To The Core

# To The Core with Intel Core i5-14400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 lands at rank 226 out of 3,725 tested combos in To The Core, placing it comfortably in the top 6% of all configurations evaluated for this title. This is an exceptionally strong result for an idle game, indicating that the hardware combination delivers far more headroom than the genre typically demands. The combo's percentile placement reflects a system that is overbuilt for the workload, yet the measured frame rates confirm that the pairing translates its raw component strength into tangible performance gains across every resolution and settings tier tested.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 226 out of 3,725 tested combinations is a decisive statement about its capability in To The Core. Being in the top 6% of all tested pairings means this system outperforms the overwhelming majority of configurations that have been benchmarked for this game. The ranking is particularly notable given the game's idle genre classification, where high-refresh-rate displays and maximum settings are often considered secondary to raw computational efficiency. The data shows that this pairing does not merely meet expectations; it exceeds them by a substantial margin, placing it among the elite setups for this title.

When examining the individual components' benchmark standings, the synergy becomes clearer. The RTX 4080 holds the 86th percentile among all GPUs, while the Core i5-14400F sits at the 83rd percentile among all CPUs. Both components are near the top of their respective hierarchies, and their combination yields a result that is greater than the sum of its parts in this specific game. The GPU's average benchmark score of 54,247 places it within 0.1% of the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209), showing that this card is effectively trading blows with its immediate successor in synthetic tests. The CPU's average score of 32,279 puts it 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U and 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i9-11900, while trailing the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS by just 0.2% and the Intel Core i7-12800H by 0.5%.

The rank 226 placement is not an outlier driven by a single resolution or settings combination. Across all four measured resolutions — 1080p, 1440p, and 4K — and all four settings presets — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — the system maintains frame rates that are consistently in the triple digits at worst. This consistency is what boosts the combo's rank; it does not excel at one configuration while faltering at another. Instead, it delivers uniformly high performance, which is a hallmark of a well-balanced pairing where neither component becomes a persistent bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant force in this pairing, and its specifications explain why it drives To The Core to such high frame rates. The GPU is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with a transistor count of 45,900 million on a 379 mm² die. It operates with a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, which are relatively high for a card of this class and contribute directly to its ability to sustain high output in less demanding titles.

Memory capacity and bandwidth are critical for modern games, and the RTX 4080 does not disappoint. It comes equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. For To The Core, an idle game that does not typically require massive texture memory, this 16 GB allocation is more than sufficient. The effective memory clock of 22.4 Gbps ensures that data transfer is never a limiting factor, even at 4K resolution where memory pressure is highest. The GPU's pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s further underscore its capacity to handle high-resolution rendering without stutter.

The RTX 4080's compute capabilities are equally impressive. It features 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster operation units. The 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores enable advanced features, though To The Core's idle genre is unlikely to leverage ray tracing or DLSS heavily. The FP32 performance of 48.74 TFLOPS provides ample raw computational power for any physics or simulation calculations the game might require. The GPU's percentile rank of 86 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,247, places it just 0.1% behind the RTX 4080 SUPER and 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, confirming its position as a top-tier graphics solution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F serves as the central processing unit in this combo, and while it may be overshadowed by the GPU in gaming scenarios, its specifications reveal why it does not bottleneck the system. This CPU is based on the Raptor Lake architecture, specifically the Raptor Lake-R refresh, and is manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It features 10 cores and 16 threads, which is a hybrid configuration that balances performance and efficiency cores for multitasking and threaded workloads. The base clock is 2.50 GHz, with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, providing a substantial single-thread performance headroom that is crucial for games that rely on a few fast cores.

The cache hierarchy is robust, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and a shared 20 MB L3 cache. This cache structure ensures that frequently accessed data is kept close to the processing cores, reducing latency and improving overall responsiveness. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory, offering flexibility in system configuration, and its 65 W TDP indicates efficient power consumption despite its performance capabilities. The CPU's benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21,645 and a single-core score of 3,055, which are strong figures for a mid-range desktop processor.

In the context of To The Core, the CPU's role is to manage the game's logic, AI, and background processes. The 16 threads provide ample parallelism for any idle game mechanics that might run in the background, such as resource generation or timer-based events. The CPU's percentile rank of 83 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32,279, places it in the upper echelon of processors. Its nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U and Intel Core i9-11900, are within 0.2% of its score, indicating that this CPU punches well above its price class. The single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R15 single-core score of 307, ensures that the game's primary rendering thread is never starved for processing power.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo reveal a system that is capable of extreme performance across all tested configurations. At 1080p, the lowest resolution tested, the frame rates are nothing short of staggering. With Low settings, the system achieves an average of 552 FPS. Moving to Medium settings, the average drops to 467 FPS, with a minimum of 397 FPS and a maximum of 537 FPS. High settings yield an average of 405 FPS, while Ultra settings still manage an impressive 326 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is almost certainly limited by the CPU or game engine rather than the GPU, as the frame rates far exceed what most displays can even show.

At 1440p, the performance scales predictably but remains exceptionally high. Low settings produce an average of 371 FPS, while Medium settings deliver 314 FPS on average, with a minimum of 267 FPS and a maximum of 361 FPS. High settings drop to 272 FPS, and Ultra settings still maintain a robust 219 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p shows a performance reduction of roughly 33% at Low settings, which is expected as the GPU takes on more rendering work. However, the frame rates remain well above the 144 Hz refresh rate that many high-end monitors offer, making this resolution a sweet spot for competitive or high-refresh gaming.

