To The Core

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of the Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination in To The Core?

A: This hardware pairing ranks 190th out of 3,725 tested combinations in the game, placing it in the top 5% of all configurations. The ranking reflects a system that delivers high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, with the CPU and GPU both performing near the top of their respective categories.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5080's average benchmark score of 56,083 places it 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon 8060S and 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, while trailing the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by 2.2%. Against the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, the RTX 5080 leads by 2.3%. These margins are narrow, indicating the RTX 5080 sits in a competitive cluster rather than dominating its price-adjacent peers.

Q: Is the Core i7-12700K a bottleneck for the RTX 5080 in this game?

A: The data suggests no significant CPU bottleneck. The CPU's single-threaded Cinebench R23 score of 1,850.5 and multi-core score of 19,784 are strong, and the measured frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes. At 1080p Low, the system hits 572 FPS, which is a workload where CPU limits typically appear, yet the frame rate remains exceptionally high, indicating the CPU keeps pace with the GPU.

Q: What is the difference in performance between the Core i7-12700K and its nearest rival, the Core i5-13600T?

A: The Core i7-12700K averages a benchmark score of 35,287, which is 0.1% lower than the Core i5-13600T's average of 35,305. This difference is negligible in real-world terms, meaning the two processors deliver statistically identical performance in synthetic tests. The i7-12700K also trails the Core i7-12700KF by 0.2% and the Core i7-13700T by 0.3%.

Q: How does the RTX 5080's memory configuration affect its performance in To The Core?

A: The RTX 5080 comes with 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This large memory pool and high bandwidth ensure that even at 4K Ultra settings, where the average frame rate is 130 FPS, the GPU has ample headroom for textures and geometry, preventing memory-related stutters or frame drops.

Q: Which settings preset offers the highest minimum frame rate at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers a minimum FPS of 277, which is the only 1440p setting with a reported minimum frame rate. This suggests that Medium provides a stable experience, while High, Low, and Ultra presets at this resolution have average frame rates of 282, 385, and 227 FPS respectively, but their minimum frame rates were not recorded.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that the Ultra preset is the most demanding configuration in To The Core, with average frame rates dropping to 130 FPS at 4K, 227 FPS at 1440p, and 338 FPS at 1080p. While all of these are playable, the drop from High to Ultra is substantial: 161 to 130 FPS at 4K, 282 to 227 FPS at 1440p, and 420 to 338 FPS at 1080p. This represents a roughly 19-20% performance penalty for the Ultra preset across all resolutions.

The High preset offers the best balance between visual fidelity and performance. At 4K, High averages 161 FPS, which is 31 FPS higher than Ultra and only 25 FPS lower than Medium. At 1440p, High reaches 282 FPS, and at 1080p it hits 420 FPS. These numbers indicate that High provides a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate monitors without the significant cost of Ultra.

For players prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset delivers extraordinary performance: 572 FPS at 1080p, 385 FPS at 1440p, and 220 FPS at 4K. However, the visual quality trade-off is likely too severe for most users, especially given that Medium at 4K still averages 186 FPS with a minimum of 158 FPS, which is well above typical display refresh rates.

The Medium preset is a viable middle ground, particularly at 4K where it averages 186 FPS. Its recorded minimum of 158 FPS at 4K and 277 FPS at 1440p suggest consistent frame pacing. However, given that High outperforms Medium by a small margin at lower resolutions (420 vs 484 FPS at 1080p is actually lower for High, but this is an outlier), the recommendation is to use High for the best combination of image quality and frame rate headroom.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important information about the system's bottleneck. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 420 at 1080p to 282 at 1440p (a 32.9% decrease) and then to 161 at 4K (a 42.9% decrease from 1440p). This progressive decline indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly limiting at higher resolutions, which is expected given the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

The Low settings show an even steeper relative drop: 572 FPS at 1080p, 385 FPS at 1440p (32.7% lower), and 220 FPS at 4K (42.9% lower from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across settings suggest that the scaling is resolution-driven rather than settings-driven, pointing to the GPU's rendering throughput as the primary constraint.

However, the absolute frame rates remain exceptionally high even at 4K. The RTX 5080's 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are sufficient to maintain over 130 FPS at 4K on Ultra settings. This indicates that To The Core is not an exceptionally demanding title for this hardware, and the limiting factor at 4K is the GPU's raw compute capability rather than any memory or CPU constraint.

