To The Core

FAQ

Q: What frame rates can this combo achieve at 1080p in To The Core?

A: At 1920x1080, the Intel Core i5-14600K with the RTX 2060 delivers an average of 241 FPS on Low settings, 204 FPS on Medium, 176 FPS on High, and 142 FPS on Ultra settings.

Q: How does this system perform at 1440p compared to 1080p?

A: At 2560x1440, average frame rates drop to 162 FPS on Low, 137 FPS on Medium, 119 FPS on High, and 95 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p reduces performance by roughly 33% on Low, 33% on Medium, 32% on High, and 33% on Ultra.

Q: Is the RTX 2060's 6GB VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming in this title?

A: The data shows playable results at 3840x2160, with average FPS of 93 on Low, 78 on Medium, 68 on High, and 55 on Ultra. The 6GB GDDR6 memory with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth handles this idle-genre title well, though the Ultra preset dips below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the ranking of this specific CPU-GPU combination among all tested setups?

A: This combo ranks 2938 out of 3725 tested combinations in To The Core, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. The GPU's 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs and the CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs show a significant imbalance favoring the processor.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in raw benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290, nearly identical to the GTX 580 at 15283 (0% delta), AMD Radeon 680M at 15270 (0.1% delta), RTX 3050 OEM at 15199 (0.6% delta), and AMD Radeon RX 7600 at 15171 (0.8% delta). All five GPUs sit within 0.8% of each other.

Q: What CPU benchmark scores does the i5-14600K produce?

A: The CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 and single-core score of 2064, a Geekbench multi-core score of 16673 and single-core score of 2491, and a Passmark multi-thread score of 38682 with a single-thread score of 4270.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the limiting factor in this pairing, and the data makes that clear. With 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus delivering 336.0 GB/s bandwidth, this Turing-architecture card (TU106 chip on TSMC's 12 nm process) operates at a base clock of 1365 MHz and boosts to 1680 MHz. The 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs produce 6.451 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, which is modest by modern standards.

In To The Core, an idle-genre title, the GPU's performance profile dictates the frame rate ceiling. At 1080p Low settings, the card pushes 241 FPS average, suggesting it has headroom left. But the 6 GB VRAM capacity and 192-bit memory interface become more relevant at higher resolutions. The measured FPS data shows the card's scaling behavior: at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 55 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS playability threshold. The 4K Medium preset produces 78 FPS average with a 67 FPS minimum and 90 FPS maximum, indicating the card can handle 4K with reduced settings.

The RTX 2060's 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the middle of the pack. Its nearest rivals—the GTX 580, AMD Radeon 680M, RTX 3050 OEM, and RX 7600—all score within 0.8% of each other, showing that this performance tier is crowded. The DirectX 12 Passmark score of 53 and DirectX 11 score of 110 reflect the card's age, though the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1242 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 65846 demonstrate it remains functional for modern APIs.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2938 out of 3725 tested combos in To The Core. This places the pairing in the bottom 21% of all tested configurations, which is surprising given the CPU's strength. The data suggests that the GPU bottlenecks the system severely, preventing the processor from expressing its full potential.

This ranking disparity becomes more meaningful when examining the individual components. The i5-14600K sits in the 90th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48618. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698, -0.2% delta), AMD EPYC 4345P (48470, 0.3% delta), Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX (48287, 0.7% delta), and Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (48995, -0.8% delta). The CPU is firmly in high-end territory.

The RTX 2060, by contrast, sits in the 58th percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 15290. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.8% of its score, showing that it clusters with mid-range and older hardware. The combination of a 90th-percentile CPU with a 58th-percentile GPU creates an imbalanced system that ranks where it does because the GPU governs frame output in this game.

