To The Core

FAQ

Q: What kind of performance can I expect from this combo at 1080p?

A: The data shows this pairing is exceptionally strong at 1920x1080. Average FPS ranges from 291 on Low settings down to 172 on Ultra, with High and Medium landing at 213 and 246 FPS respectively. Even the most demanding preset keeps average framerates well above typical high-refresh display targets.

Q: How does this combo handle 1440p gaming?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS stays comfortably high across all presets. Low settings produce 196 FPS, High yields 143 FPS, and even Ultra maintains 115 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 141 FPS and a maximum of 190 FPS, indicating solid consistency for competitive play.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with the RTX 2070 SUPER and i5-14400F?

A: Yes, but with compromises. At 3840x2160, Ultra settings drop to 66 FPS average, while High settings reach 82 FPS. Medium settings provide a more balanced 95 FPS average with a documented minimum of 80 FPS, and Low settings push to 112 FPS. For smooth 4K gameplay, sticking to Medium or High is advisable.

Q: What is the most balanced preset for this game?

A: The Medium preset appears to offer the best trade-off between visual quality and performance across all resolutions. It consistently delivers higher average FPS than High or Ultra while maintaining playable minimums, such as 80 FPS at 4K and 141 FPS at 1440p.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: Out of 3725 tested combos for "To The Core," this pairing ranks 2146th. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, which is notable given its strong FPS numbers—suggesting that many other combos achieve even higher framerates in this specific title.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck performance in this game?

A: The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions. While the i5-14400F provides substantial headroom with its multi-threaded capabilities, the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM and Turing architecture become limiting factors as resolution increases, particularly at Ultra settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium as the optimal preset for this combo. At 1920x1080, Medium produces 246 FPS average with a minimum of 209 FPS—a 33 FPS improvement over High while still delivering framerates far beyond what most displays can show. The jump from Medium to High costs 33 FPS at 1080p, and the jump from High to Ultra costs another 41 FPS, making Ultra a poor trade-off for marginal visual gains.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats. Medium delivers 165 FPS average with a 141 FPS minimum, while High drops to 143 FPS and Ultra falls to 115 FPS. The 22 FPS difference between Medium and High at 1440p is more significant for maintaining smooth gameplay on high-refresh monitors. For competitive play, Low settings at 1440p yield 196 FPS, which is beneficial for maximizing responsiveness.

At 3840x2160, Medium becomes the clear recommendation. It provides 95 FPS average with an 80 FPS minimum, while High drops to 82 FPS and Ultra falls to 66 FPS. Low settings at 4K reach 112 FPS, but the visual degradation is likely too severe for most users. The data suggests that Medium at 4K offers the best balance, keeping framerates above the 60 FPS threshold while preserving reasonable visual fidelity.

For users prioritizing maximum framerates over visuals, Low settings at 1440p or 1080p are the way to go, with 196 FPS and 291 FPS respectively. However, the Medium preset provides a more complete experience, particularly since it is the only preset with documented minimum and maximum FPS values, indicating it was tested more thoroughly and likely represents the intended balance point for this hardware combination.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU104 chip manufactured on TSMC's 12 nm process. It features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units, along with 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1605 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, delivering 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance.

Memory configuration consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock is rated at 1750 MHz, translating to 14 Gbps effective. This bandwidth proves adequate for most scenarios in "To The Core," but the 8 GB VRAM capacity becomes a consideration at higher resolutions and Ultra settings, where texture data demands increase.

The GPU's pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for this idle-style game. Benchmark scores place the RTX 2070 SUPER in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20282. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M at 20480 (1% higher), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at 20534 (1.2% higher), Intel Arc B570 at 20556 (1.3% higher), and Intel Arc A750 at 20582 (1.5% higher). These close margins indicate the RTX 2070 SUPER remains competitive despite its end-of-life production status.

The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure it can handle modern rendering features. Its power requirements include a 215 W TDP with a suggested 550 W PSU, and it uses a dual-slot design with one 6-pin and one 8-pin power connector. The card measures 267 mm in length, making it compatible with most mid-tower cases.

In the context of this game's results, the GPU shows clear scaling with resolution changes. At 1080p, the card pushes framerates well above 200 FPS on most presets, indicating CPU-side limitations may start to appear. At 1440p, framerates remain high but start to show more GPU-bound behavior. At 4K, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck, with Ultra settings dropping to 66 FPS average. The 8 GB VRAM likely contributes to the performance drop at 4K Ultra, as texture memory requirements exceed the card's capacity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 291 FPS average
• Medium: 246 FPS average, 209 FPS minimum, 283 FPS maximum
• High: 213 FPS average
• Ultra: 172 FPS average

At 1080p, this combo operates in a performance sweet spot. Low settings approach 300 FPS, which is beyond the refresh rate of most gaming monitors. Medium maintains over 200 FPS even at its documented minimum, ensuring smooth gameplay without frame drops. High and Ultra still deliver excellent results, with only a 41 FPS difference between the two—both well above typical display capabilities.

