To The Core

Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 deliver an exceptional experience in To The Core, an Idle title that clearly favors high refresh rate displays. The data shows this pairing never drops below 97.6 FPS even at maximum settings in 4K, making it a formidable combination for this specific game. With a combo rank of 452 out of 1756 tested configurations, this setup sits comfortably in the top quarter of all pairings, demonstrating that the 6-core Alder Lake processor and Ada Lovelace GPU are well-matched for the workload presented by this game.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario that intensifies with higher quality settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 430.6 FPS at 1920x1080 to 288.2 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 142.4 FPS, before settling at 163.9 FPS in 4K — a 266.7 FPS total drop from 1080p to 4K. This represents a significant 61.9% decrease in frame rate from the lowest to highest resolution at Low settings, indicating that the RTX 4070's rendering pipeline is the primary constraint as pixel count increases.

Moving to Ultra settings, the pattern becomes even more pronounced. The transition from 1080p (255.9 FPS) to 1440p (172.2 FPS) costs 83.7 FPS, and the jump to 4K (97.6 FPS) removes another 74.6 FPS. The total scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 158.3 FPS drop, which is a 61.8% reduction — nearly identical to the Low settings scaling percentage. This consistency across settings suggests that resolution, not graphical complexity, is the dominant factor limiting performance, a hallmark of GPU-bound workloads where the RTX 4070's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are being fully utilized.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference is 174.7 FPS (430.6 vs 255.9), but at 4K, that gap shrinks to 66.3 FPS (163.9 vs 97.6). This compression indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU's fixed-function units — the 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores — become saturated regardless of quality preset, making the absolute pixel throughput the bottleneck rather than shader complexity. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, users should expect roughly 40% lower frame rates at Ultra compared to Low, a trade-off that may not be worthwhile given the already high baseline performance.

FAQ

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

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 430.6, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This drops to 315.4 FPS at High settings and 255.9 FPS at Ultra, showing that even maximum quality at 1080p remains well above 240 FPS thresholds.

Q: How does the i5-12400 perform in synthetic benchmarks relative to its closest rivals?

A: The i5-12400's average benchmark score of 19850 puts it nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-9700, which scores 19831 (a 0.1% difference). It also trades blows with the Intel Core i7-8700 (19894, -0.2%) and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (19928, -0.4%), while edging out the Intel Core i5-11600K (19771, 0.4% ahead).

Q: What is this combo's ranking among all tested configurations?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination ranks 452nd out of 1756 tested combos in To The Core, placing it in the 74th percentile of all pairings tested for this game.

Q: Does the RTX 4070's performance justify its specification sheet?

A: The GPU's G3D benchmark score of 26927 and average benchmark score of 37283 place it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, scores 37507 (just 0.6% higher), while the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A trails at 38008 (-1.9%), indicating the 4070 is competitive but not class-leading in raw compute.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its single-threaded results?

A: In Cinebench R23, the i5-12400 scores 15935 in multi-core and 2249 in single-core, a 7.1x scaling factor across its 6 cores and 12 threads. The 3DMark results show similar scaling: 5890 at max threads versus 910 at single thread, a 6.5x improvement.

Q: What memory and platform features does this CPU support?

A: The i5-12400 supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, uses the Intel Socket 1700 platform, and provides PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes for CPU-attached devices. Its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core help feed the 12 threads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400's contribution to To The Core performance is best understood through its 6 cores and 12 threads, which operate at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost up to 4.40 GHz. This Alder Lake-S architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process, delivers strong single-threaded performance that is critical for idle games where game logic and simulation updates often run on a limited number of threads. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2249 and 3DMark single-thread score of 910 indicate robust per-core capabilities that keep the game's main loop running smoothly even when GPU frame rates exceed 300 FPS.

