To The Core

To The Core is an idle game that, based on the measured frame rates, exhibits a remarkably light rendering load, making it highly sensitive to raw CPU and GPU speed rather than complex visual effects. The benchmark data for the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination shows a system that is capable of extreme performance, often surpassing the refresh rates of most high-end displays. The following analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to understand how this specific hardware pairing scales across resolutions and settings, and what the numbers indicate about the underlying workload.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a significant performance scaling pattern that is characteristic of a CPU-bound scenario at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 549 FPS. Moving up to 2560x1440 at the same Low settings, the average drops to 369 FPS, a decrease of 180 FPS. The jump to 3840x2160 further reduces the average to 211 FPS, another 158 FPS drop. This shows that even at 4K with Low settings, the system is still producing over 200 frames per second, indicating that neither component is being pushed to its absolute limit.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a more pronounced hit than the scaling from 1080p to 1440p. For High settings, the difference between 1080p (403 FPS) and 1440p (271 FPS) is 132 FPS. The difference between 1440p and 4K is 116 FPS (271 to 155 FPS). This pattern suggests that while resolution increases the pixel count, the workload in To The Core is not heavily dependent on pixel shading. The 4K Ultra setting, which yields 125 FPS, is the only point where the GPU appears to be taking on a more substantial role, but even then, the frame rate remains comfortably high.

The data indicates that the limiting component at 1080p and 1440p is the CPU. The Core i7-14700K has 20 cores and 28 threads, but in this game, the single-threaded performance is likely the primary factor. The CPU’s boost clock of 5.60 GHz and its Passmark single-thread score of 4472 support this. As resolution increases, the GPU begins to catch up, and the bottleneck shifts. At 4K, the gap between Low (211 FPS) and Ultra (125 FPS) settings is 86 FPS, which is a larger absolute difference than the 75 FPS gap at 1080p (549 to 324 FPS). This confirms that the RTX 4080 SUPER is being utilized more effectively at higher resolutions, though it still has ample headroom.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows for this combo provide a clear picture of how performance scales with visual presets. The Low setting is the only one that consistently breaks the 200 FPS barrier at 4K, achieving 211 FPS. For users with a 4K display at a 144Hz refresh rate, the Medium setting at 179 FPS is the highest quality option that still comfortably exceeds the refresh rate. The Ultra setting at 125 FPS would also be playable on a 120Hz display, but it represents a noticeable 54 FPS drop from Medium, which is a significant cost for the visual upgrade.

At 2560x1440, the story shifts. The Medium preset delivers 312 FPS, which is more than enough for any high-refresh-rate monitor. The High preset at 271 FPS is also an excellent choice, offering a good balance. The Ultra preset at 218 FPS is still exceptionally high and would be the recommended choice for users with 1440p displays who want maximum visual fidelity, as the drop from High to Ultra (53 FPS) is less severe in percentage terms than the drop from Medium to High (41 FPS) in absolute numbers.

For 1920x1080, the hardware is clearly overkill. Even the Ultra preset at 324 FPS is far beyond any current display’s refresh rate. The Medium setting at 464 FPS and High at 403 FPS are indistinguishable in practical terms for most users. The recommendation here is to simply enable the Ultra preset, as the performance penalty is negligible relative to the total frame rate. The only reason to consider a lower preset would be to reduce system power draw or heat, but that is not reflected in the performance data.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K sits in the 94th percentile for all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69355. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, scores 69515, which is a 0.2% difference, placing the i7-14700K essentially on par. The CPU’s architecture is Raptor Lake, built on a 10 nm process, with 20 cores and 28 threads. The boost clock of 5.60 GHz is the key specification for a game like To The Core, which appears to be heavily dependent on high-frequency, low-latency single-threaded instruction execution.

The benchmark results show a Passmark single-thread score of 4472, which is a strong indicator of per-core performance. In the game data, this translates to the extreme frame rates seen at 1080p. At 1920x1080 Low, the 549 FPS average suggests that the CPU is the primary driver. The game’s genre, Idle, often involves simple 2D or pseudo-3D rendering and a lot of game logic ticking per frame. This logic is often serialized and dependent on the CPU’s ability to process instructions quickly.

The CPU’s L3 cache is 33 MB (shared), and its L2 cache is 2 MB per core. This large cache hierarchy helps to keep frequently accessed game data close to the cores, reducing memory latency. The memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, with a dual-channel bus, provides sufficient bandwidth for the CPU’s needs, as the game is not likely to be memory-bandwidth constrained. The measured data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at 4K Ultra, where the GPU takes over, but it is clearly the limiting factor at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain over 200 FPS consistently?

