To The Core

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a compelling performance profile in To The Core, an Idle genre title released on February 14, 2024. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that scales predictably with graphical load, showing clear strengths at high refresh rates for 1080p and 1440p gaming while maintaining playable performance at 4K. This analysis walks through the resolution scaling, competitive ranking, component-specific roles, and practical settings recommendations based strictly on the measured data and benchmark metrics.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 demonstrates a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern, though the exact deltas vary by settings preset. At High settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p sees average FPS drop from 165 to 111, a reduction of 54 frames per second (32.7%). Moving from 1440p to 4K High, the average falls further to 64 FPS, another 47 frames per second (42.3%) decrease. The cumulative 4K High result is 61.2% lower than the 1080p High figure, indicating that pixel throughput becomes the primary limiter at higher resolutions.

Low settings show even steeper scaling percentages, with 1080p delivering 225 FPS, 1440p dropping to 152 FPS, and 4K settling at 87 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p reduction is 73 FPS (32.4%), while the 1440p to 4K drop is 65 FPS (42.8%). This near-identical relative scaling pattern across presets — roughly one-third loss from 1080p to 1440p and another two-fifths loss from 1440p to 4K — suggests the Intel Arc B570's rendering pipeline handles resolution increases proportionally, with no sudden bottlenecks appearing at specific pixel counts.

Medium settings follow the same trajectory: 191 FPS at 1080p, 128 FPS at 1440p, and 73 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 63 FPS (33.0%), and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 55 FPS (43.0%). Ultra settings produce 133 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K, with corresponding reductions of 44 FPS (33.1%) and 38 FPS (42.7%). The consistency of these scaling ratios across all four presets — 32-33% for the first resolution step and 42-43% for the second — indicates that the limiting component remains constant regardless of graphical complexity, pointing squarely at the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth as the governing factors.

The minimum and maximum frame data available for Medium settings reinforce this interpretation. At 1080p Medium, the range spans 162 to 219 FPS, a spread of 57 frames. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 109-147 FPS (38 frames), and at 4K Medium, it compresses further to 62-84 FPS (22 frames). As resolution increases, the frame time variance shrinks in absolute terms, which is typical of GPU-bound scenarios where the render thread becomes the pacing mechanism. The system is clearly not CPU-limited at any resolution, as the Core i5-13400F's 10 cores and 16 threads provide ample headroom for an idle-genre title's modest CPU demands.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global ranking of tested CPU-GPU combinations for To The Core, this pairing sits at position 2380 out of 2991 total combos, placing it in the 79.6th percentile of all systems evaluated. This rank reflects the Arc B570's mid-range positioning rather than any deficiency in the Core i5-13400F, as the CPU's own percentile versus all processors is 77th. The combo's raw performance is competitive, but the sheer number of higher-end graphics cards in the test pool pushes it below the top quartile.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 20556 places it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals show extremely tight clustering. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20534, a 0.1% delta in the Arc B570's favor. The Intel Arc A750 scores 20582, representing a -0.1% delta against the B570. The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480) and AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662) round out the comparison group with deltas of 0.4% and -0.5% respectively. This grouping means the Arc B570 is statistically indistinguishable from these competitors in synthetic benchmarks, though the measured FPS in To The Core may diverge based on driver optimizations and API support.

The CPU's nearest rivals tell a similar story of tight competition. The AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS matches the i5-13400F's average score of 25292 with a 0% delta. The Intel Core 5 120 and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D trail by 0.3% (scores of 25362 and 25365 respectively), while the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H leads by 0.4% (25201). None of these differences exceed a fraction of a percent, confirming that the CPU selection has negligible impact on overall system performance in this title. The combo rank is therefore driven almost entirely by the GPU tier, and the B570's position among mid-range cards is well established by the measured data.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture (Battlemage generation) using TSMC's 5 nm process, with a die size of 272 mm² and 19,600 million transistors. Its memory configuration consists of 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective), while the GPU core operates at a fixed 2500 MHz for both base and boost clocks. This constant clock speed simplifies performance prediction, as there is no thermal or power-based boost variability to account for in the measured results.

The memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s appears to be the critical resource for To The Core's resolution scaling behavior. At 1080p, the 165 FPS High result suggests the GPU has sufficient bandwidth to feed the shading units efficiently. At 4K, the 64 FPS High result indicates the pixel fill rate — rated at 200.0 GPixel/s — becomes the binding constraint. The 80 ROPs and 144 TMUs support this interpretation, as the texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s is proportionally higher than the pixel rate, making pixel output the first resource to saturate as resolution climbs.

The FP32 compute throughput of 11.52 TFLOPS (with FP16 at 23.04 TFLOPS via 2:1 ratio) positions the B570 as a capable mid-range part, but the 10 GB VRAM capacity is generous for an idle-genre game with modest texture requirements. The measured FPS data shows no signs of VRAM capacity limitations — even at 4K Ultra, the average of 51 FPS suggests the GPU is compute-bound rather than memory-capacity-bound. The 18 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) provide modern API compatibility, though the benchmark data does not isolate ray tracing workloads separately.

Synthetic benchmarks for the GPU show a mixed profile across different APIs. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649 indicates solid DirectX 12 performance, while Geekbench Vulkan (96844) significantly outperforms Geekbench OpenCL (83514). Passmark results show DirectX 11 (118) leading DirectX 12 (72) and DirectX 10 (65), with DirectX 9 (164) being the highest legacy score. The G2D score of 661 and G3D score of 14195 confirm that 3D rendering dominates the GPU's capabilities, with a GPU compute score of 7281 rounding out the profile. These benchmarks collectively describe a card that excels in modern API workloads but retains compatibility with older rendering paths.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Arc B570 delivers its strongest results across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 225 FPS, Medium reaches 191 FPS (with a measured range of 162-219 FPS), High achieves 165 FPS, and Ultra settles at 133 FPS. The step-down pattern from Low to Ultra is 34 FPS (15.1%) from Low to Medium, 26 FPS (13.6%) from Medium to High, and 32 FPS (19.4%) from High to Ultra. The total penalty for maxing out settings at 1080p is 92 FPS (40.9%) compared to Low.

At 2560x1440, the averages shift downward while maintaining the same ordering. Low yields 152 FPS, Medium produces 128 FPS (range 109-147 FPS), High delivers 111 FPS, and Ultra reaches 89 FPS. The deltas between presets are 24 FPS (15.8%) from Low to Medium, 17 FPS (13.3%) from Medium to High, and 22 FPS (19.8%) from High to Ultra. The total Ultra penalty at 1440p is 63 FPS (41.4%) relative to Low, a nearly identical percentage to the 1080p figure.

At 3840x2160, the system remains playable but the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low averages 87 FPS, Medium reaches 73 FPS (range 62-84 FPS), High achieves 64 FPS, and Ultra drops to 51 FPS. The preset transitions cost 14 FPS (16.1%) from Low to Medium, 9 FPS (12.3%) from Medium to High, and 13 FPS (20.3%) from High to Ultra. The cumulative Ultra penalty at 4K is 36 FPS (41.4%), once again matching the percentage observed at lower resolutions. This consistent ~41% penalty for Ultra over Low across all three resolutions confirms that settings scaling is resolution-independent, reinforcing the GPU-bound analysis.

The Medium preset provides the only complete min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the 162-219 FPS range demonstrates substantial frame variance (35.2% of the average), while 1440p's 109-147 FPS range shows tighter variance (29.7%), and 4K's 62-84 FPS range is the most consistent (30.1%). The narrowing absolute spread at higher resolutions indicates the GPU's render time becomes more predictable as pixel throughput becomes the dominant cost, with less CPU-side scheduling variability entering the equation.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Raptor Lake-S architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process with a die size of 215 mm². Its base clock of 2.50 GHz boosts to 4.60 GHz, and it carries a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and its PCIe Gen 5 interface provides 16 lanes for the GPU and other devices.

In To The Core, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data showing consistent percentage drops that align with GPU-bound behavior. The 3DMark multi-threaded scores illustrate the processor's capability: 7314 with 16 threads, 5591 with 8 threads, 3459 with 4 threads, and 1880 with 2 threads. The single-thread score of 960 and max-thread score of 7307 (slightly below the 16-thread score) indicate strong scaling up to the full thread count. Cinebench results reinforce this, with R23 multicore at 22604 and single-core at 3191, while R20 scores are 8892 and 1255 respectively, and R15 scores are 2278 and 321.