The processor's cache hierarchy plays a vital role in maintaining low latency. With 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3, the i5-12400 can keep frequently accessed game data close to the execution units. This is particularly important at 1080p resolution where the CPU must feed frames at rates exceeding 400 FPS — at those speeds, any cache miss or memory stall directly impacts frame pacing. The PassMark multi-thread score of 18747 and data compression score of 226908 suggest that background tasks and asset streaming won't interfere with gameplay, even when the GPU is pushing maximum frame rates.

The i5-12400's 65 W TDP and dual-channel memory support for DDR4 and DDR5 provide a balanced platform that doesn't bottleneck the RTX 4070. Its 3DMark scores scale from 1692 at 2 threads to 5890 at max threads, a 3.5x improvement that shows good thread scaling for a 6-core part. However, the percentile rank of 77 against all CPUs indicates it's not a top-tier processor, and in To The Core, the data shows the GPU is the limiting factor at all resolutions — the CPU's job is simply to stay out of the way, which it does admirably given the sustained high FPS across all settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce 430.6 FPS average, which is 65.5 FPS higher than Medium (365.1 FPS) and 115.2 FPS higher than High (315.4 FPS). Ultra settings still manage 255.9 FPS, which is 79.5 FPS below High but still far beyond what most displays can show. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p represents a 40.6% performance penalty for maximum quality, a trade-off that seems unnecessary given the already high baseline.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. Low settings deliver 288.2 FPS, dropping to 246.9 FPS at Medium and 213.9 FPS at High — a 74.3 FPS spread between Low and High. Ultra settings yield 172.2 FPS, which is 41.7 FPS below High and 116.0 FPS below Low. The 1440p results show a more pronounced GPU limitation, with the gap between Low and Ultra expanding to 116.0 FPS compared to the 174.7 FPS gap at 1080p, indicating the RTX 4070 is working harder to fill the additional pixels.

At 3840x2160, the performance remains playable but the GPU is clearly stressed. Low settings produce 163.9 FPS, Medium drops to 139.4 FPS, High falls to 121.4 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 97.6 FPS — still above 60 FPS but approaching the threshold where high-refresh displays become underutilized. The 4K scaling shows a 66.3 FPS difference between Low and Ultra, the smallest absolute gap of any resolution, confirming that pixel throughput is the limiting factor. Interestingly, the jump from Medium to High at 4K costs 18.0 FPS, while High to Ultra costs another 23.8 FPS, suggesting that Ultra settings impose a disproportionately heavy load on the GPU's 64 ROPs and 184 TMUs.

How This Combo Ranks

The i5-12400 + RTX 4070 combination achieves a rank of 452 out of 1756 tested combos in To The Core, placing it in the top 25.7% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the balanced nature of this pairing: the CPU's 77th percentile standing among all processors and the GPU's 81st percentile among all graphics cards combine to produce a system that excels in this title without being extreme at either end. The data shows that the combo outperforms its aggregate component percentiles, suggesting that To The Core benefits from the specific combination of 6 fast cores and a high-bandwidth GPU rather than raw core counts or massive compute.

In the context of component-level competition, the RTX 4070's average benchmark score of 37283 places it just behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507, -0.6%) and ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38135, -2.2%) in raw GPU compute. The i5-12400's 19850 average score sits essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-9700 (19831, 0.1%) and slightly behind the Intel Core i7-8700 (19894, -0.2%). Both components perform near their expected levels, yet the combo rank of 452 suggests the pairing extracts slightly more performance than the sum of its parts, likely due to the RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth being well-suited to this game's rendering demands.

For context, this combo rank means that 1304 other tested configurations outperform it, but given that To The Core is an idle game with modest requirements, the 452nd position still represents a highly capable system. The measured FPS data supports this — even at the lowest point (4K Ultra, 97.6 FPS), the combo delivers smooth gameplay. The ranking is more a reflection of the extremely high-end configurations (likely featuring top-tier CPUs and GPUs) that also populate the database, rather than any deficiency in this pairing. For users targeting high-refresh 1440p or solid 4K gaming in To The Core, this combo ranks among the most sensible choices, offering performance that exceeds the needs of most displays.