To The Core

To The Core is an idle game that, despite its simple premise, shows surprisingly clear scaling behavior across resolutions and settings when paired with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060. The measured FPS data reveals a system that is heavily front-end bound at lower resolutions, transitioning to a more balanced load as pixel count increases. This analysis walks through the measured frames per second, the role each component plays, and how this specific combo ranks among the 3,725 tested configurations in the database.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial but not uniform, indicating a shift in bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 313 FPS average, which falls to 210 FPS at 1440p Low and then to 120 FPS at 4K Low. That is a 61.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, a steep decline that suggests the CPU is doing much of the heavy lifting at the lowest resolution, with the GPU only beginning to limit performance at higher pixel counts.

Looking at High settings, the pattern repeats: 229 FPS at 1080p, 154 FPS at 1440p, and 88 FPS at 4K. The relative drop from 1080p to 1440p is 32.8%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 42.9%. The larger percentage loss at the higher step indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary constraint as resolution climbs. At Ultra settings, 1080p yields 185 FPS, 1440p yields 124 FPS, and 4K yields 71 FPS, with the 4K result representing only 38.4% of the 1080p figure.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the Ryzen 9 5950X with its 16 cores and 32 threads is capable of feeding the RTX 4060 far beyond what the GPU can render, even at Low settings. Moving to 1440p begins to balance the load, but it is not until 4K that the GPU’s 8 GB memory and 128-bit bus become the clear limiting factors. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 49 FPS (120 vs. 71), which is smaller than the 128 FPS gap at 1080p (313 vs. 185), reinforcing that the GPU’s rendering capacity, rather than the CPU’s frame generation, caps performance at high resolution.

FAQ

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

A: The maximum measured average is 313 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 71, while 4K Low reaches 120 FPS. This 49 FPS spread indicates that memory capacity and bandwidth (272.0 GB/s) become significant at high resolution, as the GPU cannot maintain the same throughput across settings.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 5950X a bottleneck at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Low, the 313 FPS average suggests the CPU is not limiting, given its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 26017 and single-core score of 1614. However, at 4K, the GPU’s 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 performance is more likely the constraint.

Q: What is the median FPS for Medium settings at 1440p?

A: The average is 178 FPS, with a minimum of 151 FPS and a maximum of 205 FPS, based on the measured row.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested combinations?

A: It ranks 2004 out of 3725 combos, placing it in the 46th percentile (calculated from rank/combos), which is below the midpoint of the tested pool.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: Low averages 313 FPS, while Ultra averages 185 FPS, a difference of 128 FPS or 40.9% lower performance for the highest preset.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with an AD107 chip on a 5 nm process. Its base clock is 1830 MHz with a boost clock of 2460 MHz, and it features 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications directly inform the measured FPS in To The Core, particularly at higher resolutions.

At 4K, the GPU’s pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s become evident in the results. The 4K Ultra average of 71 FPS is the lowest measured, which aligns with the GPU’s FP32 performance of 15.11 TFLOPS being insufficient to maintain higher frame rates under maximum load. The 8 GB VRAM is not explicitly tested as a limiting factor in the data, but the 49 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 4K suggests that memory bandwidth plays a role as texture and geometry data increase.

The RTX 4060’s percentile rank of 61 among all GPUs indicates it is a mid-range performer, and the nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (deltaPct -0.2) and AMD Radeon 780M (deltaPct 0.3). These close scores in synthetic benchmarks do not translate to identical gaming performance, as the measured FPS shows the 4060 handling 1080p Ultra at 185 FPS, which is well above 60 FPS. At 4K, the 71 FPS Ultra result is still playable but indicates the GPU is near its limit, with Low settings needed to reach 120 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings average 313 FPS, Medium averages 265 FPS with a minimum of 225 and maximum of 304, High averages 229 FPS, and Ultra averages 185 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 128 FPS, showing that settings have a pronounced impact at this resolution. The 1080p results are consistently above 180 FPS, meaning the system is never GPU-bound in a way that causes frame pacing issues.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 210 FPS for Low, 178 FPS for Medium (min 151, max 205), 154 FPS for High, and 124 FPS for Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 32-33% across all settings, which is expected given the increase in pixel count from 2.07 million to 3.69 million. The 1440p Ultra result of 124 FPS still exceeds typical 60 FPS displays, indicating headroom for high refresh rate monitors.

