To The Core

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a remarkably consistent experience in To The Core, an idle genre title that scales almost linearly with resolution. The measured data reveals a configuration that is heavily GPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the CPU's robust 14-core, 20-thread design ensuring the Arc B570 is never left waiting for instructions. As resolution climbs, the frame rate drops in a predictable pattern, confirming that the graphics card is the primary performance arbiter across all tested settings.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 paints a clear picture of where the bottleneck lies. At the High preset, the average frame rate drops from 165 FPS at 1080p to 111 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 54 FPS. Pushing further to 4K, the average falls to 64 FPS, representing a 61% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This scaling curve is steep and consistent, which is typical for a scenario where the GPU is working at maximum capacity.

Looking at the Low preset tells an even more revealing story. Here, the system achieves 225 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 152 FPS at 1440p and finally 87 FPS at 4K. The performance delta from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 138 FPS, a larger absolute drop than what we see at High settings. This indicates that even when graphical load is minimized, the GPU's rendering pipeline becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions, rather than the processor.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend with averages of 191 FPS at 1080p, 128 FPS at 1440p, and 73 FPS at 4K. What is particularly interesting is the min/max spread at Medium settings: at 1080p, the range is 162-219 FPS, while at 4K it narrows to 62-84 FPS. This tightening of the frame time variance as resolution increases suggests that the GPU is consistently saturated, reducing the likelihood of CPU-driven stutters.

Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates across the board, with 133 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K. The fact that 4K Ultra still manages to stay above 50 FPS average indicates that the Arc B570 has enough headroom for this title, even at its most demanding configuration. The resolution scaling here is almost perfectly linear, with each step up in resolution producing a proportional drop in performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows suggest that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience for this hardware combination. At 1440p, Medium produces an average of 128 FPS, which is only 24 FPS lower than Low but provides a substantial visual upgrade over the Low preset's 152 FPS. The frame time data at Medium, with a minimum of 109 FPS and maximum of 147 FPS at 1440p, shows excellent consistency that would translate to smooth gameplay.

For users targeting 4K displays, the High preset at 64 FPS average is the most viable option for a fluid experience, as it stays comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 51 FPS, which, while playable, sacrifices the smoothness that a 60 FPS target provides. The data suggests that the difference between High and Ultra is more pronounced at 4K (13 FPS drop) than at 1080p (32 FPS drop), implying diminishing returns from the highest settings at higher resolutions.

At 1080p, the High preset delivers 165 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The jump to Ultra only costs 32 FPS but may not be necessary if the display cannot exceed 165 Hz. Conversely, Low settings at 1080p reach 225 FPS, which could benefit competitive play, though the genre of To The Core suggests visual fidelity might be more valuable than marginal frame rate gains.

The Medium preset consistently provides the best FPS-per-setting value across all resolutions. It maintains a minimum of 162 FPS at 1080p, 109 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K, meaning it never drops below the 60 FPS threshold even at the highest resolution. This makes Medium the safest recommendation for users who prioritize both performance and stability.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF brings 14 cores and 20 threads to the table, a configuration that is more than sufficient for an idle genre title like To The Core. The processor's boost clock of 5.30 GHz and base clock of 3.50 GHz provide high single-thread performance, which is critical for games that rely on a primary simulation thread. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4594 and multi-core score of 32544 indicate a well-rounded processor that excels in both lightly threaded and heavily threaded workloads.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this configuration. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 225 FPS, which is likely near the ceiling of what the game engine can produce. Even at the highest settings and lowest resolution, the frame rate remains high enough that CPU bottlenecks would manifest as stutters or frame time spikes, but the measured Medium min FPS of 162 at 1080p suggests excellent frame pacing.

The processor's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support contribute to its ability to feed the GPU efficiently. The Passmark multi-thread score of 38697 and single-thread score of 4273 place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, confirming its high-end positioning. Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-14600KF scores within 0.8% of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and just 0.3% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, meaning there is no meaningful performance gap between these processors in synthetic benchmarks.

