To The Core

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS for this combo at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 142.2 at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is significantly lower than the Low preset at the same resolution, which reaches 241.5 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12400F compare to its nearest rival in overall CPU benchmarks?

A: The i5-12400F scores 19,221 in average benchmark score, placing it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-8700K (19,210) and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i5-1335U (19,167). It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS by 0.7% (19,364).

Q: What is the VRAM capacity of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, and how does it affect 4K performance?

A: The RTX 2060 has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset drops to 55.7 FPS, while High settings yield 69.9 FPS, indicating the 6 GB frame buffer is a limiting factor at 4K.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU+GPU combinations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 1441 out of 1756 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-mid tier of the database for this title. This rank reflects the balanced but not exceptional performance of the i5-12400F and RTX 2060 pairing.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance in Cinebench R23?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400F scores 2,332 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 16,518 in multi-core. The single-core score is 14.1% of the multi-core result, typical for a 6-core/12-thread processor.

Q: How does the GPU's DirectX 12 benchmark score compare to its DirectX 11 score?

A: In PassMark tests, the RTX 2060 scores 53 in DirectX 12 and 110 in DirectX 11. The DirectX 12 score is less than half of the DirectX 11 score, suggesting this older Turing architecture performs better under legacy APIs in synthetic tests.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy across presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 241.5 FPS, Medium reaches 204.2 FPS, High delivers 177.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 142.2 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 99.3 FPS, representing a 41.1% performance penalty for maxing out settings.

For 2560x1440, the pattern mirrors 1080p but with lower absolute numbers: Low hits 162.6 FPS, Medium 135.8 FPS, High 118.2 FPS, and Ultra 93.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 69.1 FPS, still a substantial 42.5% reduction.

At 3840x2160, the high-resolution penalty becomes pronounced. Low delivers 90.4 FPS, Medium 75.9 FPS, High 69.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 55.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration in the entire dataset that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it the least playable option.

The recommended preset depends on the target display. For 1080p, High settings provide 177.8 FPS, which is 35.6 FPS above Medium and 35.6 FPS below Low—a balanced choice for visual fidelity without sacrificing refresh rate headroom. For 1440p, High at 118.2 FPS remains well above 60 FPS and offers a 24.7 FPS improvement over Ultra. For 4K, High at 69.9 FPS is the highest preset that maintains playable frame rates, but users should note that Low at 90.4 FPS gives 20.5 FPS more headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1441 out of 1756 tested combinations in To The Core, placing it in the 18th percentile of all tested pairings. This rank suggests that while the i5-12400F and RTX 2060 form a functional pairing, a substantial portion of the database outperforms it. The CPU's percentile vs all CPUs is 77, indicating it is a strong processor relative to the broader CPU market, while the GPU's percentile vs all GPUs is 58, showing it is closer to the median.

The CPU's nearest rivals show a tight cluster: the i7-8700K is nearly identical at 0.1% delta, the i5-1335U is 0.3% ahead, and the Ryzen 5 7533HS is 0.7% ahead. The only rival that the i5-12400F beats by a notable margin is the AMD EPYC 7773X, which it outperforms by 1.3%. This indicates the i5-12400F is a solid mid-range processor that trades blows with older and newer competitors.

For the GPU, the RTX 2060's nearest rivals are all AMD workstation or mobile parts. The RX 7600S is 0.5% ahead, while the Radeon Pro 5600M and Radeon Pro 5700 are both 1.7% ahead, and the Radeon Pro W5500 trails by 1.8%. This clustering within 2% suggests the RTX 2060 sits in a competitive zone where no single rival dominates.

Given the game's idle genre, frame rates are generally high across the board, but the combo's rank suggests that higher-tier GPUs or CPUs would push this pairing down further. The 4K Ultra result of 55.7 FPS is the weakest point, and it likely contributes to the lower overall rank relative to faster combos.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the dataset shows four distinct performance tiers. Low leads with 241.5 FPS, followed by Medium at 204.2 FPS (37.3 FPS behind Low), High at 177.8 FPS (26.4 FPS behind Medium), and Ultra at 142.2 FPS (35.6 FPS behind High). The step from Low to Ultra is a cumulative 99.3 FPS drop, equating to a 41.1% reduction.

At 2560x1440, the same ordering persists. Low achieves 162.6 FPS, Medium 135.8 FPS (26.8 FPS behind), High 118.2 FPS (17.6 FPS behind), and Ultra 93.5 FPS (24.7 FPS behind). The total drop from Low to Ultra is 69.1 FPS, or 42.5%. Notably, the resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p costs 78.9 FPS at Low, 68.4 FPS at Medium, 59.6 FPS at High, and 48.7 FPS at Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the 4K penalty is severe. Low delivers 90.4 FPS, a 72.2 FPS drop from 1440p Low. Medium hits 75.9 FPS (59.9 FPS below 1440p Medium), High reaches 69.9 FPS (48.3 FPS below 1440p High), and Ultra drops to 55.7 FPS (37.8 FPS below 1440p Ultra). The proportional loss from 1440p to 4K ranges from 44.4% at Low to 40.4% at Ultra, showing that higher presets experience slightly smaller relative penalties at 4K.

The scaling pattern is consistent: each preset step costs roughly 15-25% performance, and each resolution step costs roughly 40-50% performance. The data shows no anomalies, such as a preset step that costs more than the next one, indicating uniform optimization across settings levels.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 operates with a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz, using 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, yielding a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is the primary constraint at 4K resolution.

At 3840x2160, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 34.7 FPS (90.4 vs 55.7), which is larger than the 28.5 FPS difference observed at 2560x1440 (162.6 vs 93.5). This widening gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth becomes more critical as pixel count increases. The 6 GB frame buffer likely causes texture thrashing or paging at 4K Ultra, explaining the sub-60 FPS result.

The GPU's Turing architecture includes 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, with 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores. The pixel rate is 80.64 GPixel/s and texture rate is 201.6 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 6.451 TFLOPS. In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU scores 14,111 in PassMark G3D and 5,488 in GPU compute, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,242.

The RTX 2060's percentile rank of 58 places it slightly above the median GPU, and its average benchmark score of 16,074 sits within 2% of its nearest rivals. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility suggest it can handle modern APIs, but the synthetic DX12 score of 53 in PassMark is notably lower than the DX11 score of 110, which could explain why the game's Ultra preset—likely DX12-heavy—performs relatively worse at 4K.

The GPU's 160 W TDP and dual-slot design with a single 8-pin power connector indicate a mid-range power profile. The suggested PSU of 450 W aligns with the i5-12400F's 65 W TDP, making this a balanced pairing for power consumption. The 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die at 12 nm process node reflect a mature design that is still competitive in this game's measured results.