To The Core

To The Core is an idle game that, on the surface, would seem to place minimal stress on modern hardware. Yet, the benchmark data for the Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 reveals a configuration that produces extraordinarily high frame rates across all resolutions and settings. The measured results show a system that is never constrained by its components at standard display refresh rates, though the scaling patterns between resolutions and presets provide insight into where the bottleneck lies within this particular pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, but the absolute numbers remain far beyond what any display can currently showcase. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 572 FPS at 1920x1080 to 385 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 187 FPS or 32.7%. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Low settings shows a further drop to 220 FPS, which is another 42.9% decrease. This pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases is typical, but the scale is unusual for an idle game.

The Medium preset tells a similar story. Starting at 484 FPS in 1080p, the average drops to 326 FPS at 1440p and then to 186 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K here is 61.6%, which is slightly less severe than the Low preset’s 61.5% drop. The High preset shows 420 FPS at 1080p, 282 FPS at 1440p, and 161 FPS at 4K, a total reduction of 61.7% from the lowest to highest resolution.

The Ultra preset exhibits the most significant scaling demands. At 1080p, the average is 338 FPS. This falls to 227 FPS at 1440p and then to 130 FPS at 4K. The overall drop from 1080p to 4K on Ultra is 61.5%, which is consistent with the other presets. The uniformity of this scaling across all four quality levels suggests that the limiting factor is consistently the GPU’s rendering workload, rather than any CPU-side constraint that would manifest differently at lower resolutions.

The fact that 1080p Low produces 572 FPS while 4K Ultra produces 130 FPS indicates a 4.4x difference in performance. This nearly matches the pixel count difference between the two resolutions, which is 4x. The data suggests that the RTX 5080 is scaling almost linearly with pixel throughput, meaning the game is heavily GPU-bound even at lower settings. The CPU is delivering frames fast enough that the GPU remains the primary determinant of performance across the entire resolution spectrum.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this configuration for To The Core. With 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, the memory bandwidth is listed at 960.0 GB/s. For an idle game, this bandwidth is vastly excessive, but it explains why the GPU can maintain such high frame rates even at 4K. The core clocks are set to a base of 2295 MHz and a boost of 2617 MHz, which are modest figures for a card of this class, but the architecture’s efficiency compensates.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect its position in the hierarchy. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 8637 places it in the 87th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 56083 is 0.6% higher than the AMD Radeon 8060S and 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB. The RTX 5080 trails the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by 2.2% in this aggregate metric. These rival comparisons are useful for context, but within To The Core specifically, the GPU’s raw compute power is what drives the 4K Ultra result of 130 FPS.

The FP32 performance of 56.28 TFLOPS, combined with 10752 shading units and 112 ROPs, gives the card ample resources for pixel processing. The pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s are key metrics for understanding why the game scales so predictably with resolution. The data shows that at 4K Medium, the minimum FPS is 158 while the maximum is 214, producing an average of 186. This 56 FPS spread between min and max indicates some frame time variance, but the average remains high enough that it would be imperceptible on standard 60 Hz or 144 Hz displays.

The RTX 5080’s memory clock is listed at 1875 MHz with 30 Gbps effective speed. This fast memory, paired with the 960.0 GB/s bandwidth, ensures that texture streaming and asset loading are never a bottleneck. For a game like To The Core, which likely has simple visual assets, the GPU is operating well below its theoretical maximum in most scenarios. The 4K Ultra result of 130 FPS is the only data point where the GPU appears to be approaching a more demanding workload, and even then, it maintains a frame rate that exceeds most high-refresh-rate monitors.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database for To The Core, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 achieves a rank of 190 out of 3725 tested combos. This places the configuration in the top 5.1% of all systems tested for this game. The high ranking is expected given the caliber of both components, but the data shows that there are 189 other combinations that perform better in this specific title.

The CPU’s percentile ranking of 90 versus all CPUs means that the Core i5-14600KF is in the top 10% of processors tested across all benchmarks. Its average benchmark score of 49394 is 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, and 0.8% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245. It trails the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 by 0.8%. These narrow margins indicate that the CPU is not the differentiating factor in this combo’s ranking.

The GPU’s percentile ranking of 87 versus all GPUs places it in the top 13% of graphics cards. Its average benchmark score of 56083 is 0.6% higher than the AMD Radeon 8060S, 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, and 2.3% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X. It trails the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by 2.2%. The combination of a top-10% CPU and top-13% GPU results in a top-5% ranking for this game, suggesting that the pairing is well-balanced for this workload.

The rank of 190 out of 3725 is a strong showing, but it also implies that there are systems with more powerful components or better optimization for this specific game. The data does not reveal what those higher-ranked combos consist of, but the margin between this configuration and the top performers is likely small given the already extreme frame rates measured.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for To The Core provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the best experience. At 1080p, all presets produce frame rates above 338 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all gaming monitors. The Ultra preset at 338 FPS is the most demanding, while Low reaches 572 FPS. Since the game is an idle title, the visual fidelity difference between Medium and Ultra may not be significant enough to justify the performance cost.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces an average of 326 FPS with a minimum of 277 FPS and maximum of 374 FPS. This is a stable result that would satisfy any high-refresh-rate display. The Ultra preset at 227 FPS is still excellent, but the Medium preset offers a 43.6% higher average frame rate while likely providing nearly identical visual quality in an idle game context. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for 1440p.