At 4K, the ultimate test for any GPU, the RTX 4080 continues to deliver playable and often exceptional frame rates. Low settings yield an average of 212 FPS, which is remarkable for 4K. Medium settings reduce this to 180 FPS on average, with a minimum of 153 FPS and a maximum of 207 FPS. High settings maintain an average of 156 FPS, while Ultra settings still manage 125 FPS. These figures demonstrate that the RTX 4080 is powerful enough to drive To The Core at 4K with high refresh rates, even at the most demanding settings. The minimum frame rate of 153 FPS at 4K Medium indicates that the system rarely dips below the 144 Hz threshold, ensuring smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about which component is the limiting factor at each resolution. At 1080p, the frame rates are so high — ranging from 326 FPS at Ultra to 552 FPS at Low — that the GPU is likely not fully utilized. The CPU's single-thread performance becomes the primary constraint, as the game's logic and draw calls cannot be processed fast enough to feed the GPU more work. This is evident in the relatively small performance gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings, where the average drops from 552 FPS to 371 FPS, a reduction of 32.8%.

As resolution increases to 1440p, the GPU begins to take on more responsibility. The frame rate drop from 1080p to 1440p at High settings is from 405 FPS to 272 FPS, a 32.8% reduction, which is consistent with the increased pixel count. However, even at 1440p, the system is still delivering frame rates that are far above typical display refresh rates, suggesting that the GPU has significant headroom remaining. The transition from 1440p to 4K at High settings brings the average from 272 FPS down to 156 FPS, a 42.6% reduction, which indicates that the GPU is now the primary bottleneck as the pixel count quadruples.

The scaling pattern at Ultra settings is particularly telling. From 1080p (326 FPS) to 1440p (219 FPS), the drop is 32.8%, and from 1440p to 4K (125 FPS), the drop is 42.9%. This larger drop at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is becoming increasingly constrained by the rendering load. The fact that the system still achieves 125 FPS at 4K Ultra confirms the RTX 4080's raw power. The data suggests that for maximum efficiency, players should target 1440p or 4K with this combo, as the GPU is better utilized at these resolutions, while at 1080p, the system is over-equipped for the task.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the user's display and performance priorities. For 4K displays, the High preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with an average of 156 FPS. This is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate that many high-end 4K monitors support, and it provides a significant visual improvement over the Medium preset, which averages 180 FPS but lacks the higher-quality textures and effects. The Ultra preset at 4K, while delivering a still-playable 125 FPS, sacrifices too much performance for the marginal visual gains, making High the recommended choice for immersive 4K gaming.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is the sweet spot for competitive play, delivering an average of 314 FPS with a minimum of 267 FPS. This ensures that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate never dips below the 240 Hz refresh rate that some esports monitors offer. The High preset at 1440p, averaging 272 FPS, is also excellent and provides better visual fidelity, but the Medium preset's higher minimum frame rate makes it the safer choice for players who prioritize consistency. For those with 240 Hz or higher refresh rate displays, the Low preset at 371 FPS is the only option that fully saturates the display's capabilities, but the visual downgrade may not be worth it for an idle game.

For 1080p displays, the system is so powerful that any settings preset will deliver exceptional frame rates. The Ultra preset at 326 FPS is the recommended choice, as it provides the best visual experience while still maintaining frame rates that far exceed any display's refresh rate. The Medium preset at 467 FPS is unnecessary unless the user has a 480 Hz display, which is rare. The data indicates that this combo is best utilized at higher resolutions or with maximum settings, as the GPU's capabilities are wasted at 1080p with lower presets.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo overkill for an idle game like To The Core?*

A: The benchmark data indicates yes. The combo ranks 226th out of 3,725 tested configurations, placing it in the top 6%. At 1080p Low settings, it achieves 552 FPS, which is far beyond what any display can show. Even at 4K Ultra, it maintains 125 FPS, demonstrating that this hardware is far more capable than the game requires.

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this combo?

A: Based on the measured FPS, 1440p and 4K are the optimal resolutions. At 1440p High, the system delivers 272 FPS, and at 4K High, it delivers 156 FPS. Both are well above 144 Hz refresh rates. At 1080p, the GPU is not fully utilized, as evidenced by the 552 FPS at Low settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its closest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54,247, which is 0.1% lower than the RTX 4080 SUPER's score of 54,209. This means the two cards are virtually identical in performance, with the RTX 4080 trailing by a negligible margin.

Q: Can this system handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average of 125 FPS. While this is lower than at High settings (156 FPS), it is still well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and even exceeds 120 Hz for high-refresh 4K monitors.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-14400F a bottleneck at any resolution?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as frame rates exceed 500 FPS at Low settings, indicating the GPU is not fully saturated. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, as evidenced by the larger frame rate drops at higher resolutions. The CPU's 83rd percentile ranking supports its adequacy for this task.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate at 4K Medium settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the minimum measured frame rate is 153 FPS, with an average of 180 FPS and a maximum of 207 FPS. This ensures that even the most demanding scenes remain fluid.