To The Core

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows for the Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination in To The Core show a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At every resolution, the Low preset delivers the highest average frame rate, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra consistently last. The gap between Low and Ultra is substantial: at 1080p, Low averages 356.5 FPS versus 208.5 FPS on Ultra, a difference of 148 FPS. At 1440p, the spread narrows to 238 FPS versus 138.4 FPS, and at 4K, it is 140.1 FPS versus 81.2 FPS.

For players prioritizing smoothness above all else, Low is the obvious choice, but the data suggests that Medium offers a better balance. At 1080p, Medium still hits 299.5 FPS, which is only 57 FPS behind Low but 91 FPS ahead of Ultra. At 1440p, Medium reaches 201.8 FPS, comfortably above the 144 Hz refresh rate that many monitors target, while High trails at 174.5 FPS. The story at 4K is more nuanced: Medium delivers 118.3 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for standard displays, but High drops to 101.7 FPS and Ultra falls to 81.2 FPS. Given that Ultra costs 47 FPS at 1080p, 63 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K compared to Medium, the measured data indicates that Medium is the sweet spot for this hardware combination. It maintains high frame rates across all resolutions while presumably offering better visual fidelity than Low, without the steep performance penalty of Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 achieves a combo rank of 792 out of 1756 tested configurations in To The Core. This places it in the 55th percentile of all combos, meaning roughly 45% of tested setups deliver higher average frame rates. Given that the CPU sits at the 77th percentile among all processors and the GPU at the 72nd percentile among all graphics cards, the combo ranking is slightly lower than either component’s individual standing. This suggests that the pairing is not perfectly balanced for this specific idle-genre title, where the workload may not fully stress both components in tandem.

Examining the CPU’s nearest rivals provides context for its contribution. The i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850, which is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-9700 (19831) and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-11600K (19771). It trails the Intel Core i7-8700 by 0.2% (19894) and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX by 0.4% (19928). These deltaPct values are all within a single percentage point, indicating that the i5-12400 is essentially performance-neutral against its direct competitors in synthetic workloads. The GPU’s nearest rivals tell a similar story: the RTX 3070 (28238 average score) is 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (27985) and 1.0% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (27956), while trailing the AMD FirePro S7150 by 0.6% (28409) and the AMD Radeon R9 M295X by 1.1% (28541). These margins are razor-thin, so the combo’s mid-pack ranking likely stems from the game’s idiosyncratic demands rather than any obvious bottleneck in the core components.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo can achieve in To The Core?*

A: The maximum measured average is 356.5 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 1440p Low, it drops to 238 FPS, and at 4K Low, it is 140.1 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Medium at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium delivers 201.8 FPS average, while Ultra falls to 138.4 FPS. That is a 63.4 FPS difference, or roughly 31% lower performance for Ultra.

Q: Is the RTX 3070 significantly faster than its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: No. The RTX 3070’s average benchmark score is 28238, which is only 0.9% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (27985) and 1.0% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (27956). It is actually 0.6% behind the AMD FirePro S7150 (28409).

Q: What frame rate can players expect at 4K with High settings?

A: The measured average at 3840x2160 with High settings is 101.7 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS standard for 4K displays, suggesting a playable experience, though Low (140.1 FPS) and Medium (118.3 FPS) offer higher headroom.

Q: How does the i5-12400’s synthetic performance compare to the Intel Core i7-8700?

A: The i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850, which is 0.2% lower than the i7-8700’s 19894. The difference of 44 points is negligible in real-world terms.

Q: Which settings preset provides the largest FPS jump at 1080p?

A: Moving from Ultra (208.5 FPS) to High (264.2 FPS) yields a 55.7 FPS increase. The jump from High to Medium is 35.3 FPS, and from Medium to Low is 57 FPS. The largest single-step gain is from High to Low (92.3 FPS).

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows a wide performance envelope. Low settings produce an average of 356.5 FPS, which is the highest measurement in the entire dataset. Medium settings deliver 299.5 FPS, High drops to 264.2 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 208.5 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 148 FPS reduction, or roughly a 41.5% loss in frame rate. Even at the lowest preset, the frame rates far exceed the refresh rate of any mainstream monitor, suggesting that this resolution is heavily CPU-limited or that the game is simply not demanding.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 238 FPS, Medium 201.8 FPS, High 174.5 FPS, and Ultra 138.4 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 99.6 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the 1080p gap. Notably, even Ultra at 1440p remains above 120 FPS, so players with high-refresh-rate 1440p panels can still achieve smooth gameplay on the most demanding preset.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops become more pronounced. Low delivers 140.1 FPS, Medium 118.3 FPS, High 101.7 FPS, and Ultra 81.2 FPS. The Ultra preset is the only configuration that falls below the 100 FPS mark, and it is the only one that could struggle on a 120 Hz 4K display. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 58.9 FPS, which is smaller in absolute terms than at lower resolutions but represents a 42% reduction relative to Low. This suggests that the GPU is becoming a more significant factor at 4K, though the absolute frame rates remain high for an idle-genre title.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals how frame rates scale as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, holding settings constant. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 356.5 at 1080p to 238 at 1440p, a reduction of 118.5 FPS (33.2%). Moving from 1440p to 4K Low drops the average from 238 to 140.1, a further 97.9 FPS (41.1%). The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K Low is 216.4 FPS, meaning the 4K average is only 39.3% of the 1080p value.

For Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 299.5 FPS at 1080p, 201.8 FPS at 1440p, and 118.3 FPS at 4K. The step from 1080p to 1440p is a 97.7 FPS decrease (32.6%), while the step from 1440p to 4K is an 83.5 FPS decrease (41.4%). The overall reduction from 1080p to 4K is 181.2 FPS, leaving the 4K average at 39.5% of the 1080p figure.

High settings show a slightly different pattern. The 1080p average is 264.2 FPS, dropping to 174.5 FPS at 1440p (a 89.7 FPS decrease, 34%) and then to 101.7 FPS at 4K (a 72.8 FPS decrease, 41.7%). The cumulative drop is 162.5 FPS, with 4K retaining 38.5% of the 1080p performance.

Ultra settings exhibit the most aggressive scaling. From 208.5 FPS at 1080p, the average falls to 138.4 FPS at 1440p (a 70.1 FPS decrease, 33.6%) and then to 81.2 FPS at 4K (a 57.2 FPS decrease, 41.3%). The total reduction is 127.3 FPS, and the 4K average is 38.9% of the 1080p value.

The consistency of these percentage drops — all four settings lose roughly 33% from 1080p to 1440p and another 41% from 1440p to 4K — indicates that the scaling is largely resolution-driven rather than settings-driven. The fact that the relative performance loss is nearly identical across all presets suggests that the RTX 3070’s memory bandwidth and compute capacity are the primary limiting factors as pixel count increases, rather than any CPU bottleneck. The i5-12400, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears to keep pace even at 1080p where frame rates exceed 350 FPS, as the drop-off pattern does not show any sudden cliff that would indicate a CPU-bound scenario. Instead, the smooth, predictable decline points to a GPU that is being progressively saturated by the rendering load, which is typical for a modern mid-range card paired with a capable 12th-gen processor in a non-demanding title.