To The Core

The Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates in To The Core, an idle game that is far more demanding on raw frame throughput than typical titles in the genre. The data shows this pairing is capable of exceeding 200 FPS at 1440p and maintaining triple-digit performance even at 4K, with the CPU’s configuration and the GPU’s architecture both playing distinct roles in these results.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. In the context of To The Core, the CPU’s high boost clock is the more relevant specification, as the game’s mechanics scale heavily with single-thread performance; the processor’s Geekbench single-core score of 2058 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3055 reflect strong per-thread capability.

While the game is classified as idle, the measured frame rates suggest it does not idle in the traditional sense—it continuously processes game logic, updates, and rendering tasks. The 14400F’s 10 cores (6 performance and 4 efficiency) provide ample multi-threaded headroom, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21645, but the average FPS at lower resolutions indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor here. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 355 FPS, a figure that approaches the practical ceiling for many display and engine limitations. This suggests the CPU is feeding the GPU sufficiently fast to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

The processor’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core help reduce memory latency for the game’s frequent data access patterns. With support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus, the platform can be configured to match the game’s bandwidth needs, though the benchmark data does not isolate memory speed as a variable. The 14400F’s percentile rank of 83rd among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32279, places it firmly in the upper tier of desktop processors, and the benchmark results confirm it has enough compute headroom to keep up with the RTX 3070 in this specific workload.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data provides clear guidance on settings selection, with the sweet spot varying by resolution due to the game’s scaling behavior. At 1080p, the Low preset yields 355 FPS, while Medium drops to 300 FPS and High to 260 FPS. The Ultra preset at 209 FPS is still exceptionally smooth, but the incremental fidelity gain from Ultra over High is not justified by the 51 FPS penalty at this resolution. For most users with 144Hz or 165Hz displays, the High preset at 260 FPS provides a comfortable margin above refresh rate while maintaining better visual quality than Low.

At 1440p, the pattern remains consistent: Low produces 239 FPS, Medium 202 FPS, and High 175 FPS. The Medium preset, with its measured minimum of 172 FPS and maximum of 232 FPS, offers a robust experience that stays well above 144Hz throughout the frame time distribution. High at 175 FPS is also viable, but the average is closer to the 144Hz threshold, leaving less headroom for frame-time spikes. The Ultra preset at 141 FPS is borderline for 144Hz displays, as the average dips just below the refresh ceiling.

The recommendation shifts at 4K, where the GPU becomes the primary constraint. Here, High produces 100 FPS, Medium 115 FPS, and Low 136 FPS. The Medium preset is the optimal choice for 4K, as it balances the 115 FPS average with a measured minimum of 98 FPS—a figure that remains playable on 100Hz displays but may show occasional dips on 120Hz panels. Ultra at 81 FPS is playable but noticeably less fluid, and the visual difference from Medium is unlikely to compensate for the 34 FPS drop. Across all resolutions, the data supports Medium as the default recommendation for a balanced experience, with High reserved for users prioritizing fidelity over raw frame rate.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a clear transition from CPU-bound to GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p, the combo achieves 355 FPS on Low, 300 FPS on Medium, and 260 FPS on High. Moving to 1440p, these figures drop to 239, 202, and 175 FPS respectively—a reduction of approximately 33% across all presets. At 4K, the numbers fall further to 136, 115, and 100 FPS, representing another 43% drop from the 1440p results.

The consistency of these percentage drops across different settings suggests that the scaling is primarily driven by pixel count rather than game complexity. Between 1080p and 1440p, the pixel count increases by 78% (from 2.07 million to 3.69 million), yet the FPS drops by only 33%. This indicates that the CPU is still partially limiting performance at 1440p, as the GPU has enough headroom to absorb the additional pixel load without a proportional frame rate loss. The RTX 3070’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle the increased texture and buffer demands at this resolution.

The transition from 1440p to 4K (8.29 million pixels, a 125% increase) results in a 43% FPS drop, which is closer to the expected scaling for a GPU-bound scenario. This shift confirms that the RTX 3070 becomes the limiting component at 4K, while the 14400F remains capable of delivering the required frame data. The gap between Low and Ultra settings also widens at 4K (136 vs 81 FPS, a 55 FPS spread) compared to 1080p (355 vs 209, a 146 FPS spread), further evidence that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination ranks 1601st out of 3725 tested combos in To The Core, placing it in the upper portion of the benchmark database. This rank reflects the combo’s ability to deliver high frame rates across all tested resolutions, though it is not among the top tier of configurations. The percentile positioning suggests that many higher-end GPUs and newer processors can exceed these results, but the 14400F + RTX 3070 pairing offers a strong mid-to-high range performance profile.

