To The Core

To The Core is an idle game that scales with raw compute, and this pairing of the Intel Core i5-14400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers exceptional frame rates across all tested settings. The data shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at lower resolutions, but the CPU's 10-core, 16-thread configuration ensures it never becomes the limiting factor, even when frame rates exceed 400 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS reveals a predictable yet steep decline as resolution increases, which is classic behavior for a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 433.9 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 drops that figure to 290.5 FPS, a reduction of roughly 33%, and at 3840x2160 it falls further to 166.8 FPS, which is about 42% lower than the 1440p result. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4070's pixel throughput is the dominant constraint as resolution climbs.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the spread from Low (433.9 FPS) to Ultra (257.9 FPS) is 176 FPS. At 1440p, that spread narrows to 116.5 FPS (290.5 down to 174), and at 4K it tightens to 68.8 FPS (166.8 down to 98). This compression suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so saturated that even reducing settings from Ultra to Low cannot fully compensate for the sheer pixel count, whereas at 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to let settings dictate performance more freely.

The 4K Ultra result of 98 FPS is notable because it remains well above the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that this combo is viable for high-refresh-rate 4K gaming in this title. However, the 4K Low figure of 166.8 FPS is still lower than the 1440p Ultra result of 174 FPS, which underscores that resolution has a more significant impact on performance than graphical fidelity settings in this workload.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing holds the 422nd position out of 1756 total combos. That places it in the top 24% of all configurations tested for To The Core, which is a strong showing given the game's idle genre and the emphasis on sustained throughput rather than burst performance. The rank reflects a balanced system where neither component is severely mismatched for the task.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 88 versus all CPUs indicates that the i5-14400F sits well above average in synthetic benchmarks, and its average benchmark score of 32508 aligns closely with its nearest rivals. The Intel Core i7-12800H scores 32513, a delta of 0%, while the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 trails at 32446 with a +0.2% delta, and the AMD Ryzen 7 250 leads at 32584 with a -0.2% delta. This clustering means the i5-14400F is effectively performance-equivalent to these mobile and desktop parts, with differences of less than a fraction of a percent.

For the GPU, the RTX 4070's percentile of 81 places it above the majority of graphics cards, and its average benchmark score of 37283 is competitive with its nearest rivals. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 scores 37507, which is a -0.6% delta, while the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A and RTX 4080 Mobile score 38008 and 38135 respectively, representing -1.9% and -2.2% deltas. The AMD Radeon RX 5300M trails at 36371 with a +2.5% delta, showing that the RTX 4070 outperforms it by a small margin.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC, with a chip containing 35,800 million transistors across a 294 mm² die. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at a 192-bit bus width, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is sufficient for the demands of To The Core, as the game's idle mechanics likely rely on consistent memory access rather than massive texture streaming.

The GPU's base clock is 1920 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, and its memory clock is 1313 MHz, translating to 21 Gbps effective. The shading units number 5888, with 184 texture mapping units and 64 ROPs. The pixel rate is 158.4 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 455.4 GTexel/s, which are the figures that directly influence resolution scaling. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (98 FPS) versus 1080p Ultra (257.9 FPS) shows that the pixel rate is the limiting factor, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K while the FPS drops by roughly 62%.

The GPU's FP32 performance is 29.15 TFLOPS, and its tensor cores number 184, which could accelerate any AI-driven features in the game. The board power is rated at 200 W, and the suggested power supply is 550 W, though these figures are not directly correlated with the measured FPS in the data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance at every preset. Low settings produce 433.9 FPS, Medium yields 365.3 FPS, High achieves 318.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 257.9 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 40.6% reduction in frame rate, which is a significant but expected cost for higher fidelity.

At 2560x1440, the results remain high but show a clear step down. Low settings hit 290.5 FPS, Medium reaches 245.7 FPS, High manages 214.8 FPS, and Ultra settles at 174 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 116.5 FPS, which is a smaller absolute gap than at 1080p, but the percentage reduction is similar at 40.1%.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are still playable but the curve flattens. Low settings give 166.8 FPS, Medium offers 137.5 FPS, High provides 120.2 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 98 FPS. The jump from Low to Ultra represents a 41.2% drop, which is consistent with the other resolutions, indicating that the relative cost of Ultra settings is stable regardless of resolution.

The data shows that the 4K Ultra figure of 98 FPS is the only result below 100 FPS, and it remains comfortably playable. The 1080p Low result of 433.9 FPS is the highest recorded, and it demonstrates that this combo can handle extreme refresh rates in esports-style scenarios, even if To The Core is not a typical esports title.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 433.9, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 98, which is still above the standard 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is this system more CPU-limited or GPU-limited?

A: The data indicates a GPU-limited scenario, as frame rates drop by 41-42% when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings, while the CPU's benchmark scores are within 0.2% of its nearest rivals.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 422nd out of 1756 tested combinations, placing it in the top 24% of all configurations.

Q: How much memory does the RTX 4070 have, and what type is it?

A: The RTX 4070 has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory, configured with a 192-bit bus width.

Q: What are the CPU's core and thread counts?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F has 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz.