To The Core

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 lands at rank 226 out of 3,725 tested combos in To The Core. That places this pairing in the top 6% of all configurations tested, which is a decisive result for an idle-genre title that rarely stresses high-end hardware. The combo's percentile standing is reinforced by the CPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all processors and the GPU's 86th percentile among all graphics cards, though the game itself appears to lean heavily on the CPU's single-thread and multi-thread muscle rather than the GPU's raw throughput.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 57,498 places it in a tight cluster with its nearest rivals. The AMD EPYC 9015 scores 57,555, a delta of -0.1% relative to the 9900X, meaning the two are effectively tied. The AMD EPYC 7313 trails by 0.2% with a score of 57,399. The Intel Core i9-14900 leads this group at 58,115, which is 1.1% ahead of the 9900X, while the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M sits 1.4% ahead at 58,323. These deltas are small enough that in a game like To The Core—where frame rates are already extremely high—the 9900X's position in this cluster translates to no meaningful gameplay disadvantage.

For the GPU, the RTX 4080's average benchmark score of 54,247 is nearly identical to the RTX 4080 SUPER at 54,209, a delta of just 0.1%. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1% behind, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB is 2.6% behind, and the AMD Radeon 8060S is 2.7% behind. The data shows that the 4080 is not the limiting factor in this combo; even at 4K Ultra, the measured average FPS of 125 is far above playable thresholds, and the GPU's performance headroom is substantial.

The combination's rank of 226 out of 3,725 suggests that while this is a very fast pairing, it is not the absolute top configuration for To The Core. That distinction likely belongs to combos with even higher-end CPUs or GPUs, but the measurable gap between this combo and the top of the list is not reflected in the FPS data provided—every resolution and settings combination delivers frame rates well beyond what any display can refresh. The verdict is clear: this combo ranks in the upper echelon, and the game's modest demands mean the rank is more proof of the hardware's raw capability than to any optimization for this specific title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 brings 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, with a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 2,205 MHz, boosting to 2,505 MHz, and memory runs at an effective 22.4 Gbps. These specifications are substantial, but in To The Core's measured results, the GPU's role is secondary to the CPU. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 552 FPS average, which is a CPU-bound scenario if ever there was one—the RTX 4080 is barely working at that resolution and settings level.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 9,728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, with 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores. The FP32 throughput is 48.74 TFLOPS, and the pixel rate is 280.6 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s. These numbers matter for demanding titles, but for To The Core, an idle game, the GPU is essentially overkill. The measured FPS data shows that even at 4K Ultra—the most demanding preset tested—the average FPS is 125, which is still well above 60 FPS. This indicates the GPU has ample headroom, and the bottleneck in this game is almost certainly the CPU's single-threaded performance or the game's engine itself.

The RTX 4080's percentile ranking of 86 among all GPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 54,247, shows it is a high-end card, but not the absolute fastest. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54,209, which is 0.1% lower, making the two cards effectively indistinguishable in synthetic benchmarks. The AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB trails by 2.6%, and the AMD Radeon 8060S trails by 2.7%, but these deltas are irrelevant at the frame rates measured in To The Core. The GPU's 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for this game; no resolution or settings combination in the measured data would approach that capacity.

The GPU's memory clock of 1,400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective) and bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s are not stressed by this title's texture and geometry demands. In idle games, the rendering load is often minimal, and the data confirms this: the FPS difference between 1080p Low and 4K Ultra is substantial, but even the lowest FPS figure of 125 at 4K Ultra is far above the threshold where GPU limitations would become apparent. The GPU's role here is to ensure that no resolution or settings choice introduces a frame rate drop below the CPU's output, and the data shows it succeeds at that across all twelve measured scenarios.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern: as resolution increases, frame rates drop significantly, but the absolute values remain extremely high. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 552 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 371 FPS, a 32.8% decrease. At 4K Low, the average is 212 FPS, which is 61.6% lower than 1080p Low. These scaling percentages indicate that the GPU is increasingly becoming the limiting factor as resolution rises, but the CPU still has enough headroom to keep frame rates far above display refresh rates.

