To The Core

To The Core is an idle game that, on this particular Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER pairing, behaves less like a typical lightweight title and more like a demanding esports shooter at high refresh rates. The measured data shows this combination is capable of astonishing frame rates, even at 4K, making the choice of settings more about matching your display’s refresh rate than about chasing playability. The core takeaway is that this system is massively overqualified for the game, with performance scaling that reveals a clear CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions and a shift to GPU dominance as resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows indicate that the High preset at 1440p is the sweet spot for this hardware. It delivers an average of 271.3 FPS, which is more than enough to saturate any high-refresh-rate monitor. Moving up to Ultra at 1440p drops the average to 216.7 FPS, a significant 20% reduction for what is likely a marginal visual gain in an idle game. The data suggests that High provides the best balance between visual fidelity and raw performance, ensuring you stay well above the 200 FPS mark without sacrificing the graphical headroom that the RTX 4080 SUPER offers.

For 4K users, the Medium preset is the pragmatic choice. At 3840x2160, the High preset achieves 155.1 FPS, while Medium pushes that to 175.4 FPS. The jump to Ultra at 4K is punishing, dropping the average to 125.6 FPS, which is a 19% decrease from Medium. Given that the game is an idle title, the visual difference between Medium and High at 4K is likely less impactful than the stability of a higher frame rate. Conversely, the Low preset at 1080p yields 456.2 FPS, which is largely pointless unless you are chasing absolute maximum frame rates for competitive play, a scenario where the game’s genre makes it unlikely.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark data shows a strong single-thread performance, with a 3dmark_single_thread score of 868 and a passmark_single_thread score of 2981. This is crucial because the measured FPS at 1080p, specifically the Low preset’s 456.2 FPS, indicates that the CPU is the primary limiter at this resolution. The processor’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide adequate bandwidth for the game’s logic, but the sheer frame rate ceiling is being hit by the CPU’s processing power.

Looking at the CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus of 75, it sits above the majority of processors, but its nearestRivals show a tight cluster. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700U has an average score of 17189, just 0% higher, while the Intel Core i7-1260P is 0.2% behind. This indicates that the i5-11400F is performing right at its expected level for a mid-range desktop chip. In the context of To The Core, the CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities, evidenced by a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 14372, are more than sufficient to handle the game’s background simulations, but the frame rate data suggests that the single-core speed is what dictates the upper limits at 1080p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a behemoth, featuring 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. Its 10240 shading units and boost clock of 2550 MHz contribute to a passmark_g3d score of 34245, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. The data shows that this GPU is the dominant force at 4K, where the Ultra preset still manages 125.6 FPS, a figure that many systems struggle to reach at 1080p on less demanding titles. The GPU’s 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance ensures that it is not the bottleneck until the resolution and settings push the rendering load high enough.

The nearestRivals for the GPU show it leading the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT by 0.2% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 2.9%, confirming its position as a top-tier card. In this game, the GPU’s role becomes apparent when comparing the 1080p and 4K results. At 1080p, the frame rate is capped by the CPU, but at 4K, the GPU’s workload increases significantly, yet it still delivers over 200 FPS on the Low preset. This indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER has ample headroom, and the primary reason for frame rate drops at higher settings is the increased shader complexity and memory pressure, not a lack of raw compute power.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-11400F a bottleneck for the RTX 4080 SUPER in this game?

A: Yes, but only at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the average FPS is 456.2, while at 1440p Low it is 370.6. This 19% drop suggests that the CPU is limiting the frame rate at 1080p, as the GPU has more than enough power to push higher numbers if the CPU could keep up.

Q: What is the best resolution to play at to avoid a CPU bottleneck?

A: The data indicates that at 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. At 3840x2160 High, the average FPS is 155.1, which is a 43% drop from the 1440p High score of 271.3. This shift shows that the GPU is now doing the heavy lifting, making 4K the resolution where the CPU’s limitations are mitigated.

Q: How does the i5-11400F compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17181. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, scores 17189, a difference of 0%. This places them statistically tied, while the Intel Core i7-1260P is 0.2% behind, indicating that the i5-11400F is performing exactly as expected for its class.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 SUPER’s high bandwidth matter for this game?

A: The 736.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth on the 16 GB GDDR6X frame buffer is likely a key factor in maintaining high frame rates at 4K. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the system still hits 125.6 FPS, a demanding scenario where memory bandwidth and capacity are critical for texture streaming and high-resolution rendering.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth the performance cost?

A: Based on the measured FPS, the Ultra preset offers diminishing returns. At 1440p, it drops the frame rate from 271.3 FPS (High) to 216.7 FPS, a 20% reduction. At 4K, the drop from High to Ultra is from 155.1 FPS to 125.6 FPS, a 19% reduction. This suggests that the visual uplift is not justified by the significant performance penalty, especially in an idle game.

Q: How does this combo rank among other systems for this game?

A: The combination ranks 140th out of 1756 tested combos, placing it in the top 8% of all configurations. This high ranking is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows the system capable of exceeding 300 FPS at 1440p on most settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p, the High preset averages 403 FPS, and at 1440p it drops to 271.3 FPS, a 33% decrease. Moving to 4K, the High preset yields 155.1 FPS, a further 43% drop from 1440p. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is becoming increasingly burdened as resolution increases, while the CPU’s influence wanes. The Low preset shows a similar trend: 456.2 FPS at 1080p, 370.6 FPS at 1440p (a 19% drop), and 211.5 FPS at 4K (a 43% drop from 1440p).

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is consistent across all settings, hovering around a 42-43% reduction in frame rate. This uniformity points to the GPU being the sole limiter at 4K, as the relative performance drop is independent of the CPU load. Conversely, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is less severe for Low settings (19%) than for High settings (33%), which suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is capping performance, and increasing resolution to 1440p allows the GPU to stretch its legs without overwhelming the CPU. This analysis confirms that for a balanced experience, 1440p is the optimal resolution, as it leverages the CPU’s full potential while still giving the GPU a meaningful workload.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 456.2 FPS, the Medium preset averages 432.1 FPS, and the High preset averages 403 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 326.7 FPS, a 19% reduction from High. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor, as the difference between Low and High is only 11%, suggesting that the graphics card is barely being taxed.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 370.6 FPS, Medium averages 312.8 FPS, and High averages 271.3 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 216.7 FPS. The spread between Low and High widens to 27%, showing that the GPU is starting to take on more work. The Ultra preset’s 216.7 FPS is still exceptionally high, highlighting the GPU’s capability.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 211.5 FPS, Medium averages 175.4 FPS, and High averages 155.1 FPS. The Ultra preset manages 125.6 FPS. The scaling here is dramatic, with Low being 36% faster than High. This is where the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 16 GB of memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are fully utilized, and the results show that even at 4K, the system remains highly playable on all presets, but the performance cost of Ultra is steep.