The measured FPS data confirms this imbalance. At 1080p Low, the system produces 241 FPS, which is high but not exceptional for a system with this CPU. The performance drop from Low to Ultra at any resolution is substantial: at 1080p, it drops from 241 to 142 FPS (41% reduction); at 1440p, from 162 to 95 FPS (41% reduction); at 4K, from 93 to 55 FPS (41% reduction). This consistent reduction across resolutions points to GPU-bound performance scaling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of this combo's performance across twelve configurations. At 1920x1080, the system achieves its highest frame rates: 241 FPS average on Low, 204 FPS on Medium (with 173 minimum and 234 maximum), 176 FPS on High, and 142 FPS on Ultra. All 1080p presets exceed 140 FPS, making this resolution entirely playable on any display.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages remain strong: 162 FPS on Low, 137 FPS on Medium (with 116 minimum and 157 maximum), 119 FPS on High, and 95 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p results show that even the most demanding preset stays above 90 FPS, which is comfortable for most gaming scenarios. The Medium preset's minimum of 116 FPS indicates smooth frame delivery without significant dips.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes more varied. The Low preset produces 93 FPS average, Medium produces 78 FPS (with 67 minimum and 90 maximum), High produces 68 FPS, and Ultra drops to 55 FPS. The 4K results reveal the GPU's limitations: while Low through High settings remain playable, Ultra falls below the 60 FPS threshold. The frame consistency at 4K Medium (67 FPS minimum) suggests the card can maintain playable performance if settings are moderated.

The pattern across all resolutions shows consistent scaling between presets. The difference between Low and Medium settings is approximately 15-16% at each resolution (241 to 204 at 1080p, 162 to 137 at 1440p, 93 to 78 at 4K). The difference between High and Ultra is approximately 19-20% (176 to 142 at 1080p, 119 to 95 at 1440p, 68 to 55 at 4K). This consistency indicates that the game's settings scale predictably regardless of resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals critical information about which component limits performance. At Low settings, the system produces 241 FPS at 1080p, 162 FPS at 1440p, and 93 FPS at 4K. That represents a 33% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 43% reduction from 1440p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the numbers are 142 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K—a 33% drop then a 42% drop.

These scaling patterns indicate that the GPU is the limiting factor. When resolution increases, the rendering load on the GPU grows proportionally, and the frame rate drops accordingly. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the frame rates to remain relatively flat across resolutions, since the CPU workload doesn't change significantly with resolution. Instead, the consistent reduction in FPS as resolution increases points to the RTX 2060 being unable to keep up with the growing pixel count.

The data at 4K Ultra (55 FPS) versus 1080p Ultra (142 FPS) shows a 61% reduction in performance. This magnitude of drop is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the card's 6 GB VRAM and 192-bit memory interface become strained. The 4K Medium result (78 FPS average, 67 FPS minimum) suggests that the card can handle 4K if settings are reduced by one tier from maximum.

The resolution scaling also confirms that the i5-14600K is not the limiting factor in this game. At 1080p Low, the system produces 241 FPS, which is far below what the CPU's 90th-percentile ranking would suggest it could support. The CPU's high single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2064, Passmark single-thread score of 4270) is more than sufficient for this idle-genre title, but the GPU prevents the system from reaching higher frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It operates at a 3.50 GHz base clock and boosts to 5.30 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and includes UHD Graphics 770 integrated graphics.

In To The Core, the CPU's role is secondary but not negligible. The game's idle genre typically doesn't demand extreme CPU resources, but the i5-14600K's benchmark scores show it is more than capable. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 and single-core score of 2064 place it among strong performers. The Geekbench scores (16673 multi-core, 2491 single-core) and Passmark results (38682 multi-thread, 4270 single-thread) corroborate this assessment.

The CPU's 90th-percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48618, shows it is a high-end processor. Its nearest rivals—the Xeon Gold 5318H, EPYC 4345P, Core Ultra 5 245HX, and Core Ultra 5 245—are all within 0.8% of its score, indicating that the i5-14600K performs at the level of server and newer desktop chips. The Passmark data compression score of 482020 and encryption score of 27533 demonstrate strong computational throughput.

However, in this specific game, the CPU's capabilities are largely underutilized. The frame rates are consistently limited by the RTX 2060, as shown by the resolution scaling analysis. The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom for any background tasks or future game updates, but they don't translate into higher frame rates here because the GPU is the bottleneck.

The CPU's integrated UHD Graphics 770 could serve as a fallback, but the data shows the discrete GPU handles all rendering. The i5-14600K's support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory gives builders flexibility, and its unlocked multiplier allows overclocking, though the measured data reflects stock performance. The 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility make it suitable for a wide range of motherboards, and its PCIe Gen 5 support (16 lanes) provides future-proofing for storage and other peripherals.