For High settings, the scaling is similar but slightly less steep. At 1080p High, the average is 405 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 272 FPS, a 32.8% decrease, and at 4K High, it falls to 156 FPS, a 61.5% drop from 1080p. The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and High settings suggests that the game's rendering load scales predictably with pixel count, and the GPU's bandwidth and fill rate are being utilized more at higher resolutions. However, the CPU is still providing enough frames that the GPU becomes the bottleneck only at 4K, where the 156 FPS at High is still a very high number.

At Medium settings, the only preset with min and max FPS data, the scaling shows a similar trend. At 1080p Medium, the average is 467 FPS, with min 397 and max 537. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 314 FPS (min 267, max 361), and at 4K Medium, the average is 180 FPS (min 153, max 207). The min-to-max spread is roughly 30% of the average at each resolution, which indicates consistent frame pacing but also suggests that the game's engine has variable load spikes that the hardware absorbs without issue.

Ultra settings show the most significant resolution scaling. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 326 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 219 FPS (a 32.8% decrease), and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 125 FPS (a 61.7% decrease from 1080p). The fact that the percentage drops are nearly identical across all settings presets—around 33% from 1080p to 1440p and around 61-62% from 1080p to 4K—indicates that the limiting component shifts from CPU-bound at 1080p to GPU-bound at 4K, but the crossover point is not reached even at 4K Ultra, where 125 FPS is still far above playable.

The data reveals that the CPU's single-threaded performance (score of 1,286 in 3DMark single-thread, 2,253 in Cinebench R23 single-core) is sufficient to drive frame rates above 500 at 1080p Low, but the GPU's load increases with resolution. At 4K, the RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are being utilized, but the frame rates remain high enough that the user would never notice a performance issue. The scaling pattern is typical of a well-balanced combo where the CPU is slightly ahead of the GPU in this game's context, but neither component is a weak link.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers twelve combinations of resolution and settings, all with average FPS figures and some with min/max values. Starting at 3840x2160 (4K), the Ultra preset delivers an average of 125 FPS. The High preset at 4K averages 156 FPS, Medium averages 180 FPS with a min of 153 and max of 207, and Low averages 212 FPS. The progression from Ultra to Low at 4K shows a 69.6% increase in frame rate, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a significant GPU load, but even the lowest 4K figure of 125 FPS is far above the threshold for smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 219 FPS. High averages 272 FPS, Medium averages 314 FPS with a min of 267 and max of 361, and Low averages 371 FPS. The jump from 4K Ultra to 1440p Ultra is 75.2% higher frame rate, which confirms that the GPU is heavily taxed at 4K Ultra. At 1440p, the CPU and GPU are more balanced, with the Low preset at 371 FPS suggesting the CPU is still capable of pushing more frames if the GPU could keep up.

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset averages 326 FPS. High averages 405 FPS, Medium averages 467 FPS with a min of 397 and max of 537, and Low averages 552 FPS. The 1080p Low figure of 552 FPS is the highest measured in the entire dataset, and it indicates that the CPU is the primary driver at this resolution. The difference between 1080p Low and 1080p Ultra is 69.3%, which is nearly identical to the percentage difference at 4K, suggesting that the settings presets scale the GPU load similarly regardless of resolution.

The min/max data for Medium settings shows that the spread between minimum and maximum FPS is consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, the spread is 140 FPS (397 to 537). At 1440p, the spread is 94 FPS (267 to 361). At 4K, the spread is 54 FPS (153 to 207). This decreasing spread with increasing resolution indicates that the GPU's frame pacing becomes more consistent when it is more heavily loaded, which is a counterintuitive but measurable result. The average FPS at Medium settings is 467 at 1080p, 314 at 1440p, and 180 at 4K, with the min FPS always remaining above 150 even at 4K, ensuring no perceptible stutter.

The data shows that the RTX 4080's performance in this game is adequate at all settings, but the CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads (with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and boost of 5.60 GHz) are what allow such high frame rates at lower resolutions. The CPU's multi-threaded benchmark scores—32,172 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 22,174 in Geekbench multi-core—are more than sufficient for an idle game that likely uses only a few threads. The single-thread scores are also high, with 3,010 in Geekbench single-core and 4,672 in PassMark single-thread, which aligns with the high frame rates observed at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X + RTX 4080 combo overkill for To The Core?

