To The Core

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination delivers a surprisingly robust experience in To The Core, an idle game that scales far more gracefully with resolution than typical AAA titles. The data shows this combo ranks 2004th out of 3725 tested configurations, placing it in the upper-middle tier, but the actual frame rates tell a story of consistency and headroom. The CPU’s strong multi-threaded performance (Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,172) pairs with the GPU’s mid-range capabilities (PassMark G3D score of 19,545) to produce playable results even at 4K Ultra, a feat that many more expensive combinations would struggle to match in this specific title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression across resolutions reveals a system that remains primarily GPU-bound at higher settings, but with surprising resilience at 4K. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 313 FPS average, which drops to 210 FPS at 1440p Low and 120 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 61.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even the RTX 4060’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to keep the frame pipeline flowing. The more telling data comes from the Ultra settings: 185 FPS at 1080p, 124 FPS at 1440p, and 71 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result, while the lowest in the dataset, remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that the GPU’s 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is being utilized effectively without becoming a hard bottleneck.

The scaling pattern from 1080p to 1440p shows a 32.9% drop at Ultra (185 to 124 FPS), while the 1440p to 4K transition at Ultra shows a 42.7% drop (124 to 71 FPS). This increasing penalty at higher resolutions is classic GPU-bound behavior, but the absolute numbers remain playable. At Medium settings, the measured data includes minimum and maximum FPS values: 4K Medium shows 87 min and 117 max (average 102), 1440p Medium shows 151 min and 205 max (average 178), and 1080p Medium shows 225 min and 304 max (average 265). The variance between min and max FPS widens as resolution increases—30 FPS spread at 4K versus 79 FPS spread at 1080p—which suggests that frame pacing becomes slightly less consistent at higher resolutions, but never to the point of stutter or unplayability.

What this resolution scaling indicates is that the limiting component shifts depending on the preset. At Low settings, the Ryzen 9 9900X’s 12 cores and 24 threads, boosted by its 5.60 GHz boost clock, appear to be the primary driver, as the FPS differences between resolutions are relatively modest (313 to 120 FPS). At Ultra settings, the RTX 4060’s 3072 shading units and 48 ROPs become the constraining factor, evidenced by the steeper resolution penalties. The data supports a conclusion that this combo is balanced for high-refresh 1080p and 1440p gaming, while 4K remains viable but with diminishing returns as settings increase.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in To The Core?*

A: Based on measured FPS, 1440p offers the best balance. At High settings, the combo delivers 154 FPS average, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay. For 4K, only Low settings (120 FPS) and Medium settings (102 FPS) remain above the 100 FPS mark, while Ultra drops to 71 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 17,639 places it directly between the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17,666, deltaPct -0.2%) and the AMD Radeon 780M (17,588, deltaPct 0.3%). This means the RTX 4060 is statistically tied with these competitors, with less than 1% difference in either direction.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X a bottleneck for the RTX 4060 at 1080p?

A: The data suggests no. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 313 FPS, which is near the practical ceiling for many displays. The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1,286 and multi-thread score of 13,929 indicate ample headroom. The CPU’s percentile rank of 92 (higher than 92% of all CPUs) further supports that it is not the limiting factor.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The measured average is 71 FPS, which is the lowest in the dataset but still playable. There is no minimum FPS reported for Ultra settings, but the Medium preset shows a minimum of 87 FPS at 4K, suggesting Ultra would stay above 60 FPS in most scenes.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 9900X compare to the Intel Core i9-14900?

A: In average benchmark scores, the Ryzen 9 9900X scores 57,498, while the Intel Core i9-14900 scores 58,115. This puts the AMD chip 1.1% behind Intel’s offering. However, the Ryzen’s deltaPct of -1.1% is within a margin that would be imperceptible in real-world gaming.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM on the RTX 4060 limit performance at 4K?

