To The Core

# To The Core with Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 delivers a compelling 1080p and 1440p experience in To The Core, an idle game released in February 2024. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four settings presets show a system that is never truly bottlenecked, though the scaling patterns reveal where each component's contribution begins to fade. With a combo rank of 1807 out of 2991 tested combinations, this pairing sits in the upper-middle tier of the database, and the data indicates that the RTX 5050's 8 GB VRAM and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's demands at every tested setting.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable curve, but the magnitude of the drop varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 278 at 1920x1080 to 187 at 2560x1440, a 32.7% reduction, and then to 107 at 3840x2160, another 42.8% drop from the 1440p figure. This steep decline at 4K suggests the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at higher pixel counts, even with the reduced graphical load of Low settings.

At Medium settings, the pattern is similar but slightly compressed: 235 FPS at 1080p, 158 at 1440p, and 90 at 4K. The 1440p to 4K transition removes 43.0% of the frame rate, nearly identical to the Low preset's drop. High settings show 204 FPS at 1080p, 137 at 1440p, and 78 at 4K, with the 1440p to 4K reduction at 43.1%. Ultra settings produce 164 FPS at 1080p, 110 at 1440p, and 63 at 4K, with the 1440p to 4K loss at 42.7%.

The consistency of the 1440p-to-4K drop across all four presets — hovering around 43% — indicates that the scaling penalty at this resolution is largely resolution-driven rather than settings-driven. In contrast, the 1080p-to-1440p transition shows more variance: Low drops 32.7%, Medium drops 32.8%, High drops 32.8%, and Ultra drops 32.9%. These near-identical percentages across presets suggest that at 1080p, the system is not GPU-bound at any settings level, and the frame rate is instead limited by other factors, likely CPU throughput or the game's engine tick rate.

The RTX 5050's 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 82.30 GPixel/s pixel rate are the hardware characteristics that explain the 4K scaling behavior. The 4K resolution requires 8.3 million pixels per frame, and the pixel rate becomes the relevant constraint. The measured data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains 63 average FPS, which is playable but noticeably lower than the 164 FPS at 1080p Ultra. The GPU's 8 GB VRAM is not exceeded at any tested configuration, as evidenced by the absence of any memory-related stutter or frame rate collapse in the measured rows.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with 12 MB of shared L3 cache. In the context of To The Core, an idle game that typically does not stress many cores, the CPU's single-thread performance is the more relevant metric. The 3dmark_single_thread score of 688 and the passmark_single_thread score of 2541 indicate modest per-core performance by modern standards, but the game's low thread demands mean this is rarely a constraint.

The CPU's 3dmark_2_threads score of 1350 and 4_threads score of 2560 show that scaling from 2 to 4 threads nearly doubles performance, but the 8_threads score of 3929 and max_threads score of 4735 reveal diminishing returns beyond 4 threads. This pattern aligns with an idle game's typical workload, which often uses only 1-2 threads for game logic and a few more for rendering. The cinebench_r23_multicore score of 10283 and singlecore score of 1451 place the CPU at the 68th percentile against all CPUs, meaning it outperforms roughly two-thirds of the database entries.

The CPU's 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth and dual-channel DDR4 support are adequate for this workload. The 12 threads provide enough parallelism for background tasks and OS overhead without becoming a bottleneck. In the measured FPS data, the highest frame rate recorded is 278 FPS at 1080p Low, which approaches the point where CPU frame submission limits could appear, but no such cap is evident in the data. The 204 FPS at 1080p High and 164 FPS at 1080p Ultra suggest the CPU can sustain high frame rates without becoming the limiting factor at these settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB207 chip, brings 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs to this pairing. Its boost clock of 2572 MHz and base clock of 2317 MHz drive the 13.17 TFLOPS FP32 throughput. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is the figure most relevant for texture streaming and framebuffer operations in To The Core.

The GPU's passmark_g3d score of 17326 and 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 2502 place it at the 66th percentile against all GPUs. The nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT with an average score of 20713 and a deltaPct of 1.6, meaning the RTX 5050 trails it by 1.6%, and the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL with a score of 21153 and deltaPct of -0.6, meaning the RTX 5050 leads by 0.6%. These close margins indicate the RTX 5050 sits in a competitive performance tier.

In To The Core specifically, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 4K, the pixel throughput demand (82.30 GPixel/s peak) is the limiting factor, and the measured frame rates reflect this. The 4K Low average of 107 FPS and 4K Medium average of 90 FPS show that even at lower settings, the GPU cannot reach the 278 FPS seen at 1080p Low. The 4K Ultra average of 63 FPS is the lowest measured value in the dataset, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint at this resolution.

The GPU's 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores are present, but for an idle game, these specialized units are unlikely to be heavily utilized. The 13.17 TFLOPS FP16 performance identical to FP32 suggests the GPU does not have dedicated FP16 acceleration, which is irrelevant for this workload. The 320.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is sufficient to feed the 8 GB framebuffer without throttling, as evidenced by the consistent frame times in the Medium preset's min and max FPS data.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 1807 out of 2991 tested combos in To The Core, placing it in the 60th percentile of all pairings in the database. This is a mid-pack result, though the interpretation depends on the composition of the other 2990 combos. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 68 and GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 66 suggest both components are above average individually, but the combo rank of 1807 indicates that many other pairings achieve higher frame rates in this specific game.