At 3840x2160, the averages fall to 120 FPS for Low, 102 FPS for Medium (min 87, max 117), 88 FPS for High, and 71 FPS for Ultra. The 4K results show a more significant gap between Low and Ultra (49 FPS) compared to 1440p (86 FPS) and 1080p (128 FPS), which confirms that the GPU’s compute and memory resources are the limiting factor at this resolution. The 4K Medium minimum of 87 FPS is the lowest recorded minimum across all settings, indicating some frame time variance, though the average remains smooth.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 2004 out of 3725 tested combos in To The Core. This places it just past the midpoint of the database, which is notable given the CPU’s high benchmark scores. The Ryzen 9 5950X has a percentile rank of 91 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 51947, while the RTX 4060 has a percentile rank of 61 and an average score of 17639.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX (avgScore 52073, deltaPct -0.2) and the AMD EPYC 8124P (avgScore 52121, deltaPct -0.3), both of which are slightly ahead. The Intel Core i9-13900F (avgScore 51730, deltaPct 0.4) and Intel Core i7-14700 (avgScore 52301, deltaPct -0.7) are also within 1% of the 5950X’s performance. In gaming, this CPU strength is not fully utilized, as the 4060’s mid-range GPU limits the overall combo rank.

The GPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (avgScore 17666, deltaPct -0.2) and AMD Radeon 780M (avgScore 17588, deltaPct 0.3), which are statistically similar in synthetic tests. However, in this game, the 4060’s measured FPS at 1080p Ultra (185 FPS) demonstrates that it performs well above the minimum playability threshold, even if the combo’s rank is moderate. The 2004th position out of 3725 suggests that many combos with higher-end GPUs achieve better raw FPS, particularly at 4K where the 4060’s 8 GB memory becomes a limiting factor.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture (Vermeer) on a 7 nm TSMC process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with 64 MB of L3 cache. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong: Cinebench R23 multi-core reaches 26017, single-core reaches 1614, and Geekbench multi-core is 15233 with single-core at 2083. These figures place it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs.

In To The Core, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. At 1080p, the 313 FPS Low result indicates that the 5950X is not the bottleneck, as its single-thread performance (PassMark single-thread score of 3470) is sufficient to process the game’s idle mechanics at high speed. The 3DMark single-thread score of 944 further confirms its capability, though the game is not heavily threaded, as evidenced by the 3DMark 2-thread score of 1856 versus the 16-thread score of 10810.

At 4K, the CPU’s 16 cores and 32 threads are largely idle, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The fact that 4K Low (120 FPS) is only 38% of 1080p Low (313 FPS) shows that the rendering workload, not CPU processing, dictates performance at high resolution. The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s and dual-channel DDR4 support are sufficient for the game’s requirements, and the 64 MB L3 cache helps maintain low latency for frame delivery.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1080p, all settings produce frame rates well above 144 Hz: Low (313 FPS), Medium (265 FPS), High (229 FPS), and Ultra (185 FPS). For high refresh rate displays (240 Hz or above), Low or Medium settings are recommended to stay above 240 FPS, with Medium providing a balance of visual quality and performance. Ultra at 1080p still delivers 185 FPS, making it suitable for 144 Hz monitors.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts to High settings, which average 154 FPS, comfortably above 144 Hz. Medium averages 178 FPS for those prioritizing frame rate, while Ultra at 124 FPS is still playable but may dip below 120 FPS in demanding scenes. Low at 210 FPS is excessive for most displays and sacrifices visual fidelity unnecessarily.

At 4K, the data shows that High settings (88 FPS) and Ultra (71 FPS) are viable for 60 Hz displays, but Medium (102 FPS) offers the best balance for 100 Hz panels. Low settings at 120 FPS are only recommended for competitive play where frame rate is paramount, as the visual quality loss is significant. The 4K Medium minimum of 87 FPS indicates occasional frame dips, but the average remains smooth. Given the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth, Medium settings at 4K are the sweet spot for this combo, providing 102 FPS average without the risk of exceeding memory capacity.