To The Core

# FAQ

*Q: What is the overall ranking of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + Intel Arc B370 combo in To The Core?*

A: This combo ranks 2750 out of 2991 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 8% of all tested systems for this title.

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

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69,996 average benchmark points. It sits 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875), 0.7% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515), and 0.9% above the Intel Core i7-14700K (69,355). It trails the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,163) by 0.2%.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile and how does it compare to direct rivals?

A: The Intel Arc B370 sits in the 5th percentile of all GPUs with an average 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184. It is 0.2% faster than the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186), 0.5% faster than the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190), and 0.7% faster than the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192). It trails the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168) by 1.4%.

Q: What are the core and clock specifications of the Ryzen 7 9700F?

A: The CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. It features 32 MB of shared L3 cache, 1 MB L2 per core, and 80 KB L1 per core. It uses the Zen 5 architecture on a 4 nm TSMC process.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration?

A: The Intel Arc B370 uses System Shared memory, meaning it has no dedicated VRAM. Its memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent," with its memory clock tied to the system.

Q: What is the best average FPS achievable at 1080p with this combo?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 132 FPS average. Medium settings deliver 112 FPS, High delivers 97 FPS, and Ultra drops to 78 FPS.

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# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + Intel Arc B370 combination sits at position 2750 out of 2991 tested combos in To The Core. This places the system in the bottom 8.1% of all configurations tested, indicating a severe mismatch between the CPU's capability and the GPU's output for this title. The ranking is particularly striking given the CPU's strong synthetic showing: the Ryzen 7 9700F achieves a 94th percentile standing among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 69,996.

The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The Intel Arc B370 ranks in the 5th percentile among all GPUs, with an average 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184. This puts it in direct competition with GPUs from over a decade ago — the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190), and AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192) are all within 0.7% of its performance. The data suggests that while the CPU is capable of feeding a much faster graphics solution, the Arc B370's output caps the entire system's gaming potential.

The rank of 2750 reflects this imbalance. In a title like To The Core, an idle genre game, the GPU's modest compute resources (1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, 20 ROPs) limit frame generation far more than the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads could ever constrain. The combo's position in the bottom decile of tested systems is a direct consequence of the GPU's 5th percentile standing, not any deficiency in the processor.

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# GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics solution built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, using Intel's 3 nm process. Its role in To The Core is defined by its low compute throughput and shared memory architecture. The GPU operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, with a 25 W TDP and no dedicated power connectors. It features 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster output units, along with 10 ray tracing cores.

The most significant limitation is the memory subsystem. The GPU uses System Shared memory — there is no dedicated VRAM, no dedicated memory bus, and no independent bandwidth figure. Memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent," meaning performance scales with the host system's DDR5 memory configuration. For the Ryzen 7 9700F, which supports dual-channel DDR5 with a theoretical bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, this shared arrangement means the GPU competes with the CPU for memory access.

The GPU's compute capabilities are modest: 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 and 12.29 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1). Its pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s. These figures align with its 5th percentile ranking among all GPUs. In practice, the Arc B370's performance in To The Core tracks closely with its synthetic benchmark score of 1184, placing it in the same performance tier as the ATI Radeon HD 5770 and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570.

The GPU's integrated nature (slot width: IGP, bus interface: IGP) means it shares thermal and power envelopes with the CPU. The 25 W TDP is remarkably low, but it constrains sustained clock behavior under load. The boost clock of 2400 MHz is the theoretical maximum; real-world sustained frequencies will depend on system thermals and power delivery.

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# Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers playable frame rates in all presets: Low averages 132 FPS, Medium averages 112 FPS with a range of 95 to 129 FPS, High averages 97 FPS, and Ultra averages 78 FPS. The 1080p results show a clear scaling pattern: dropping from Ultra to Low yields a 69% increase in average FPS (from 78 to 132).

At 2560x1440, performance declines substantially. Low settings produce 89 FPS average, Medium yields 75 FPS (ranging from 64 to 87), High drops to 65 FPS, and Ultra falls to 53 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 68% (from 53 to 89 FPS), nearly identical to the percentage gap at 1080p, suggesting the GPU's fill rate limits are being approached consistently.

At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings average 51 FPS, Medium averages 43 FPS (ranging from 37 to 50), High drops to 37 FPS, and Ultra falls to 30 FPS. The 4K results show a compressed range: from Low to Ultra, the spread is only 21 FPS (from 30 to 51), compared to a 54 FPS spread at 1080p. This compression indicates that at 4K, the GPU is saturated even at Low settings, and raising the preset yields diminishing returns.

The Medium preset is the only configuration with min/max FPS data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 95 to 129 FPS; at 1440p, it narrows to 64 to 87 FPS; at 4K, it tightens further to 37 to 50 FPS. The narrowing range as resolution increases confirms that the GPU's frame pacing becomes more consistent under higher pixel loads, but at the cost of average performance.

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# Settings Recommendations

For To The Core, the optimal settings preset depends heavily on the target resolution and the user's tolerance for frame rate variance. The data shows that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, particularly because it is the only preset with measured minimum and maximum frame data, indicating more predictable frame delivery.

