To The Core

To The Core is an idle game that, on paper, should not stress a modern flagship-tier combination like the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. The benchmark data confirms this, but not in the way one might expect. Instead of being a trivial load, the measured frame rates reveal a title that scales dramatically with both resolution and settings, pushing the hardware to produce results ranging from a modest 125.5 FPS at 4K Ultra to a staggering 546.8 FPS at 1080p Low. This analysis breaks down the measured performance data, contextualizes the hardware's role, and provides actionable settings recommendations based solely on the provided figures.

FAQ

Q: What is the single highest average frame rate recorded for this combo in To The Core?

A: The highest average frame rate is 546.8 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the performance at 4K Ultra compare to 1080p Low?

A: The average frame rate at 3840x2160 Ultra is 125.5 FPS, which is significantly lower than the 546.8 FPS at 1920x1080 Low. This represents a substantial performance difference driven by both resolution and graphical preset.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER's performance in this game close to its direct rivals?

A: According to the data, the RTX 4080 SUPER's average benchmark score is 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and 2.9% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. It sits in the 88th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the measured performance difference between the Core i7-14700F and the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X?

A: The Core i7-14700F has an average benchmark score of 54097, which is 0.6% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X's score of 54450. The data shows the i7-14700F is effectively on par with this rival.

Q: Does the CPU's benchmark performance indicate a bottleneck in this game?

A: The CPU's multi-threaded Cinebench R23 score is 35443, and its Passmark single-thread score is 4261. Given that the game achieves over 400 FPS at 1080p High, the CPU is clearly capable of feeding the GPU, though the frame rate ceiling at lower resolutions suggests a balance between the two components.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers an average of 269.9 FPS, while the Ultra preset delivers 219.7 FPS. This shows a 50.2 FPS drop for the highest quality settings.

Settings Recommendations

The data shows a clear hierarchy of performance across the four presets. At 4K, the Ultra preset produces an average of 125.5 FPS, which is playable but leaves headroom for a smoother experience. Dropping to High raises the average to 155.5 FPS, a significant improvement that suggests High is the sweet spot for 4K on this hardware. The Medium preset at 177.9 FPS and Low at 213.8 FPS offer even higher frame rates, but for a visually demanding title, the jump from High to Medium is 22.4 FPS, which may not be worth the visual fidelity loss.

At 1440p, the story is different. Every preset is above the 200 FPS threshold, with even Ultra hitting 219.7 FPS. This makes Ultra a completely viable option for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, as the hardware has ample performance to spare. The difference between High (269.9 FPS) and Ultra (219.7 FPS) is 50.2 FPS, but both are exceptionally smooth. For 1080p, the frame rates are so high that the limiting factor becomes the display's refresh rate. The Ultra preset at 322.5 FPS is still far beyond what most monitors can display, so users should select Ultra for maximum visual quality.

The best experience per the measured rows depends on the target resolution. For 4K, the High preset offers the best balance, delivering 155.5 FPS while maintaining high visual fidelity. For 1440p, the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation, as it provides 219.7 FPS without any compromise. For 1080p, Ultra is the only sensible choice, as the 322.5 FPS average is more than sufficient for any display.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals a shift in the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 546.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 368.3 FPS, a reduction of 178.5 FPS. At 4K Low, the average is 213.8 FPS, a further drop of 154.5 FPS from 1440p. This scaling pattern indicates that while the CPU is strong enough to push extremely high frame rates at lower resolutions, the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as the pixel count increases.

The same trend is visible on the Ultra preset. The average frame rate drops from 322.5 FPS at 1080p to 219.7 FPS at 1440p, and then to 125.5 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 94.2 FPS, which is a larger absolute drop than the 102.8 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p. This suggests that the game's rendering load scales super-linearly with resolution, a common trait in titles with heavy shader or post-processing effects.

The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is still able to keep up with the GPU's output, resulting in frame rates that are likely CPU-bound or at least balanced. However, at 4K, the GPU's raw pixel throughput becomes the dominant constraint, evidenced by the significant frame rate reduction. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 736.3 GB/s memory bandwidth and 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance are clearly being utilized heavily at this resolution, but they are not sufficient to maintain the triple-digit frame rates seen at lower resolutions with the same settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptionally high across all settings. The Low preset leads with an average of 546.8 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 464.3 FPS, which is 82.5 FPS lower than Low. High drops further to 402.7 FPS, a 61.6 FPS reduction from Medium. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with an average of 322.5 FPS, which is 80.2 FPS below High. This shows that each step up in quality has a tangible cost, but even the lowest result is far beyond the refresh rate of typical monitors.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds, but with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 368.3 FPS, Medium 311.4 FPS, High 269.9 FPS, and Ultra 219.7 FPS. The performance gaps between presets are relatively consistent, with a 56.9 FPS difference between Low and Medium, a 41.5 FPS difference between Medium and High, and a 50.2 FPS difference between High and Ultra. These figures show that the game is well-optimized for scaling, with no single preset causing a disproportionate performance hit.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain high but are significantly lower than lower resolutions. Low averages 213.8 FPS, Medium 177.9 FPS, High 155.5 FPS, and Ultra 125.5 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 35.9 FPS, from Medium to High is 22.4 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 30.0 FPS. Even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains an average above 120 FPS, which is a strong result for a high-end combination. The data shows that the system is capable of running the game at maximum settings at 4K with a playable frame rate, but the High preset provides a more comfortable margin above 144 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the primary driver of performance in To The Core, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is crucial for handling the high-resolution textures and data streams of the game, as evidenced by the substantial frame rate drops when moving from 1440p to 4K. The GPU's 10240 shading units and 80 RT cores are likely engaged by the game's rendering pipeline, even if it is not a graphically intensive title by modern standards.

The GPU's clock speeds are 2295 MHz base and 2550 MHz boost. The boost clock is clearly being utilized to its full potential, as the frame rates at 4K are high enough to suggest the GPU is not idling. The benchmark results place the RTX 4080 SUPER in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 53610. This is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and 2.9% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. The data suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER is a very capable card for this game, but the performance scaling indicates that it is the bottleneck at 4K, as the CPU is more than capable of handling lower resolutions.

The GPU's compute performance, as measured by the Passmark G3D score of 34245, is high, but the game's reliance on raw pixel throughput is more apparent. The transition from 1080p to 4K at the same settings shows a performance drop that aligns with the increase in pixel count, confirming that the GPU's rasterization and fill rate are the key factors. The 285.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 816.0 GTexel/s texture rate are being heavily taxed at 4K, which explains the lower frame rates compared to 1440p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F provides the computational foundation for this system. With 20 cores and 28 threads, it offers substantial multi-threading capability, as reflected in its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 35443. However, for an idle game like To The Core, single-thread performance is often more critical. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 4261 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5003 indicate strong per-core performance, which is essential for maintaining high frame rates in games that rely on a primary game thread.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz is a key contributor to its performance. The data shows that at 1080p, the system can achieve over 500 FPS on Low settings, which strongly suggests the CPU is capable of processing game logic and draw calls at an extremely high rate. However, the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a significant drop, indicating that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The CPU's performance is effectively on par with the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, with a negligible 0.6% difference in average benchmark score.

The CPU's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample low-latency storage for game data. The data indicates that the CPU is not holding the system back in this title, as even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate is above 120 FPS. The CPU's role is to ensure the GPU is fed with data, and the benchmark results confirm that it is more than sufficient for this task. The percentile rank of 94 vs all CPUs shows that this is a top-tier processor, and its performance in this game is consistent with that ranking.