At 4K, the Medium preset delivers 186 FPS average with a minimum of 158 FPS. This is the only 4K preset with recorded minimum and maximum values, indicating it was the focus of the testing. The High preset at 161 FPS and Ultra at 130 FPS are both playable, but Medium provides the best balance of quality and performance. The Low preset at 220 FPS is unnecessarily fast for a 4K display, and the visual compromise would likely be noticeable. For the best experience per the measured rows, Medium at 4K offers the highest quality with a frame rate that exceeds any common display refresh rate except for the most extreme 240 Hz 4K panels.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear hierarchy across settings. Low settings produce an average of 572 FPS. Medium settings yield 484 FPS average, with a minimum of 411 FPS and maximum of 556 FPS. High settings deliver 420 FPS average. Ultra settings produce 338 FPS average. The difference between Low and Ultra is 234 FPS, which represents a 40.9% reduction in performance when moving to the highest quality preset.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 385 FPS for Low, 326 FPS for Medium (with minimum 277 FPS and maximum 374 FPS), 282 FPS for High, and 227 FPS for Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 158 FPS, a 41.0% reduction. The consistency of this percentage across resolutions reinforces that the GPU is the scaling factor, with each preset level imposing a similar relative cost regardless of pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 220 FPS for Low, 186 FPS for Medium (with minimum 158 FPS and maximum 214 FPS), 161 FPS for High, and 130 FPS for Ultra. The Low to Ultra reduction is 90 FPS, a 40.9% drop. This matches the pattern seen at lower resolutions. The Medium preset’s minimum of 158 FPS at 4K is the lowest recorded minimum across all tested configurations, but it remains well above the threshold for smooth gameplay.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K for each preset is also consistent. Low settings drop from 572 FPS to 220 FPS, a 61.5% reduction. Medium drops from 484 FPS to 186 FPS, a 61.6% reduction. High drops from 420 FPS to 161 FPS, a 61.7% reduction. Ultra drops from 338 FPS to 130 FPS, a 61.5% reduction. The uniformity of these percentages across all presets indicates that resolution scaling is independent of quality settings in this game, which is a hallmark of a GPU-bound workload.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF plays a supporting role in To The Core, as evidenced by the frame rate data. The processor features 14 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its architecture is Raptor Lake-R, manufactured on Intel’s 10 nm process. The L3 cache is 24 MB shared, with 2 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core. This configuration provides ample single-thread performance for game logic and input handling.

The CPU’s benchmark results confirm its strong performance. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32544 and singlecore score of 4594 demonstrate balanced capabilities. The Geekbench multicore score of 17085 and singlecore score of 2445 further validate this. The Passmark multithread score of 38697 and single thread score of 4273 indicate that the CPU can handle both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads efficiently.

For To The Core, an idle game, the CPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor. The data supports this assertion because the frame rates scale consistently with resolution, which is a GPU-bound characteristic. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a plateau in frame rates at lower resolutions where the CPU cannot feed the GPU fast enough. Instead, the FPS continues to rise from 130 at 4K Ultra to 572 at 1080p Low, showing that the CPU is capable of sustaining even the highest frame rates measured.

The CPU’s 90th percentile ranking and its performance relative to nearest rivals, such as being 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245, indicate that it is not holding the RTX 5080 back. The processor’s boost clock of 5.30 GHz provides the single-thread speed necessary for game engines that rely on a primary thread for simulation logic. The 125 W TDP is modest, and the unlocked multiplier allows for overclocking, though the measured results already show no CPU constraint.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 572 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the peak performance recorded across all tested configurations.

Q: Does the combo maintain playable frame rates at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the 4K Ultra preset produces an average of 130 FPS. While this is the lowest measured result, it remains well above standard display refresh rates of 60 Hz and 144 Hz.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 compare to its nearest rival in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5080 has an average benchmark score of 56083, which is 0.6% higher than the AMD Radeon 8060S and 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB. It trails the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by 2.2%.

Q: Is there a significant difference between Medium and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: Yes, Medium produces an average of 326 FPS with a minimum of 277 FPS, while Ultra produces an average of 227 FPS. The Medium preset offers 43.6% higher average performance than Ultra.

Q: What is the combo’s ranking among all tested configurations for To The Core?

A: The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 190 out of 3725 tested combos. This places it in the top 5.1% of all systems tested for this game.

Q: Does the frame rate scaling suggest a CPU or GPU bottleneck?

A: The data shows consistent resolution scaling, with FPS dropping approximately 61.5% from 1080p to 4K across all settings. This uniformity indicates the GPU is the primary limiting component, as a CPU bottleneck would cause frame rates to plateau at lower resolutions.