The fact that 1080p Low achieves 572 FPS suggests the CPU can feed the GPU with enough draw calls to sustain extremely high frame rates. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would expect the 1080p to 1440p scaling to be more dramatic, but the similar percentage drops across resolutions indicate a balanced system where the GPU is the primary limiter at all resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 572 FPS, Medium averages 484 FPS with a minimum of 411 FPS and maximum of 556 FPS, High averages 420 FPS, and Ultra averages 338 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 234 FPS, showing that settings have a significant impact even at this resolution. The Medium preset's recorded minimum of 411 FPS suggests that even the most demanding moments remain well above refresh rate limits.

Moving to 2560x1440, frame rates remain very high but show the expected decline. Low averages 385 FPS, Medium averages 326 FPS with a minimum of 277 FPS and maximum of 374 FPS, High averages 282 FPS, and Ultra averages 227 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 32-33% across all settings, which is consistent with the increased pixel workload. The Medium preset's minimum of 277 FPS at this resolution indicates that the system maintains smooth performance even in heavy scenes.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 5080 continues to deliver playable frame rates. Low averages 220 FPS, Medium averages 186 FPS with a minimum of 158 FPS and maximum of 214 FPS, High averages 161 FPS, and Ultra averages 130 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 158 FPS is notable because it shows the system can maintain frame rates above 144 Hz even at 4K, making this resolution viable for high-refresh-rate displays.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: each settings tier costs roughly 15-20% performance, and each resolution step costs roughly 30-40% performance. The RTX 5080's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory ensures that even at 4K Ultra, memory capacity is not a limiting factor, and the 960.0 GB/s bandwidth supports the high frame rates observed.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this configuration, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling across resolutions. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates at 4K where texture data requirements are substantial. The GPU's 10,752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines work together to deliver the measured performance.

The RTX 5080's clock speeds, with a base of 2,295 MHz and boost of 2,617 MHz, contribute to its 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability. This raw throughput is what enables the GPU to achieve 130 FPS at 4K Ultra, a demanding workload that stresses both the shading units and memory subsystem. The 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores provide additional capabilities, though their specific impact on To The Core is not directly measured in the FPS data.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores reinforce its strong position. Its PassMark G3D score of 36,565 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 255,450 indicate robust DirectX and Vulkan performance, which translates to the high frame rates observed in the game. The RTX 5080 ranks in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 56,083 shows it competes closely with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE, which scores 57,367.

The GPU's 360 W TDP and suggested 750 W PSU are consistent with a high-performance part, and its PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensures sufficient bandwidth for data transfer. The 304 mm length and dual-slot design are typical for this performance class. The measured frame rates show that the RTX 5080 is not memory-limited in To The Core, as even at 4K Ultra, the 16 GB capacity is sufficient to maintain smooth performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K plays a supporting role in this configuration, providing enough processing power to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 5080. With 12 cores and 20 threads, the CPU offers substantial multi-threaded capability, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19,784 and Geekbench multi-core score of 15,790. These scores indicate that the CPU can handle game logic, physics, and AI computations without becoming a limiting factor.

The CPU's single-threaded performance is equally important for gaming. Its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,850.5 and Geekbench single-core score of 2,308 show strong per-core performance, which is crucial for games that rely on a primary rendering thread. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz provides the high frequency needed for such workloads, while the base clock of 3.60 GHz ensures efficient operation under lighter loads.

The i7-12700K's 25 MB of shared L3 cache, along with 1.25 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core, helps reduce memory latency and improve data access patterns. This is particularly relevant in a game like To The Core, where the idle genre may involve many simultaneous calculations. The CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 34,404 and integer math score of 114,264 suggest strong computational throughput for such tasks.

The CPU's position relative to its rivals is notably tight. It sits 0.1% below the Core i5-13600T, 0.2% below the Core i7-12700KF, and 0.3% below the Core i7-13700T in average benchmark scores. The Core 5 213PE leads by 0.4%. This clustering indicates that the i7-12700K is a well-balanced processor that competes effectively with newer and similarly-priced alternatives, and the measured game FPS confirms that this CPU does not hold back the RTX 5080.