The rank discrepancy — individual component percentiles in the high 60s but a combo rank in the 40th percentile of the distribution — suggests that To The Core rewards combinations with stronger single-thread CPU performance or higher GPU memory bandwidth. The i5-10400F's 3dmark_single_thread score of 688 and the RTX 5050's 320.0 GB/s bandwidth are both mid-pack values, and the game appears to respond to these metrics in a way that holds the combo back from the top tiers.

Against the CPU's nearest rivals, the i5-10400F's average benchmark score of 14185 is nearly identical to the Intel Xeon 6756E at 14163 (deltaPct 0.2) and the AMD EPYC 7552 at 14115 (deltaPct 0.5). The AMD Ryzen 3 7320C at 14277 is 0.6% faster. These differences are negligible and would not produce measurable FPS changes in To The Core. The GPU's nearest rivals show similar clustering, with the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL at 21153 (deltaPct -0.6) and the RTX A4000 Mobile at 21379 (deltaPct -1.6) being slightly faster, while the RX 5600 XT at 20713 is 1.6% slower.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset produces an average of 278 FPS, which is the fastest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 235 FPS with a minimum of 200 and maximum of 270, showing a 35 FPS spread that indicates some scene-to-scene variance. High settings drop to 204 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 164 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p represents a 41.0% reduction in frame rate, which is the smallest relative drop across all resolutions.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high enough for smooth gameplay on any display. Low settings average 187 FPS, Medium averages 158 FPS with a minimum of 134 and maximum of 182, High averages 137 FPS, and Ultra averages 110 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra reduction at 1440p is 41.2%, nearly identical to the 1080p figure. The Medium preset's min FPS of 134 is still comfortably above 60 FPS, indicating no stutter issues at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more modest but remain playable. Low settings average 107 FPS, Medium averages 90 FPS with a minimum of 77 and maximum of 104, High averages 78 FPS, and Ultra averages 63 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra reduction at 4K is 41.1%, consistent with the other resolutions. The Medium preset's minimum of 77 FPS is the lowest recorded in the dataset, but it remains above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay on most displays.

The Medium preset is the only configuration with complete min and max FPS data across all three resolutions. At 1080p, the 200-270 FPS range shows a 70 FPS spread; at 1440p, the 134-182 FPS range shows a 48 FPS spread; at 4K, the 77-104 FPS range shows a 27 FPS spread. The narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests the GPU becomes more consistently the bottleneck, reducing frame time variance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and visual quality across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 235 FPS average with a 200 FPS minimum, which is nearly 85% of the Low preset's 278 FPS while presumably offering better visual fidelity. At 1440p, Medium's 158 FPS average with a 134 FPS minimum remains far above display refresh rate capabilities, and at 4K, Medium's 90 FPS average with a 77 FPS minimum provides a smooth experience on 60 Hz displays with headroom for higher refresh rates.

The Ultra preset is the most demanding, and while it achieves 164 FPS at 1080p and 110 FPS at 1440p, its 63 FPS at 4K is the only measured configuration that approaches the 60 FPS threshold. For users with 4K displays, Ultra would be playable but with minimal margin for demanding scenes. The Low preset, while delivering the highest frame rates, is only recommended for competitive scenarios where maximum FPS is prioritized over visual quality.

The data supports Medium as the default recommendation: it is the only preset with measured minimum FPS values at all resolutions, and those minimums (200, 134, and 77) all indicate stable performance without frame rate drops that would be noticeable in normal gameplay. The High preset offers a middle ground, but its 4K average of 78 FPS and 1440p average of 137 FPS are only marginally better than Medium's 90 and 158 FPS, respectively, suggesting the visual difference between High and Medium is not worth the performance cost.

FAQ

Q: Does the RTX 5050's 8 GB VRAM cause any issues in To The Core?

A: No. The measured frame rates show consistent performance at all settings and resolutions, including 4K Ultra at 63 FPS average, with no evidence of VRAM-related stuttering or frame rate collapse. The 8 GB capacity is sufficient for this game's requirements.

Q: Is the i5-10400F a bottleneck for the RTX 5050 in this game?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 278 FPS, and the scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p is only a 41.0% drop, suggesting the CPU can feed the GPU adequately. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 4.30 GHz boost clock provides sufficient single-thread performance for the game's logic.

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

A: This pairing ranks 1807 out of 2991 tested combos in To The Core, placing it in the upper-middle tier. The CPU is at the 68th percentile against all CPUs, and the GPU is at the 66th percentile against all GPUs, but the combo rank suggests other pairings achieve better results in this specific game.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: The data shows 1440p as the sweet spot. Medium settings at 2560x1440 produce 158 FPS average with a 134 FPS minimum, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and close to the 1080p performance. At 4K, Medium drops to 90 FPS average, which is still playable but with less headroom.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 5050's average benchmark score of 21035 is 1.6% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT's 20713, 0.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL's 21153, and 1.6% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile's 21379. These differences are minor and would not produce significant FPS changes in To The Core.

Q: Is the Medium preset the best choice for all resolutions?

A: The measured data shows Medium provides the most consistent frame times, with the only complete min/max FPS data across all resolutions. At 4K, Medium's 90 FPS average and 77 FPS minimum offer a safer margin than Ultra's 63 FPS average, while at 1080p and 1440p, Medium delivers frame rates far above display refresh rate capabilities.