To The Core

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the Intel Arc B390 delivers a playable experience in To The Core, but the data clearly shows that users must prioritize settings over resolution to achieve smooth frame rates. The measured results indicate that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can hit high refresh rates, while 4K gaming should be reserved for less demanding presets.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this specific configuration shows a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average frame rate at 147 FPS, making it the definitive choice for competitive or high-refresh-rate play. The Medium preset is nearly as capable, producing an average of 124 FPS with a minimum of 105 FPS, which ensures a consistently smooth experience without the visual compromises of the lowest settings.

For users with standard 60Hz displays, the High preset at 1080p is the optimal balance, as it achieves 107 FPS average, which is well above the refresh threshold and leaves ample headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 1080p, while delivering 86 FPS average, is still perfectly playable, but the 21 FPS drop from High to Ultra suggests diminishing returns that make High the more sensible choice for most users.

Moving to 1440p, the performance profile changes significantly. The Low preset at 2560x1440 achieves 99 FPS average, which is excellent for this resolution. The Medium preset follows at 83 FPS average with a minimum of 71 FPS, which remains above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 1440p produces 72 FPS average, which is acceptable for most users, but the Ultra preset drops to 58 FPS, which falls short of the ideal 60 FPS target and should be avoided if frame pacing is a priority.

At 3840x2160, the data shows that only the Low preset (56 FPS) and Medium preset (48 FPS) are viable for actual gameplay. The High preset at 4K drops to 41 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 33 FPS, both of which are too low for a responsive experience in an Idle game where consistent UI feedback matters. The recommendation is clear: for 4K, use Low settings to stay closest to 60 FPS, or accept Medium for better visuals at the cost of some smoothness.

The overall verdict from the measured rows is that the Medium preset at 1920x1080 offers the best experience per the data, as it provides a high average frame rate (124 FPS), a solid minimum (105 FPS), and a maximum of 143 FPS, which indicates stable performance without major dips. This combination of resolution and settings delivers the most balanced outcome.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 operates as an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a 3 nm process node and a base clock of 300 MHz, boosting up to 2500 MHz. This is a unique configuration where the GPU shares system memory, as indicated by the "System Shared" designation for memory size, type, and bus width. The memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent," which means the actual performance is tied directly to the speed of the host system's RAM rather than a dedicated VRAM pool.

The GPU has 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation units, along with 12 ray tracing cores. Its pixel rate is rated at 60.00 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, which are modest figures that align with its 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs. The FP32 performance is 7.680 TFLOPS, with FP16 performance at 15.36 TFLOPS, indicating a design that prioritizes general compute over raw gaming power.

In To The Core, the GPU's shared memory architecture means that VRAM size is not a fixed constraint but rather a dynamic resource that fluctuates with system usage. The game is an Idle genre title, which typically does not require massive texture buffers, so the lack of dedicated VRAM is not a bottleneck in the benchmark results. Instead, the clock speed range from 300 MHz base to 2500 MHz boost shows that the GPU scales its frequency based on load, and the measured FPS data suggests that the boost clock is being utilized effectively at lower resolutions.

The benchmark results for the Arc B390 show a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482, which places it just above the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, deltaPct 1.3%) and the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460, deltaPct 1.5%). This indicates that the Arc B390 is positioned at the entry-level tier of graphics performance, and the FPS numbers in To The Core reflect this, with the GPU being the primary limiter at higher resolutions like 4K where the average frame rates drop below 60 FPS.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play To The Core with this combo?*

A: The data indicates that 1920x1080 is the most capable resolution, as it delivers the highest average frame rates across all settings, ranging from 86 FPS on Ultra to 147 FPS on Low. The 1440p resolution is also viable with lower settings, but 4K should only be attempted with Low or Medium presets.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463) and 1.5% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460). It is also 2.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446) and 2.7% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (1443).

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at 1440p?

A: The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 produces an average of 58 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. While it may be tolerable for some users, the data suggests that High (72 FPS) or Medium (83 FPS) presets provide a more consistent experience at this resolution.

Q: What is the minimum FPS for the Medium preset at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 has a minimum FPS of 105, with an average of 124 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS. This minimum frame rate is well above the 60 FPS threshold, ensuring no major stutters during gameplay.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F has 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, and its benchmarks show a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10283. Given that the GPU percentile is 9 while the CPU percentile is 68, the data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck; the GPU is the limiting factor in the measured FPS results.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 56 FPS average, while the Ultra preset drops to 33 FPS average. This represents a 23 FPS difference, which is a substantial performance penalty for the higher visual quality.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2643 out of 2991 tested combos in To The Core. This places the pairing in the lower 12th percentile of all configurations tested, which is consistent with the individual component rankings: the CPU sits at the 68th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 9th percentile among all GPUs.

