU maxes out at 147 FPS. The data shows that the CPU's strong scores do not translate into higher FPS because the GPU cannot keep up.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 147 FPS, which is smooth and responsive. Medium delivers 124 FPS, High delivers 107 FPS, and Ultra delivers 86 FPS. All of these are playable, but for the best experience balancing visual quality and performance, Medium or High is recommended, as they stay above 100 FPS. Ultra is still above 60 FPS, so it is viable if the user prefers maximum quality.

At 2560x1440, the choices narrow. Low yields 99 FPS, Medium yields 83 FPS, High yields 72 FPS, and Ultra yields 58 FPS. For a consistent 60+ FPS experience, Low, Medium, and High all qualify, with Ultra falling slightly below 60. The recommendation is to use High at 72 FPS for a good balance, or Medium at 83 FPS if smoother motion is preferred. Ultra is not recommended because it drops below 60 FPS, which may introduce stutter.

At 3840x2160, no setting achieves 60 FPS. Low yields 56 FPS, Medium yields 48 FPS, High yields 41 FPS, and Ultra yields 33 FPS. For the most playable experience, Low at 56 FPS is the only option that approaches playability, but it still falls below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium at 48 FPS is borderline, while High and Ultra are not recommended due to low frame rates. If the user must play at 4K, Low settings are the only viable choice, but 1080p or 1440p with higher settings would provide a better experience.

The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can achieve high frame rates on all settings. At 1440p, it can still deliver acceptable performance with medium-to-high settings. At 4K, the GPU is too weak to maintain smooth gameplay, and users should either lower the resolution or accept low frame rates. The measured FPS values show that the Intel Arc B390 is the limiting factor, so optimizing settings to reduce GPU load — such as lowering resolution or using Low/Medium presets — is the most effective way to improve performance.