A: The measured data shows playable frame rates at 4K across all settings (71-120 FPS), so VRAM capacity does not appear to be a hard limiter in this idle game. The GPU’s 272.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and GDDR6 memory type are sufficient for the workloads presented by To The Core.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 9900X’s contribution to this combo’s performance is substantial but understated. With 12 cores and 24 threads, the CPU provides massive parallel processing headroom that idle games like To The Core can exploit during simulation phases. The base clock of 4.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensure that single-threaded tasks—which often dominate game logic—are handled with minimal latency. The Cinebench R23 scores tell the story: 32,172 multi-core and 2,253 single-core. These numbers, combined with the CPU’s 92nd percentile rank among all CPUs, indicate that the processor is operating well above the median expectation.

The cache hierarchy plays a critical role in this game’s performance. The 64 MB L3 cache (shared across the chiplet design) provides a large pool for frequently accessed game data, while the 1 MB L2 cache per core and 80 KB L1 cache per core reduce memory fetch latency. This is particularly important for an idle game where background calculations and resource accumulation occur continuously. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures that the CPU’s 24 threads are fed with data without stalling. The 3DMark results—12,552 for 16 threads, 9,114 for 8 threads, 4,886 for 4 threads, and 1,286 for single thread—show a near-linear scaling pattern, meaning the CPU efficiently distributes workloads across all cores.

What the data reveals about the CPU’s role is that it provides a foundation of stability. The PassMark multi-thread score of 54,643 and integer math score of 181,056 indicate that the CPU handles the game’s calculations with ease. The floating point math score of 120,083 is also strong, which matters for physics calculations. In practical terms, the CPU’s performance ensures that the GPU is never starved of data. This is evident in the 1080p Low result of 313 FPS, where the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU with draw calls and game state updates allows the RTX 4060 to operate at near-peak efficiency. The CPU’s TDP of 120 W and 4 nm process node (TSMC) also mean that thermal throttling is unlikely to impact sustained performance, though the data does not include temperature measurements.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination’s rank of 2004 out of 3725 tested combos places it in the 46.2nd percentile of all configurations. This is a middling rank, but the context is crucial: the dataset includes every possible CPU-GPU pairing, including high-end combinations with flagship processors and graphics cards. Given that the RTX 4060 is an end-of-life product (released 2023-05-17) and the Ryzen 9 9900X is a current-generation desktop chip, this rank reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning rather than any deficiency in the pairing. The GPU’s percentile rank of 61 (better than 61% of all GPUs) combined with the CPU’s percentile rank of 92 creates a system where the CPU is significantly more powerful than the GPU, which is actually beneficial for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-light games like To The Core.

The combo rank becomes more meaningful when compared to the individual component rankings. The CPU alone sits in the 92nd percentile, while the GPU sits in the 61st percentile. The combined rank of 2004/3725 (46.2%) is lower than both individual percentiles, which suggests that this pairing is not optimal in a purely statistical sense. However, the measured FPS data contradicts the rank’s implication of mediocrity. At 1080p, every setting except Ultra (185 FPS) exceeds 229 FPS, and even Ultra maintains 185 FPS. At 1440p, all settings remain above 124 FPS. At 4K, even Ultra stays above 70 FPS. These results are far better than what the combo rank might suggest.

The rank likely reflects the diversity of tested configurations. With 3,725 combos, many will include more powerful GPUs paired with similar CPUs. The RTX 4060’s nearest rivals—AMD Radeon HD 7790 (deltaPct -0.2%), AMD Radeon 780M (deltaPct 0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (deltaPct 0.5%), and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (deltaPct 0.7%)—are all older or integrated solutions, indicating that the 4060 is a contemporary mid-range part. The CPU’s nearest rivals include server-grade EPYC processors and the i9-14900, which shows that the 9900X is competing at a higher tier. This mismatch in component tiers is why the combo rank is lower than expected, but the game’s low system requirements (as an idle title) mean the combination performs exceptionally well in practice.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 313 FPS average, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 265 FPS (with a minimum of 225 and maximum of 304), High at 229 FPS, and Ultra at 185 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 40.9% decrease in frame rate, which is substantial but leaves even the Ultra preset far above any display refresh rate below 180 Hz. The Medium preset’s FPS range (225-304) demonstrates that the system maintains consistent frame delivery without significant dips.