The ranking indicates that while the CPU is a mid-range performer relative to other processors, the GPU drags the overall combo down significantly. The data shows that the GPU's nearest rivals are all entry-level NVIDIA parts from several generations ago, which confirms that the Arc B390 is not a gaming-focused part. For a game like To The Core, which is an Idle genre title, this ranking is acceptable because the game does not demand high-end graphics hardware, but it does highlight that users should not expect high frame rates at demanding settings.

The CPU's performance in this combo is relatively strong, as evidenced by its benchmark scores. The 3DMark 16-thread score is 4748, and the Passmark multithread score is 12115, which are respectable numbers for a 6-core part. The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals show that it is within 0.6% of the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (14277 avg score) and within 0.5% of the AMD EPYC 7552 (14115 avg score), indicating that the i5-10400F is competitive with a wide range of processors.

The overall combo rank of 2643 suggests that users should temper their expectations for high-refresh-rate gaming at high resolutions. The measured FPS data supports this, as the combo can only exceed 100 FPS at 1080p with Low or Medium settings. For the best experience in this game, the data recommends staying at 1080p and using the Medium preset, which provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while maintaining visual quality.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Core 10th Gen series, built on the Comet Lake architecture using a 14 nm process node. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s, and it uses PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes.

In To The Core, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, UI updates, and background calculations, which are typical for an Idle game. The 12 threads provide ample parallelism for these tasks, and the boost clock of 4.30 GHz ensures that single-threaded operations, which are common in game simulation loops, execute quickly. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1451 and multicore score of 10283 demonstrate that the CPU has a balanced profile, with the multicore performance being particularly strong for its class.

The CPU's cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 256 KB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. This L3 cache size is sufficient for the game's data access patterns, which likely involve frequent reads of game state variables. The Passmark data compression score of 185944 and floating-point math score of 25956 further indicate that the CPU can handle the arithmetic operations required by the game's progression systems.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-10400F has an average benchmark score of 14185, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Xeon 6756E (14163) and 0.3% lower than the Intel Core 7 160UL (14232). These tiny deltas show that the CPU is well-positioned among its peers, and the data suggests that it is not a limiting factor in the measured FPS results. The CPU percentile of 68 indicates that it outperforms the majority of CPUs in the database, and its 12 threads ensure that it can feed the Arc B390 effectively without causing frame drops.

The measured FPS data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern where the CPU maintains its performance, and the frame rate variations are primarily attributable to the GPU's workload. For instance, at 1080p, the average FPS drops from 147 on Low to 86 on Ultra, which is a 41.5% reduction, while the CPU's thread utilization remains constant. This confirms that the CPU is not the bottleneck, and its role is to provide stable frame pacing, which is evident in the minimum FPS values for the Medium presets (105 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p, 41 FPS at 4K).

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo in To The Core is comprehensive, covering three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the performance is strong across the board. The Low preset delivers the highest average at 147 FPS, followed by Medium at 124 FPS (minimum 105, maximum 143), High at 107 FPS, and Ultra at 86 FPS. The 1080p results show a clear linear progression, with each step up in settings costing roughly 20 FPS on average.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are lower but still playable. The Low preset achieves 99 FPS average, which is a 32.7% drop from the 1080p Low setting. The Medium preset at 1440p produces 83 FPS (minimum 71, maximum 96), while High drops to 72 FPS and Ultra falls to 58 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs approximately 30 FPS across all settings, which is a significant reduction but expected given the pixel count increase.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal. The Low preset is the only one that comes close to 60 FPS, delivering 56 FPS average. The Medium preset at 4K achieves 48 FPS (minimum 41, maximum 55), which is barely playable, while High drops to 41 FPS and Ultra falls to 33 FPS. The 4K results show a 47% reduction from 1080p Low to 4K Low, indicating that the Arc B390 struggles with the high pixel count.

The data also reveals specific minimum FPS values only for the Medium presets across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 105 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it is 71 FPS; and at 4K Medium, it is 41 FPS. These minimums are 15-17% below the averages, which suggests that the game has occasional frame hitches, but they never drop below playable levels for the Medium preset at 1080p and 1440p.

For users with 60Hz displays, the data shows that they can use High settings at 1080p (107 FPS) or Low settings at 1440p (99 FPS) to maintain a stable experience. For 144Hz displays, only the 1080p Low (147 FPS) and 1080p Medium (124 FPS) presets can fully utilize the refresh rate. The 4K resolution is only recommended for users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, as the Low preset at 56 FPS is the only option that approaches smoothness, while the Ultra preset at 33 FPS is best avoided for any serious gameplay.