At 1920x1080, Medium settings deliver 112 FPS average with a 95 to 129 FPS range. This is a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. High settings drop to 97 FPS, which is still playable, but the 15 FPS penalty from Medium to High is significant relative to the visual uplift in an idle game. At 1080p, Medium is the recommended preset for users who want consistent, high-refresh-rate performance without sacrificing all visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, Medium settings produce 75 FPS average with a 64 to 87 FPS range. The minimum of 64 FPS stays above the 60 FPS threshold, making Medium the safest choice for 1440p. Low settings boost the average to 89 FPS, but the visual penalty is substantial in a game where UI clarity matters. High settings at 65 FPS average are borderline, with the risk of dropping below 60 FPS during intense scenes. Ultra at 53 FPS average is not recommended for 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become severe. Low settings average 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. Medium drops to 43 FPS, High to 37 FPS, and Ultra to 30 FPS. None of the 4K presets achieve a consistent 60 FPS experience. For users who must play at 4K, Low settings provide the least-bad experience, but the data suggests that 1440p Medium is the practical ceiling for this combo in To The Core.

The Medium preset's availability of min/max data across all resolutions makes it the most predictable choice. Its 1080p range of 95 to 129 FPS and 1440p range of 64 to 87 FPS both stay within acceptable bounds for smooth play. Users prioritizing maximum frame rates should select Low at their target resolution, but the Medium preset offers the best compromise between performance and visual quality.

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# CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a high-end desktop processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 5 (Granite Ridge) architecture. It operates on the AMD Socket AM5 platform with a 65 W TDP, a base clock of 3.80 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The CPU features 32 MB of shared L3 cache, 1 MB L2 per core, and 80 KB L1 per core, with a 4 nm TSMC process and 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 9700F demonstrates strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. Its Passmark multithread score is 36,470, while the single-thread score is 4,691. The data compression score is 421,988, integer math reaches 120,788, and floating point math hits 77,955. These scores place the CPU in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69,996.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic testing are all within 1% of its average score: the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875, +0.2%), the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,163, -0.2%), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515, +0.7%), and the Intel Core i7-14700K (69,355, +0.9%). This grouping indicates that the Ryzen 7 9700F delivers performance equivalent to flagship desktop and mobile processors from the previous generation.

In To The Core, the CPU's role is largely passive due to the GPU bottleneck. The game is an idle genre title, which typically features light computational demands. The Ryzen 7 9700F's 8 cores and 16 threads at speeds up to 5.50 GHz provide ample headroom for game logic, UI rendering, and background tasks. The 32 MB L3 cache and DDR5 memory support (dual-channel, 89.6 GB/s bandwidth) further ensure that memory latency and bandwidth are not limiting factors.

The CPU's extended instruction capabilities (Passmark extended instructions score: 33,688) and encryption performance (21,488) suggest it can handle any computational overhead the game might impose. However, the measured FPS data shows that the GPU, not the CPU, determines frame rates. The 5th percentile GPU ranking means the CPU is effectively idle for most of the frame time, waiting for the Arc B370 to finish rendering.

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# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that identifies the GPU as the primary limiting component. Between 1080p and 1440p, average FPS drops by approximately 26% at Low settings (132 to 89 FPS), 33% at Medium (112 to 75 FPS), 33% at High (97 to 65 FPS), and 32% at Ultra (78 to 53 FPS). This consistent ~30% drop corresponds closely to the pixel count increase from 1080p to 1440p (2.07 million to 3.69 million pixels, a 78% increase), indicating that the GPU's pixel throughput is the constraint.

Between 1440p and 4K, the scaling is more severe. Low settings drop from 89 to 51 FPS (a 43% decrease), Medium from 75 to 43 FPS (a 43% decrease), High from 65 to 37 FPS (a 43% decrease), and Ultra from 53 to 30 FPS (a 43% decrease). The 4K resolution represents a 2.25x increase in pixel count over 1440p, and the observed 43% FPS reduction is consistent with a GPU that is already near its fill rate limit at 1440p.

The scaling behavior across all settings is remarkably uniform — approximately 30% from 1080p to 1440p and 43% from 1440p to 4K, regardless of the preset. This uniformity is a strong indicator that the GPU's rasterization and pixel processing capabilities are the bottleneck, rather than memory bandwidth or CPU throughput. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS drop between resolutions would be much smaller, since the CPU's workload is largely resolution-independent.

The 1080p to 4K total drop is substantial: Low settings fall from 132 to 51 FPS (a 61% reduction), Medium from 112 to 43 FPS (a 62% reduction), High from 97 to 37 FPS (a 62% reduction), and Ultra from 78 to 30 FPS (a 62% reduction). This consistent ~62% reduction across all settings further confirms that the GPU's pixel throughput is the sole limiter.

The data suggests that the Ryzen 7 9700F has significant untapped potential in this configuration. The CPU's 94th percentile standing and strong synthetic scores indicate it could drive a much faster GPU to substantially higher frame rates at all resolutions. The Arc B370's 5th percentile performance, however, caps the system's output at roughly 132 FPS at 1080p Low and 51 FPS at 4K Low. Users seeking higher frame rates at 1440p or 4K would need a more powerful discrete GPU to leverage the CPU's capabilities.