2560x1440:

• Low: 196 FPS average
• Medium: 165 FPS average, 141 FPS minimum, 190 FPS maximum
• High: 143 FPS average
• Ultra: 115 FPS average

At 1440p, the combo shows a more pronounced scaling curve. Low settings remain above 190 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh competitive play. Medium provides a 165 FPS average with a 141 FPS minimum, indicating solid consistency. High drops to 143 FPS, still above 140 FPS, while Ultra falls to 115 FPS—a 28 FPS reduction from High. The step from Medium to High costs 22 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs another 28 FPS.

3840x2160:

• Low: 112 FPS average
• Medium: 95 FPS average, 80 FPS minimum, 109 FPS maximum
• High: 82 FPS average
• Ultra: 66 FPS average

At 4K, the GPU's limitations become evident. Low settings maintain 112 FPS, which is respectable for 4K. Medium provides 95 FPS with an 80 FPS minimum, keeping gameplay above 60 FPS. High drops to 82 FPS, while Ultra falls to 66 FPS—the only preset at any resolution to dip below the 70 FPS mark. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 46 FPS, showing the significant performance cost of higher visual settings at this resolution.

The Medium preset is the only one with full min/max data across all resolutions, with values of 209/283 at 1080p, 141/190 at 1440p, and 80/109 at 4K. This suggests Medium is the most stable preset, with frame pacing that maintains consistent performance during gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 2146th out of 3725 tested combinations in "To The Core." This places it in the 42nd percentile of all tested combos, meaning roughly 58% of configurations achieve better performance in this game.

This ranking might seem surprising given the high FPS numbers, but it reflects the nature of the game and the hardware landscape. "To The Core" is an idle game, which may not be heavily GPU-bound. Many newer GPUs with higher memory bandwidth and more substantial compute resources likely achieve even higher framerates, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU can feed frames faster.

The CPU component of this combo ranks in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32279. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U at 32233 (0.1% lower), Intel Core i9-11900 at 32226 (0.2% lower), AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS at 32354 (0.2% higher), and Intel Core i7-12800H at 32121 (0.5% lower). This indicates the i5-14400F is a strong performer, capable of feeding high frame rates in most scenarios.

The GPU component ranks in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20282. Its nearest rivals show a tight grouping, with the RTX 2070 SUPER trailing the Quadro M4000M, RTX 3070 Mobile, Arc B570, and Arc A750 by margins of 1% to 1.5%. This suggests the GPU is the limiting factor in the combo's overall ranking, as its relative performance is lower than the CPU's.

The gap between the CPU's 83rd percentile and the GPU's 65th percentile indicates a potential imbalance. The i5-14400F has more headroom than the RTX 2070 SUPER can utilize in this game, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU-bound scenarios might be more common. Upgrading to a more powerful GPU would likely improve the combo's ranking significantly, while a CPU upgrade would yield diminishing returns.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process node. It features a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU uses the Intel Socket 1700 and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration.

Cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor supports ECC memory and provides PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes for the CPU. It has no integrated graphics, requiring a discrete GPU. The CPU was released on January 7, 2024, and remains in active production.

Benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21645, single-core score of 3055, and Geekbench multi-core score of 11268 with a single-core score of 2058. Passmark multi-thread score is 25470, with a single-thread score of 3701. The average benchmark score of 32279 places it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs.

In "To The Core," the CPU's role appears to be supportive rather than limiting at most settings. The game is an idle genre title, which typically involves less demanding CPU workloads than action games. However, the high frame rates observed at 1080p—up to 291 FPS on Low—suggest the CPU can handle even extreme frame production scenarios.

The 10-core configuration with 16 threads provides ample parallel processing capability, which is beneficial for background tasks and game logic. The boost clock of 4.70 GHz ensures strong single-threaded performance, which is often more critical for game physics and simulation.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores—the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U, Intel Core i9-11900, AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS, and Intel Core i7-12800H—are all within 0.5% of its average score. This indicates the i5-14400F is competitively positioned in its performance class, with no single rival offering a significant advantage.

The combination of 10 cores, 16 threads, and a 4.70 GHz boost clock provides sufficient headroom for this game at all tested resolutions. The data shows consistent frame delivery even at 4K, where the GPU becomes the bottleneck. Users with higher-refresh displays will benefit from the CPU's ability to push high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, while those gaming at 4K should focus GPU upgrades to improve performance.