To The Core

Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is an exercise in extremes: a 10th-generation six-core processor from 2020 driving a flagship 2025 GPU. Benchmark results in To The Core show a combination that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet the data reveals significant scaling limitations at 1080p that point squarely at the Comet Lake CPU. The measured frame rates are exceptionally high across the board, but the pattern of performance degradation as resolution drops tells a clear story about where this pairing’s bottleneck resides.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across the three tested resolutions shows a classic GPU-bound curve that flattens as resolution decreases, indicating the CPU’s ceiling is being hit at 1080p. At 4K with High settings, the combo delivers 188 FPS average. Dropping to 1440p High pushes that to 306 FPS, a substantial 62.8% improvement. Moving further down to 1080p High yields 349 FPS, which is only a 14.1% gain over 1440p. This diminishing return is the first sign that the Core i5-10400F is starting to limit performance at lower resolutions.

The trend is even more pronounced at Low settings. At 4K Low, the system produces 256 FPS. At 1440p Low, it reaches 341 FPS, a 33.2% jump. But at 1080p Low, the average only climbs to 389 FPS, a modest 14.1% increase over 1440p. The gap between 1440p and 1080p is nearly identical in percentage terms to the High preset, suggesting that the CPU is already saturated at 1440p and cannot fully feed the RTX 5090 D at 1080p.

The scaling from 4K to 1440p is substantial across all settings, but the scaling from 1440p to 1080p shrinks dramatically. For High settings, the 4K-to-1440p gain is 118 FPS, while the 1440p-to-1080p gain is only 43 FPS. For Low settings, the 4K-to-1440p gain is 85 FPS, but the 1440p-to-1080p gain is just 48 FPS. This pattern indicates that at 1080p, the Intel Core i5-10400F’s six cores and 12 threads are the limiting factor, unable to push the RTX 5090 D to its full potential.

The data shows that the RTX 5090 D is the dominant component at 4K, where the GPU’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are fully utilized. At 1440p, the balance shifts slightly toward the CPU, but the system still delivers over 300 FPS on average at High settings. At 1080p, the CPU bottleneck becomes apparent, as the frame rate gains from lowering resolution are minimal. The measured results suggest that this pairing is best suited for 4K gaming, where the GPU can stretch its legs, while 1080p users would see little benefit from the RTX 5090 D over a less powerful GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy of performance across presets, and the data suggests that High settings offer the most balanced experience for this combo. At 4K, High delivers 188 FPS average, while Medium produces 217 FPS and Ultra drops to 151 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 37 FPS, a 19.7% reduction, while the jump from High to Medium gains 29 FPS, a 15.4% increase. Given that the game is an idle genre title, the visual fidelity of Ultra may not be worth sacrificing nearly 20% of the frame rate.

At 1440p, High settings yield 306 FPS average, which is only 16 FPS shy of the 322 FPS seen at Medium. Ultra at 1440p still manages 265 FPS, which is well above any refresh rate currently on the market. The differences between presets at 1440p are less impactful because the baseline is so high. For 1080p users, the CPU bottleneck means that even Low settings (389 FPS) and Ultra settings (323 FPS) deliver nearly identical experiences in terms of smoothness, as both are far beyond display capabilities.

The data indicates that High is the sweet spot for this pairing. At 4K, it provides a 24.5% improvement over Ultra while maintaining a 13.4% deficit to Medium, a reasonable trade-off for visual quality. At 1440p, High sits comfortably between Medium and Ultra, offering 306 FPS, which is 5.2% lower than Medium but 15.5% higher than Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K does offer a measurable advantage with a 217 FPS average and a minimum of 184 FPS, which could be relevant for users with 4K high-refresh displays, but the High preset’s 188 FPS average is still sufficient for most monitors.

For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, Low settings at 1080p (389 FPS) or 1440p (341 FPS) are the top performers, but the visual downgrade is substantial. The measured data shows that High settings provide the best balance of frame rate and visual quality across all three resolutions, making it the recommended preset for this specific CPU-GPU combination.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to use with the Intel Core i5-10400F and RTX 5090 D?

A: The data shows 4K is the most favorable resolution for this pairing. At 4K High, the system delivers 188 FPS, and the GPU is the primary driver of performance. At 1080p, the frame rates are higher (349 FPS on High) but the scaling from 1440p is minimal, indicating the CPU is the bottleneck.

Q: Is the Core i5-10400F holding back the RTX 5090 D in this game?

A: Yes, particularly at 1080p. The FPS gain from 1440p to 1080p at High settings is only 43 FPS (from 306 to 349), while the gain from 4K to 1440p is 118 FPS (from 188 to 306). This diminishing return indicates the CPU’s six cores and 12 threads are limiting performance at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of performance?

