To The Core

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 delivers a playable experience across all tested settings in To The Core, but the performance curve reveals a system that is firmly GPU-limited at higher resolutions. This combination ranks in the 1432nd position out of 1756 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. The data shows a clear pattern: at 1080p, the system produces high frame rates that suggest CPU headroom, but as resolution increases, the RTX 2060 becomes the dominant constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable decline as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that decline is telling. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 240.7 FPS, while at 4K with Low settings, it drops to 91.7 FPS—a reduction of roughly 62%. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the frame rate drop is far steeper than what would be expected from a CPU-bound scenario.

The transition from 1080p to 1440p at High settings shows a drop from 177.9 FPS to 117.2 FPS, a 34% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K at the same settings yields a further reduction to 67.8 FPS, another 42% drop. These steep declines point to the RTX 2060's memory bandwidth and compute resources being saturated as pixel count increases. The 6 GB VRAM capacity and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth become increasingly relevant at 4K, where texture and buffer demands strain the GPU.

Interestingly, the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens significantly at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the spread between Low (240.7 FPS) and Ultra (143.9 FPS) is about 67%. At 4K, the same comparison shows Low at 91.7 FPS versus Ultra at 56 FPS—a 64% difference. This consistency suggests that the GPU is handling both resolution and settings load in a linear fashion, with no evidence of CPU bottlenecks even at the lowest settings and highest frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 1432 out of 1756, this pairing sits in the 81st percentile of tested configurations—meaning roughly 81% of all tested combos outperform it. This ranking is consistent with the hardware's age and tier: the Core i5-14400F is a current-generation 10-core, 16-thread processor, while the RTX 2060 is an end-of-life GPU from the GeForce 20-series.

The CPU's benchmark data shows it performing competitively with its nearest rivals. In the Cinebench R23 multi-core test, the i5-14400F scores 21914 points, which places it within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 7 250 (32584 avg score) and the Intel Core i7-13705H (32586 avg score). The CPU's 88th percentile ranking among all processors indicates strong compute capability that is not the limiting factor in this combo.

The GPU, however, tells a different story. The RTX 2060 holds a 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16074. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, scores 15996 (0.5% higher), while the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 scores 16351 (1.7% higher). These close margins suggest the RTX 2060 is performing at the expected level for its class, but that class is simply below the median of modern GPUs.

GPU Role

The RTX 2060's specifications directly explain its performance ceiling in To The Core. Built on the Turing architecture with a 12 nm process, it features 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). These clocks are modest by modern standards, contributing to the GPU's 6.451 TFLOPS FP32 performance.

The 6 GB GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In a game like To The Core, which is an idle genre title, the visual demands are not extreme, but the data shows that 4K Ultra still pushes the GPU to its limits at 56 FPS. The 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are present but are not likely to be heavily utilized in an idle game, meaning raw rasterization performance is what matters here.

The GPU's PassMark DirectX 11 score of 110 and DirectX 12 score of 53 indicate that the card handles modern APIs but is not exceptional in either. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1242 further contextualizes its performance. The GPU's 58th percentile ranking versus all GPUs means it sits just above the median, which aligns with the observed frame rates in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combo delivers strong performance across all settings. Low settings produce 240.7 FPS, Medium reaches 204.2 FPS, High drops to 177.9 FPS, and Ultra still manages 143.9 FPS. These numbers indicate that the system is not CPU-bound at this resolution, as even the highest settings maintain frame rates well above 144 Hz thresholds.

Moving to 1440p, the performance remains solid but the GPU load becomes more apparent. Low settings yield 164.2 FPS, Medium hits 137.8 FPS, High achieves 117.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 93.9 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is roughly 32-35%, which is consistent with the pixel count increase of 78%—the sub-linear scaling suggests the GPU has some headroom at 1080p that gets absorbed at 1440p.

At 4K, the RTX 2060 is clearly the limiting component. Low settings produce 91.7 FPS, Medium drops to 76.2 FPS, High falls to 67.8 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 56 FPS. The 4K to 1440p scaling is steeper, with frame rates dropping by 44-45% across settings, which closely matches the 2.25x pixel count increase. This confirms that the GPU is fully saturated at 4K, with no CPU overhead remaining.

The minimum and maximum FPS values are not provided in the data, so the analysis relies solely on average frame rates. The consistency of the scaling pattern across settings and resolutions suggests stable performance without major frame pacing issues.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1440p as the optimal balance. At High settings, the combo achieves 117.2 FPS, which is smooth, while 4K High drops to 67.8 FPS. For maximum frame rates, 1080p Low hits 240.7 FPS, but 1440p offers a better visual-to-performance tradeoff.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The Core i5-14400F scores in the 88th percentile of all CPUs with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21914, while the RTX 2060 sits in the 58th percentile. The steep frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K confirm GPU saturation.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 16074, which is 0.5% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 7600S (15996) and 1.7% lower than both the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700 (16351). It outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15786) by 1.8%.

Q: Can this combo handle Ultra settings at 4K?

A: Yes, but barely. The measured average FPS at 4K Ultra is 56 FPS, which is playable but below the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p Ultra, the combo achieves 93.9 FPS, providing a more comfortable margin.

Q: What is the CPU's multi-core performance relative to its peers?

A: The i5-14400F scores 21914 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. This places it within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446) and essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513), based on average benchmark scores.

Q: Does the 6 GB VRAM limit performance in this game?

A: The 6 GB GDDR6 memory with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for To The Core at 1080p and 1440p, where frame rates remain high. At 4K, the GPU's compute limits—not necessarily VRAM capacity—are the primary constraint, as shown by the 56 FPS Ultra result.