Geekbench scores of 11068 (multicore) and 1996 (singlecore) place the CPU in a solid mid-range position, and Passmark's multithread score of 25032 with a single-thread score of 3634 confirms balanced performance across both lightly and heavily threaded workloads. The Passmark integer math score of 79942 and floating-point math score of 60539 show the CPU's arithmetic capabilities, while data compression (311364) and encryption (16608) scores indicate strong throughput for non-gaming tasks. The find prime numbers score of 83 is notably low, suggesting the CPU's integer performance in specific workloads may not be its strongest suit, but this has no bearing on To The Core's rendering demands.

The CPU's percentile versus all processors (77th) and average benchmark score of 25292 align closely with its nearest rivals, all of which are within 0.4% of its score. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1880 and 4-thread score of 3459 indicate that even lightly threaded workloads — which idle-genre games typically present — are handled with substantial headroom. The 16 available threads ensure that any background tasks or game logic threads will not contend with render thread scheduling, allowing the Arc B570 to operate at its full potential without CPU-related frame pacing issues.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in To The Core?*

A: The data shows 1920x1080 delivers the highest frame rates, with all presets exceeding 133 FPS average. At 2560x1440, even Ultra maintains 89 FPS, while 3840x2160 drops to 51 FPS at Ultra. For the smoothest experience, 1080p is optimal, but 1440p offers a strong balance with all presets staying above 89 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 places it within 0.5% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, +0.1%), Intel Arc A750 (20582, -0.1%), NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, +0.4%), and AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662, -0.5%). These differences are negligible.

Q: Is the Core i5-13400F a bottleneck for the Arc B570 in this game?

A: No, the CPU is not the limiting factor. The resolution scaling shows consistent 32-33% FPS drops from 1080p to 1440p and 42-43% drops from 1440p to 4K across all settings, which is classic GPU-bound behavior. The CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads provide ample headroom.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 4K with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows 73 FPS average at 3840x2160 with Medium settings, with a range of 62 to 84 FPS. This is the only 4K preset with min/max data available, and the 62 FPS minimum remains above the standard 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from Low to Ultra settings?

A: The penalty is remarkably consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra is 92 FPS lower than Low (41% reduction). At 1440p, the difference is 63 FPS (41%). At 4K, it is 36 FPS (41%). This consistency indicates settings scaling affects the GPU uniformly regardless of resolution.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested systems?

A: This specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 2380 out of 2991 tested combos in To The Core, placing it in the 79.6th percentile. The GPU's 65th percentile overall ranking and the CPU's 77th percentile suggest the combo's position is driven primarily by GPU tier rather than CPU capability.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the To The Core experience with this hardware. At 1920x1080, all settings presets exceed 133 FPS average, meaning users can select Ultra without sacrificing smoothness. The 133 FPS Ultra result still provides a high refresh rate experience, and the 92 FPS difference between Ultra and Low (225 FPS) is unlikely to be perceptible on most displays. For users with 144 Hz monitors, Medium (191 FPS) or Low (225 FPS) offers headroom for frame rate spikes, but High (165 FPS) and Ultra (133 FPS) remain viable.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts to High settings as the sweet spot. The 111 FPS average at High provides smooth gameplay while maintaining visual quality, and the 22 FPS gap between High and Ultra (89 FPS) represents a 19.8% performance cost. Medium (128 FPS) is the better choice for users prioritizing frame rate consistency, as its 109 FPS minimum from the measured range still clears the 100 FPS threshold. Low settings at 152 FPS are only advisable for competitive play where maximum responsiveness trumps visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, Medium settings (73 FPS average, 62 FPS minimum) represent the best balance between visual quality and playability. The 62 FPS minimum stays above the 60 FPS baseline, and the 73 FPS average provides a comfortable margin. High settings (64 FPS average) are borderline, with the potential for dips below 60 FPS in demanding scenes. Ultra (51 FPS) and Low (87 FPS) are both suboptimal — Ultra sacrifices too much smoothness, while Low's visual downgrade is not justified when Medium already achieves a playable frame rate. The 10 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at any resolution or preset, so users should focus purely on frame rate targets when selecting settings.