A: The data shows this combo delivers at least 125 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is the most demanding preset tested. At 1080p Low, it reaches 552 FPS. These numbers are far beyond what any display can refresh, so yes, the hardware exceeds the game's demands, but the headroom ensures no settings combination will ever cause a frame rate drop.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck in this game?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is more likely the limiting factor, as evidenced by the 552 FPS at Low settings. At 4K Ultra, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, with the average FPS dropping to 125. The CPU's single-thread score of 1,286 in 3DMark and the GPU's 16 GB VRAM with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth both contribute to the balanced scaling observed.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54,247, while the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54,209. The delta is 0.1%, meaning the two cards are statistically identical in performance. In To The Core, this difference would be imperceptible.

Q: What is the highest FPS measured for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 552 at 1080p with Low settings. The next highest is 467 at 1080p Medium, followed by 405 at 1080p High. All measurements exceed 100 FPS, even at 4K Ultra.

Q: Does the CPU's 92nd percentile ranking affect frame rates in this game?

A: Yes, the CPU's high percentile ranking among all processors (92nd) supports its ability to drive high frame rates. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 9015, scores 57,555 versus the 9900X's 57,498, a delta of -0.1%, indicating this CPU is well above average for the tasks that To The Core requires.

Q: Are the min FPS values ever below 60 FPS?

A: No. The lowest min FPS recorded is 153 at 4K Medium settings. All other min FPS values are higher, with the 1440p Medium min at 267 and the 1080p Medium min at 397. The data confirms no frame rate drops below playable thresholds.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for To The Core with this combo depend on the user's display resolution and refresh rate. For a 1080p display with a 240 Hz or 360 Hz refresh rate, the High preset at 405 FPS average is the best choice, as it provides smooth frame delivery without the unnecessary GPU load of Ultra (326 FPS). The Medium preset at 467 FPS is also viable, but the jump from Medium to High is only 13.3% lower FPS, while the visual quality improvement is likely more noticeable.

For 1440p displays, the High preset at 272 FPS average is the recommended starting point. This provides ample headroom for a 240 Hz display. If the user has a 144 Hz display, the Ultra preset at 219 FPS is more than sufficient and offers the best visual quality. The Medium preset at 314 FPS could be used for very high refresh rate displays (360 Hz), but the benefit over High is minimal in terms of perceived smoothness.

For 4K displays, the High preset at 156 FPS average is the best balance of visual quality and performance. This is well above the 120 Hz refresh rate found on many 4K displays. The Ultra preset at 125 FPS is also viable, especially for 120 Hz displays, but the 19.9% FPS reduction from High to Ultra may not be worth the visual gain. The Medium preset at 180 FPS is excessive for most 4K displays, and the Low preset at 212 FPS sacrifices too much visual quality for a frame rate that no 4K display can fully utilize.

The data shows that the Medium preset consistently offers the highest frame rates among the settings with min/max data, with a 467 FPS average at 1080p and a 180 FPS average at 4K. However, for most users, the High preset is the sweet spot because it provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium with only a 13.3% FPS reduction at 1080p, a 13.4% reduction at 1440p, and a 13.3% reduction at 4K. This consistent scaling across resolutions means the High preset is the most predictable and reliable choice.

The Ultra preset is only recommended for users with displays that support refresh rates above 125 Hz (at 4K) or 219 Hz (at 1440p) and who prioritize visual fidelity above all else. The 125 FPS at 4K Ultra is still a very high number, and the data shows that the combo can handle it without issue. For the majority of users, the High preset at any resolution delivers a frame rate that exceeds display capabilities while providing excellent visual quality. The Low preset is only worth considering for esports-style play at 1080p with a 552 Hz display, which is not a realistic consumer scenario. The verdict is clear: High settings at any resolution provide the best measured experience, with Ultra as a viable alternative for those with high-refresh-rate displays and a preference for maximum visual detail.