A: At 4K, Ultra averages 151 FPS compared to High’s 188 FPS, a 19.7% reduction. At 1440p, Ultra averages 265 FPS versus High’s 306 FPS, a 13.4% reduction. At 1080p, Ultra averages 323 FPS versus High’s 349 FPS, a 7.5% reduction. The performance gap narrows as resolution decreases.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved in the measured data?

A: The highest average FPS is 389, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is followed by 367 FPS at 1080p Medium and 349 FPS at 1080p High.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D’s 32 GB VRAM provide any advantage in this game?

A: The data shows the GPU’s memory configuration is not a limiting factor in To The Core. The game is an idle genre title, and even at 4K Ultra, the combo maintains 151 FPS, suggesting the GPU’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are more than sufficient for the game’s demands.

Q: How does this combo rank among other tested CPU-GPU pairings?

A: The combo ranks 243rd out of 2991 tested combinations, placing it in the top 8.1% of all tested pairings for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 243rd out of 2991 tested combos in To The Core. This places the pairing in the top 8.1% of all CPU-GPU combinations tested, a strong showing given the age of the processor. The rank reflects the RTX 5090 D’s immense raw power, but the CPU’s limitations prevent the combo from climbing higher.

The CPU itself sits at the 68th percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 14185. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon 6756E (scoring 14163, a 0.2% difference), the Intel Core 7 160UL (scoring 14232, a -0.3% difference), and the AMD EPYC 7552 (scoring 14115, a 0.5% difference). These scores indicate the i5-10400F is a mid-range processor in the current landscape, but its performance in To The Core is boosted significantly by the GPU.

The GPU, by contrast, is in the 92nd percentile among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (scoring 76904, a 1.1% difference) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (scoring 78940, a -1.6% difference). The RTX 5090 D is clearly a top-tier component, and its performance in this game reflects that, but the combo rank of 243 out of 2991 suggests that the CPU is dragging the overall result down.

The gap between the GPU’s 92nd percentile ranking and the combo’s 91.9th percentile ranking (243/2991) is small, indicating that the CPU is not a massive hindrance at the resolutions where most users would play this game. However, the rank would likely be higher if the CPU were a more modern part, as the 1080p data suggests the i5-10400F cannot fully unlock the RTX 5090 D’s potential.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why the combo performs so well at 4K. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is far beyond what To The Core requires, but it ensures that the GPU never becomes memory-bound, even at 4K Ultra settings.

The GPU’s clock speeds are 2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with 21760 shading units and 176 ROPs, deliver a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS is the highest in the GeForce 50-series, and it shows in the measured FPS: at 4K High, the GPU sustains 188 FPS, and at 4K Low, it reaches 256 FPS.

The GPU’s 92nd percentile ranking among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712, places it well above the CPU’s 68th percentile. This disparity is the root cause of the CPU bottleneck observed at 1080p. At 4K, the GPU’s massive compute throughput and memory bandwidth are fully utilized, allowing the combo to deliver high frame rates. At 1080p, the GPU has excess capacity, but the CPU cannot feed it data fast enough, capping performance at 389 FPS on Low settings.

The RTX 5090 D’s 32 GB VRAM is a significant asset, though the game’s idle genre does not appear to stress it. The measured data shows no signs of memory-related stuttering or frame drops, even at 4K Ultra with 151 FPS average. The GPU’s role in this combo is to provide headroom for future games and higher resolutions, but in To The Core, it is clearly the primary driver of the high frame rates observed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160 (4K), the combo delivers the following average frame rates across presets: Ultra averages 151 FPS, High averages 188 FPS, Medium averages 217 FPS with a minimum of 184 FPS and a maximum of 249 FPS, and Low averages 256 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 41.0% drop (from 256 to 151 FPS), indicating that the GPU is heavily taxed at 4K Ultra.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the results improve substantially: Ultra averages 265 FPS, High averages 306 FPS, Medium averages 322 FPS with a minimum of 273 FPS and a maximum of 370 FPS, and Low averages 341 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 22.3% (from 341 to 265 FPS), showing that the GPU has more headroom at this resolution.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the frame rates approach the CPU’s ceiling: Ultra averages 323 FPS, High averages 349 FPS, Medium averages 367 FPS with a minimum of 312 FPS and a maximum of 422 FPS, and Low averages 389 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is just 17.0% (from 389 to 323 FPS), and the gap between Medium and High is only 18 FPS (367 vs 349), indicating that the CPU is limiting the GPU’s ability to differentiate between presets.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all resolutions. At 4K, the frame range is 184-249 FPS, at 1440p it is 273-370 FPS, and at 1080p it is 312-422 FPS. This data shows that the frame time consistency improves as resolution decreases, with the 1080p range being the tightest in percentage terms (a 26.1% spread) compared to 4K (a 35.3% spread). The measured FPS breakdown confirms that this combo is capable of exceptional performance, but the CPU’s influence is most visible at 1080p, where the frame rates cluster closely together regardless of settings.