A: The data shows that at 2560x1440, the Low, Medium, and High settings all produce averages above 200 FPS (369, 312, and 271 FPS, respectively). At 3840x2160, only the Low setting achieves over 200 FPS (211 FPS).

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in terms of overall benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K has an average benchmark score of 69355. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, scores 69515, which is a delta of -0.2%, meaning the i7-14700K is slightly behind but statistically tied.

Q: Is the GPU more of a factor at 4K or 1080p?

A: The GPU is more of a factor at 4K. The performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at 3840x2160 is 86 FPS (211 to 125 FPS), while at 1920x1080 the same gap is 225 FPS (549 to 324 FPS), indicating a larger CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium settings?

A: For the Medium preset, the minimum FPS recorded is 395 at 1920x1080, 266 at 2560x1440, and 152 at 3840x2160.

Q: Does the combo rank high among all tested combinations in this game?

A: Yes, the combo rank is 281 out of 3725 tested combinations, placing it in the top 8% of all tested systems for To The Core.

Q: Is the CPU's single-thread performance or multi-thread performance more relevant here?

A: Given the 1080p results, single-thread performance is more relevant. The CPU’s Passmark single-thread score is 4472, and its high boost clock of 5.60 GHz appears to be the dominant factor in achieving the 549 FPS average at 1080p Low, as the game's logic likely runs on a few threads.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a high-end graphics card with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. Its memory clock is 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective), and the boost clock is 2550 MHz. The card sits in the 86th percentile for all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54209. Its nearest rival is the original RTX 4080, which scores 54247, a delta of -0.1%, making them nearly identical in synthetic benchmarks.

In To The Core, the GPU’s role becomes more apparent at higher resolutions and settings. The 4K Ultra setting (125 FPS) is the most demanding scenario, and the card’s 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is sufficient to maintain a high frame rate. The transition from Medium to Ultra at 4K results in a 54 FPS drop (179 to 125 FPS), which is a 30% reduction. This shows that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are more taxing on the GPU’s shading units, ROPs, and memory bandwidth.

The GPU’s VRAM capacity of 16 GB is not a limiting factor in this game, as the idle genre typically does not require large texture pools. The card’s PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides ample bandwidth for data transfer. The benchmark data suggests that while the RTX 4080 SUPER is not fully utilized at 1080p, it is still a critical component for achieving high frame rates at 4K. Without it, the CPU’s potential would be wasted due to the lack of a GPU capable of rendering the frames quickly enough.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured FPS data for this combo is as follows:

• 1920x1080, Low: Average 549 FPS.
• 1920x1080, Medium: Average 464 FPS, with a minimum of 395 and maximum of 534.
• 1920x1080, High: Average 403 FPS.
• 1920x1080, Ultra: Average 324 FPS.
• 2560x1440, Low: Average 369 FPS.
• 2560x1440, Medium: Average 312 FPS, with a minimum of 266 and maximum of 359.
• 2560x1440, High: Average 271 FPS.
• 2560x1440, Ultra: Average 218 FPS.
• 3840x2160, Low: Average 211 FPS.
• 3840x2160, Medium: Average 179 FPS, with a minimum of 152 and maximum of 205.
• 3840x2160, High: Average 155 FPS.
• 3840x2160, Ultra: Average 125 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: for each resolution, the frame rate drops by roughly 20-25% for each step from Low to Medium, Medium to High, and High to Ultra. The only exception is the 1080p Low to Medium transition, which drops by 85 FPS (549 to 464), a 15% reduction. This is likely due to the CPU being the absolute bottleneck at 1080p Low, and any additional GPU load has a proportionally smaller impact on the total frame time until the GPU becomes more balanced with the CPU.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global ranking for To The Core, this specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER holds the 281st position out of 3725 tested combos. This places it in the top 7.5% of all systems tested. Given the CPU’s 94th percentile ranking and the GPU’s 86th percentile ranking, this result is consistent with expectations. The combo’s performance is likely limited by the CPU’s single-threaded performance in the game’s logic, but the high rank indicates that this is still a formidable pairing.

The rank suggests that there are 280 combos that perform better, which likely include CPUs with even higher single-thread scores or more overclocking headroom, paired with similar or better GPUs. However, the delta between this combo and the top performers is likely small, as the game is not particularly demanding. The data indicates that for the vast majority of users, this setup will provide a flawless experience at any resolution, with frame rates that far exceed the capabilities of standard displays. The strong showing in the ranking confirms that users do not need to look much higher in the product stack to achieve optimal performance in To The Core.