At 2560x1440, the story continues with strong performance. Low settings produce 210 FPS, Medium 178 FPS (minimum 151, maximum 205), High 154 FPS, and Ultra 124 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: 32.9% at Low, 32.8% at Medium, 32.8% at High, and 33.0% at Ultra. This uniform scaling (approximately one-third reduction) indicates that the system is handling the increased pixel count efficiently, with no single component creating a disproportionate bottleneck. The Medium preset’s minimum of 151 FPS is particularly noteworthy, as it guarantees that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate stays above 144 Hz.

At 3840x2160, performance remains playable but shows the expected strain. Low settings maintain 120 FPS, Medium 102 FPS (minimum 87, maximum 117), High 88 FPS, and Ultra 71 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is steeper: 42.9% at Low, 42.7% at Medium, 42.9% at High, and 42.7% at Ultra. This consistent ~43% reduction across all settings is a textbook example of GPU-bound scaling, as the RTX 4060’s pixel fill rate (118.1 GPixel/s) becomes the limiting factor at 4K. The Medium preset’s minimum of 87 FPS shows that even at 4K, the system avoids dropping below 60 FPS in the measured scenarios. The High and Ultra presets do not have reported minimum FPS values, but extrapolating from the Medium data, it is reasonable to assume they stay above 60 FPS, given the average values of 88 and 71 FPS respectively.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and refresh rate, but the data strongly favors Medium as the sweet spot for this combo. At Medium, the system delivers 265 FPS at 1080p (minimum 225), 178 FPS at 1440p (minimum 151), and 102 FPS at 4K (minimum 87). These frame rates are not only high but also consistent, as evidenced by the narrow range between minimum and maximum values. For users with 144 Hz displays, Medium at 1440p provides a comfortable margin above the refresh rate, while Medium at 4K stays above 85 FPS even in the worst-case measured scenario.

For 1080p users with high-refresh displays (240 Hz or above), Low settings at 313 FPS is the only preset that can take full advantage of such monitors, but the difference between Low and Medium (313 vs 265 FPS) may not justify the visual quality reduction. Medium at 265 FPS is still above 240 Hz, making it the recommended choice for competitive play where frame rate consistency matters more than absolute maximums. High at 229 FPS and Ultra at 185 FPS are suitable for users with 144 Hz or 165 Hz displays, offering better visuals without sacrificing smoothness.

For 1440p users, Medium is the clear recommendation. At 178 FPS average and 151 FPS minimum, it comfortably exceeds 144 Hz refresh rates. High at 154 FPS is also viable for 144 Hz displays, but the 13.5% frame rate reduction from Medium to High (178 to 154 FPS) may be noticeable in fast-paced scenes. Ultra at 124 FPS is acceptable for 120 Hz displays but falls short of 144 Hz. Low at 210 FPS is only necessary for 240 Hz displays, which are less common at this resolution.

For 4K users, the situation is more nuanced. Medium at 102 FPS is the best choice for 100 Hz displays, providing a minimum of 87 FPS that ensures no drops below 60 FPS. Low at 120 FPS is better suited for 120 Hz displays but sacrifices visual fidelity. High at 88 FPS and Ultra at 71 FPS are playable on 60 Hz displays, but the data shows that the quality improvement from Medium to High (102 to 88 FPS, a 13.7% reduction) may not be worth the frame rate loss. Ultra at 71 FPS is the most demanding preset and should only be used on 60 Hz displays where visual quality is the absolute priority. The measured data supports Medium as the universal recommendation across all resolutions, as it offers the best balance of frame rate consistency and visual quality.