To The Core

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers exceptionally high frame rates in To The Core, an idle genre title. The measured data shows that even at the most demanding preset, the system never drops below 140.9 FPS on average, indicating a substantial performance headroom for this workload. The benchmark results reveal a system where the GPU is rarely the limiting factor, with the CPU's performance ceiling becoming apparent primarily at lower resolutions and settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a predictable pattern of decreasing performance as pixel count rises, but with notable nuances depending on the graphics preset. At the Ultra setting, the average FPS drops from 375.7 at 1920x1080 to 250.5 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 125.2 FPS. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average falls to 140.9 FPS, representing a total drop of 234.8 FPS from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline of roughly 62.5% indicates that at Ultra settings, the GPU is becoming the primary constraint as resolution increases, with the RTX 5090's rendering workload at 4K significantly outweighing the CPU's contribution.

The scaling pattern changes dramatically when examining the Low preset. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 528.4 FPS, which only drops to 425 FPS at 2560x1440 and 243.2 FPS at 3840x2160. The performance gap between 1080p and 1440p is 103.4 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 181.8 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that at lower settings, the Intel Core i5-12400's processing capabilities are being taxed more heavily at 1440p, as the reduced GPU workload allows the CPU to become a more significant factor. The fact that 4K Low still produces 243.2 FPS, which is higher than 4K Ultra's 140.9 FPS, further confirms that resolution scaling is heavily influenced by the graphics preset's demands on the GPU.

The Medium and High presets show intermediate scaling behavior. At 1920x1080, Medium achieves 501.6 FPS and High reaches 465.9 FPS, with respective drops to 362.2 FPS and 312.6 FPS at 2560x1440. At 4K, these settle at 204.1 FPS for Medium and 176.3 FPS for High. The consistent ordering across all resolutions—Low > Medium > High > Ultra—indicates that the graphics settings have a more substantial impact on frame rates than resolution changes alone. However, the relative scaling from 1080p to 4K is similar across presets, with all showing roughly a 55-63% reduction in FPS, pointing to a balanced system where both CPU and GPU contribute to the performance envelope.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The system achieves an average of 312.6 FPS at 2560x1440 with the High preset, which is 153.3 FPS lower than the 1080p High result of 465.9 FPS but 136.3 FPS higher than the 4K High result of 176.3 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's performance in this game compare to its closest rivals?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 84306 places it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, 0.2% ahead of the RTX 5050 Mobile, and 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6600, while trailing the NVIDIA CMP 40HX by 1.6%.

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable at 1080p?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 528.4, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. The Ultra preset at the same resolution produces 375.7 FPS, which is 152.7 FPS lower.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU become the bottleneck at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the frame rates range from 140.9 FPS (Ultra) to 243.2 FPS (Low), indicating the GPU is the primary limiter since reducing settings yields significant gains. The CPU's influence is more apparent at 1080p, where the Low preset reaches 528.4 FPS.

Q: How does the Core i5-12400's multi-threaded performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Core i5-12400's average benchmark score of 19850 is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-9700's 19831 and 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-11600K's 19771, though it trails the Core i7-8700 by 0.2%.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 425 FPS while Ultra produces 250.5 FPS, a difference of 174.5 FPS. This gap narrows at 4K, where the difference is 102.3 FPS between Low (243.2) and Ultra (140.9).

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that the High preset at 2560x1440 offers the most balanced experience, delivering 312.6 FPS. This represents a 62.5 FPS improvement over Ultra at the same resolution (250.5 FPS) while still maintaining significantly higher visual fidelity than Medium at 362.2 FPS. The performance headroom at High is substantial, as the 312.6 FPS figure is well above typical display refresh rates, and the system could easily handle higher settings if needed.

For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, the Ultra preset at 1920x1080 provides 375.7 FPS, which is still exceptionally smooth. The step from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 90.2 FPS (from 465.9 to 375.7), but the absolute frame rate remains high enough for competitive play. At 4K, the Ultra preset delivers 140.9 FPS, which is playable but represents a significant compromise compared to the 243.2 FPS available at Low settings.

The Medium preset emerges as the most versatile option across resolutions. At 1080p, it achieves 501.6 FPS, only 26.8 FPS behind Low's 528.4 FPS, while offering better visuals. At 1440p, Medium's 362.2 FPS is 62.8 FPS higher than High's 312.6 FPS, making it the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate monitors. The data suggests that for most users, Medium at 1440p or High at 1080p provides the best combination of visual quality and performance, with the system never falling below 176.3 FPS at High settings across any resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 with RTX 5090 combination ranks 41st out of 1756 tested combos in To The Core, placing it in the top 2.3% of all configurations. This high ranking reflects the system's ability to maintain frame rates above 140 FPS even at the most demanding 4K Ultra settings, a feat that many other combinations in the database cannot achieve. The ranking is particularly noteworthy given that the CPU itself only ranks in the 77th percentile against all CPUs, suggesting that the GPU's raw power (94th percentile against all GPUs) is the primary driver of this strong game-specific performance.

The combo's ranking relative to its 1756 total combinations indicates that it outperforms the vast majority of systems tested for this idle genre title. The gap between the CPU's moderate percentile (77) and the combo's top-tier ranking (41st) highlights that To The Core benefits more from GPU capabilities than CPU processing power. This is consistent with the resolution scaling analysis, which shows the GPU becoming the limiting factor at higher resolutions, and it suggests that users with similarly powerful GPUs but weaker CPUs could still achieve strong results in this game.

The ranking also implies that the RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are well-suited to To The Core's rendering demands, as the system maintains high FPS even at 4K. The 41st position out of 1756 places this combo ahead of many configurations with more expensive CPUs, underscoring that game-specific performance can deviate significantly from general-purpose benchmark scores.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 plays a dominant role in this combo's To The Core performance, as evidenced by the measured frame rates and the GPU's specifications. The card's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for handling the texture and geometry data at 4K resolutions. The benchmark data shows that at 3840x2160 Ultra, the system still produces 140.9 FPS, indicating that the GPU's memory subsystem is not a bottleneck even under maximum load.

The RTX 5090's clock speeds—2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost—combined with its 21760 shading units and 680 TMUs, enable the high fill rates observed in the resolution scaling data. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are reflected in the consistent frame rates across all settings, with the GPU only showing signs of strain at 4K Ultra where the 140.9 FPS result still remains highly playable. The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance provides ample compute headroom for the idle genre's rendering workload, which appears to be more fill-rate bound than compute bound based on the scaling patterns.

The GPU's 94th percentile ranking against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84306, places it just 0.1% ahead of the RTX 5090 D and 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6600. This competitive positioning is reflected in the game data, where the GPU maintains high frame rates even at 4K. The RTX 5090's dual-slot design and 575 W TDP are substantial, but the performance data justifies the power requirements, as the card delivers over 240 FPS at 4K Low settings, demonstrating that its memory bandwidth and processing power are effectively utilized in To The Core. The GPU's role is clearly central to this combo's success, with the CPU providing sufficient support to avoid becoming a major bottleneck except at the lowest settings and resolutions.