To The Core

To The Core is an idle game that presents an unusual stress pattern for PC hardware, and this particular pairing of an Intel Core i7-12700KF with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 produces a data set that is more about raw frame throughput than visual fidelity. The measured results show a system that is dramatically overqualified for the task, with frame rates that far exceed display refresh rates at every tested configuration. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to explain what the numbers mean for a builder considering this combination.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is significant but reveals a system that remains immensely powerful even at the highest resolution. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 449.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 302.4 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 174.3 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 61.2% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at High settings. The scaling pattern is consistent across all quality presets, with the Low preset showing the steepest absolute drop from 613.2 FPS at 1080p down to 233.5 FPS at 4K.

The data indicates that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as resolution increases, which is expected given the RTX 4090's specifications. At 1080p, the frame rates are so high that they suggest the CPU is beginning to constrain performance, particularly at Low settings where 613.2 FPS represents a massive computational load. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a more moderate drop, with High settings falling from 302.4 to 174.3 FPS, a 42.4% reduction. This pattern suggests that the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle the increased pixel count, but the raw compute requirements of 4K still take a toll.

At 1080p Medium settings, the system produces 518.5 FPS, which drops to 347.8 FPS at 1440p and 196.8 FPS at 4K. The consistent pattern across all presets shows that the scaling factor is roughly similar regardless of quality level, indicating that the game's rendering pipeline responds predictably to resolution changes. The RTX 4090's 16384 shading units and 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance are clearly being utilized more heavily at higher resolutions, but the frame rates remain exceptionally high throughout.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that the Ultra preset delivers the lowest frame rates across all resolutions, but even at 4K Ultra the system maintains 139.3 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, the average frame rate is 245.4 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra it reaches 361.5 FPS. For most display configurations, the Ultra preset provides a fully playable experience, but the data suggests that High settings offer a better balance for 4K users. The jump from High to Ultra at 4K costs 35 FPS, dropping from 174.3 to 139.3 FPS, a 20.1% performance penalty.

For competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors, the Low preset at 1440p provides 413.1 FPS, which is substantially higher than the 302.4 FPS at High settings. The Medium preset sits between these extremes, offering 347.8 FPS at 1440p and 196.8 FPS at 4K. Given that this is an idle game, the visual differences between presets are likely minimal, making the Low or Medium presets the practical choice for maximizing frame throughput. At 1080p, even the Ultra preset's 361.5 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all gaming monitors, so users with 1080p displays can select any preset without concern.

The 4K Ultra result of 139.3 FPS remains above the 120 Hz threshold, but the High preset's 174.3 FPS provides more headroom for frame time consistency. The data suggests that High settings at 4K or Ultra settings at 1440p represent the optimal configurations for this hardware combination, balancing the RTX 4090's capabilities against the CPU's ability to feed frames.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this system, and its specifications explain the exceptional frame rates observed. The GPU features a boost clock of 2520 MHz and a base clock of 2235 MHz, with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus. The memory runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, producing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. These specifications place the RTX 4090 in the 91st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66473.

The nearest rivals in the benchmark database show a tight grouping, with the NVIDIA Tesla T4 scoring 66733 (0.4% higher), the NVIDIA Tesla P40 scoring 66127 (0.5% lower), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 scoring 67097 (0.9% higher), and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 scoring 67320 (1.3% higher). This clustering indicates that the RTX 4090's raw compute performance is well-matched by professional workstation cards, but its gaming-specific features and 24 GB of VRAM make it uniquely suited for high-resolution gaming.

The GPU's 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores contribute to its DirectX 12 Ultimate support, though these features are unlikely to be heavily utilized in an idle game. The 176 ROPs and 512 TMUs provide substantial pixel and texture processing capability, which directly supports the high frame rates observed at 4K. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is not the bottleneck even at 4K Ultra, where 139.3 FPS still leaves significant headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 28th out of 1756 tested combos in To The Core. This places the system in the top 1.6% of all tested configurations, which is consistent with the exceptional frame rates measured. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's strong multi-threaded performance and the GPU's dominant rasterization capability.

The RTX 4090's 91st percentile ranking among GPUs and the i7-12700KF's 89th percentile ranking among CPUs combine to create a system that is well above average in both components. The CPU's average benchmark score of 35355 places it close to several rivals, with the Intel Core i5-14400 scoring 35336 (0.1% lower), the Intel Core i7-13800H scoring 35416 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i9-12900HX scoring 35289 (0.2% lower), and the Intel Core i5-13600T scoring 35256 (0.3% lower). This tight grouping suggests that the CPU is not a differentiating factor at these performance levels.

The combo rank of 28 indicates that while this is an elite configuration, there are 27 other combinations that achieve higher frame rates in this specific game. Given the extremely high absolute frame rates, the difference between rank 28 and rank 1 is likely minimal in practical terms.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF provides 12 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This Alder Lake-S architecture chip uses a 10 nm process and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. The CPU's 25 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache provide sufficient data locality for the game's computational demands.

Benchmark results show the CPU's multi-threaded strength, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28979 and a single-core score of 4091. The PassMark multi-thread score of 34092 and single-thread score of 3984 place the chip in the 89th percentile among all CPUs. The 3DMark results demonstrate scaling from 1043 in single-thread to 9983 in max-threads, indicating good multi-core efficiency.

In To The Core, the CPU's role is likely secondary to the GPU, given the idle game genre's relatively simple simulation logic. The high frame rates at 1080p Low (613.2 FPS) suggest that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at extremely high rates, but the 5.00 GHz boost clock and 20 threads provide ample headroom. The CPU's nearest rivals show negligible performance differences, confirming that any of these processors would deliver similar results in this game when paired with an RTX 4090.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 613.2 FPS at Low settings, 518.5 FPS at Medium, 449.3 FPS at High, and 361.5 FPS at Ultra. These figures represent the maximum throughput the system can achieve, with the Low preset likely approaching the CPU's frame generation limit. The 1440p results show 413.1 FPS at Low, 347.8 FPS at Medium, 302.4 FPS at High, and 245.4 FPS at Ultra. The 4K results are 233.5 FPS at Low, 196.8 FPS at Medium, 174.3 FPS at High, and 139.3 FPS at Ultra.

The progression from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent pattern of approximately 20-25% performance reduction per preset tier. The gap between Medium and High is smaller than between Low and Medium, suggesting diminishing returns in the middle settings. The data confirms that this combination is capable of maintaining frame rates above 139 FPS in all tested configurations, making it suitable for any current display technology.