For a game that is inherently idle-focused, the CPU's job is to maintain a stable simulation loop while the GPU handles the visuals. The 14-core configuration ensures that background tasks and operating system overhead do not interfere with game performance, even when the system is managing other workloads simultaneously.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and Intel Arc B570 achieves a rank of 2380 out of 2991 tested combos in To The Core. This places it in the 20th percentile, meaning roughly one in five tested configurations performs worse. Given that the GPU sits in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, this ranking is somewhat lower than expected, which could indicate that the game favors other hardware configurations or that the Arc B570's driver optimization is not fully realized in this title.

The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, which is only 0.1% faster, and the Intel Arc A750, which is 0.1% slower. This tight grouping suggests that the Arc B570 performs nearly identically to these alternatives in raw compute, but the actual in-game ranking may be influenced by factors not captured in synthetic tests, such as driver-level optimizations for specific game engines.

The CPU's ranking, at the 90th percentile of all CPUs, is significantly higher than the combo's overall ranking. This disparity suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor in achieving a higher rank. Had the CPU been paired with a stronger GPU, the resulting combo would likely rank much higher, as the processor clearly has headroom to spare.

Interestingly, the combo's rank of 2380 out of 2991 means that 611 combinations performed worse, which is a substantial number. This indicates that while the Arc B570 is not the top performer, it is far from the bottom, and the overall configuration is capable of delivering playable frame rates across most settings and resolutions.

FAQ

*Q: What is the maximum average frame rate this combo achieves in To The Core?*

A: The highest measured average is 225 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Does this configuration maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, at High settings the average is 64 FPS, and at Medium it is 73 FPS. The Ultra preset drops below 60 FPS with an average of 51 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Arc A750 and 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile.

Q: What is the smallest frame rate difference between presets at 1080p?

A: The gap between High (165 FPS) and Medium (191 FPS) is 26 FPS, while the gap between Medium and Low (225 FPS) is 34 FPS.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance relative to its multi-thread performance?

A: The Cinebench R23 single-core score is 4594, while the multi-core score is 32544, showing a strong scaling across cores.

Q: At which resolution does the Medium preset's minimum FPS stay above 100?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset has a minimum FPS of 109, and at 1920x1080 it has a minimum of 162.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear hierarchy across settings. Low settings produce an average of 225 FPS, followed by Medium at 191 FPS with a range of 162-219 FPS. High settings achieve 165 FPS, and Ultra delivers 133 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 92 FPS, representing a 41% performance penalty for maximum visual quality.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop predictably. Low settings reach 152 FPS, Medium produces 128 FPS with a range of 109-147 FPS, High hits 111 FPS, and Ultra falls to 89 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 63 FPS, a smaller absolute gap than at 1080p but a similar proportional reduction.

At 3840x2160, the performance compression becomes more apparent. Low settings average 87 FPS, Medium delivers 73 FPS with a range of 62-84 FPS, High achieves 64 FPS, and Ultra produces 51 FPS. The total spread from Low to Ultra is 36 FPS, indicating that the GPU's rendering capacity is the dominant constraint at this resolution.

The Medium preset is the only configuration with complete min/max data for all resolutions. The frame time consistency improves as resolution increases, with the 1080p range being 57 FPS, the 1440p range being 38 FPS, and the 4K range being 22 FPS. This suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU is more consistently utilized, reducing the impact of any CPU-side variability.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with a process node of 5 nm, housing 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die. It features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a fixed clock speed of 2500 MHz for both base and boost, which simplifies performance prediction.

The GPU's shading units total 2304, with 144 texture mapping units and 80 render output units. This configuration yields a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 11.52 TFLOPS places it in the mid-range tier, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649 confirms its DirectX 12 capabilities.

The 10 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for To The Core at all tested settings, as the game does not appear to exceed this limit even at 4K Ultra. The memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s is adequate for the game's demands, as evidenced by the smooth performance scaling across resolutions. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 14195 and DirectX 11 score of 118 indicate strong rasterization performance.

The Arc B570's percentile ranking of 65 places it above the median GPU, and its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmarks are all within 0.5% of its average score. This suggests that the GPU's raw performance is competitive with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and the Intel Arc A750, though its in-game performance in To The Core may be influenced by driver maturity and game-specific optimizations. The GPU's 18 ray tracing cores and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate suggest it is well-prepared for modern titles, though this game's idle genre does not heavily utilize such features.