Within the CPU’s nearest rivals, the 14400F’s average benchmark score of 32279 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (32233, +0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i9-11900 (32226, +0.2% delta). It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (32354, -0.2% delta) by a negligible margin and leads the Intel Core i7-12800H (32121, +0.5% delta). These close scores indicate that the CPU’s raw compute power is on par with several mobile and desktop alternatives, but the 14400F’s advantage in this game likely comes from its higher boost clock and desktop-class power delivery.

For the GPU, the RTX 3070’s average benchmark score of 17208 places it slightly above the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17083, +0.7% delta) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037, +1% delta). It is also ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (17019, +1.1% delta) but trails the NVIDIA Tesla K40c (17468, -1.5% delta). These rivals are not typically found in gaming rigs, which highlights the RTX 3070’s position as a capable but aging graphics card in the current landscape. The combo’s rank of 1601 out of 3725 suggests that while many configurations outperform it, it sits comfortably ahead of the median tested system.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture using Samsung’s 8 nm process, with a die size of 392 mm² containing 17,400 million transistors. Its base clock of 1500 MHz boosts to 1725 MHz, while the 8 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at an effective 14 Gbps across a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. For To The Core, the GPU’s 5888 shading units and 96 ROPs are the primary drivers of rasterization performance, and the 184 texture units handle the game’s texture-heavy idle visuals.

The GPU’s 61st percentile rank among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17208, indicates it sits in the upper-middle tier of graphics cards. Its DirectX 12 performance, measured at 85 in Passmark, is notably lower than its DirectX 11 score of 182, which could impact games that rely heavily on DX12 features. However, To The Core does not appear to be one such title, as the measured FPS remains high across all settings. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for this game’s demands, even at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS of 81 suggests the GPU is compute-limited rather than memory-limited.

The RTX 3070’s FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS provides ample compute throughput for the game’s simulation and rendering tasks. The GPU’s 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores are present but likely unused in an idle game that does not employ ray tracing or DLSS. The 220 W TDP and dual-slot form factor are typical for this performance class, and the PCIe 4.0 x16 interface ensures sufficient bandwidth for data transfer with the 14400F’s Gen 5, 16-lane CPU connection.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 3840x2160 (4K), the Ultra preset delivers an average of 81 FPS, while High reaches 100 FPS. Medium produces 115 FPS with a minimum of 98 and maximum of 133, and Low achieves 136 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 55 FPS, indicating that the GPU is heavily taxed at this resolution, particularly at higher quality settings.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the Ultra preset averages 141 FPS, High 175 FPS, and Medium 202 FPS with a minimum of 172 and maximum of 232. Low reaches 239 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 98 FPS, showing that the GPU has more headroom at this resolution. The Medium preset’s minimum of 172 FPS is particularly notable, as it remains above 144Hz even during frame rate dips.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the Ultra preset averages 209 FPS, High 260 FPS, and Medium 300 FPS with a minimum of 255 and maximum of 345. Low achieves 355 FPS. The 146 FPS spread between Low and Ultra is the largest of any resolution, confirming that the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p, as the GPU can render low-quality frames faster than the processor can feed them.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently offers the best balance of average FPS and minimum frame stability, with the 4K Medium result of 115 FPS representing the only sub-144Hz average outside of the 4K High and Ultra settings. The data also shows that the game scales predictably with resolution, with each step from 1080p to 1440p to 4K producing a roughly 30-40% reduction in frame rate for equivalent settings.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1440p Medium as the optimal balance, delivering 202 FPS with a minimum of 172 FPS. At 4K, the frame rates drop to 115 FPS on Medium, which is still playable but below 144Hz.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: Benchmark results indicate the CPU is the limiting component at 1080p, as the FPS difference between Low (355) and Ultra (209) is 146 FPS, suggesting the GPU has headroom that the processor cannot fully utilize.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 3070 has an average benchmark score of 17208, which is 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17083) and 1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037), but 1.5% lower than the NVIDIA Tesla K40c (17468).

Q: Does the 14400F’s 10-core configuration matter for this game?

A: The multi-core score of 21645 in Cinebench R23 shows strong parallel performance, but the game appears more dependent on single-thread speed, as the 3055 single-core score correlates with high frame rates at 1080p.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Low averages 136 FPS while Ultra averages 81 FPS, a difference of 55 FPS. This large spread indicates the GPU is heavily stressed by higher quality settings at 4K.

Q: How does this combo rank overall in the benchmark database?

A: It ranks 1601st out of 3725 tested combinations, placing it in the upper portion of results but below top-tier configurations. The CPU ranks in the 83rd percentile while the GPU ranks in the 61st percentile.