To The Core

# To The Core with Intel Core i7-14700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers exceptionally high frame rates in To The Core, an idle game released in February 2024. Across all tested resolutions and settings, this combination never drops below 103.9 FPS average, indicating that the hardware is far from being stressed by this title. The measured data shows a system that is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions, with GPU load becoming more relevant only as resolution increases. This analysis walks through the resolution scaling, component roles, ranking position, and measured frame rates in detail.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of diminishing GPU headroom. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combo produces 273.2 FPS average; at 1440p Ultra, this drops to 185.9 FPS; and at 4K Ultra, it falls further to 103.9 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p represents a reduction of approximately 32%, while the step from 1440p to 4K reduces frame rates by about 44%. This scaling pattern suggests that the GPU begins to exert more influence as pixel count increases, but the absolute frame rates remain so high that the game's demands are modest relative to this hardware.

Looking at the Low settings tier, the scaling is even more pronounced. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 465.3 FPS, which drops to 310.3 FPS at 1440p Low (a 33% reduction) and then to 177.8 FPS at 4K Low (a 43% reduction from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings tiers indicates that resolution scaling behaves predictably regardless of quality level. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 465.3 versus 273.2 FPS, a difference of 192.1 FPS, while at 4K the same comparison yields 177.8 versus 103.9 FPS, a difference of 73.9 FPS. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU becomes the limiting factor more substantially at 4K.

The data suggests that at 1080p and even 1440p, the CPU is likely the primary constraint, as the frame rates exceed what the GPU alone would typically cap at for this class of hardware. At 4K, however, the GPU's workload increases sufficiently that the RTX 5070's capabilities become the dominant factor. The fact that even 4K Ultra maintains triple-digit frame rates indicates that To The Core is not a demanding title, making this hardware combination vastly overqualified for the game's requirements.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed. The GPU's base clock is 2325 MHz with a boost clock of 2512 MHz. This memory configuration is ample for To The Core, which as an idle game likely does not require substantial VRAM capacity or bandwidth at any settings level.

The GPU's compute resources include 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. It also packs 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores. The RTX 5070 achieves a pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 30.87 TFLOPS. These specifications place the GPU in the 83rd percentile among all GPUs in the benchmark database. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (0.2% ahead), NVIDIA Tesla M40 (0.5% behind), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (0.6% ahead), and AMD Radeon Pro 580X (0.7% behind).

In the measured frame rates, the GPU's role becomes more evident at higher resolutions. The jump from Medium to Ultra at 4K results in a drop from 152.0 to 103.9 FPS, a 48.1 FPS penalty. At 1080p, the same settings transition costs 395.8 to 273.2 FPS, a 122.6 FPS penalty. The larger absolute penalty at lower resolutions suggests that when the CPU can feed frames faster, the GPU's quality settings have more headroom to affect output. At 4K, the GPU is already working harder on pixel throughput, so quality settings have less absolute impact on frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 374th out of 1756 tested combos in To The Core. This places it in the 79th percentile of all combinations tested, meaning roughly 21% of combos deliver higher frame rates in this game. Given that this is an idle game with modest requirements, the ranking reflects that many higher-end or more specialized configurations can exceed these frame rates, though the absolute numbers are already very high.

The CPU itself ranks in the 96th percentile among all processors in the database, with an average benchmark score of 70074. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-14700KF (0% difference), AMD EPYC 9115 (0.3% ahead), AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (0.5% behind), and Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (1.4% behind). The GPU's 83rd percentile standing is notably lower than the CPU's 96th percentile, suggesting that in this combo, the GPU is the weaker link relative to its peer group. However, for To The Core specifically, the combo's 374th rank out of 1756 indicates that many other CPU-GPU pairings outperform it, likely due to the game's low demand allowing other components to shine.

The rank data suggests that To The Core rewards combinations with extremely high single-thread performance and minimal GPU bottlenecks. The i7-14700K's strong single-core scores (6287 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 2932 in Geekbench single-core) help, but the RTX 5070's mid-pack GPU ranking may hold the combo back from higher placement in this specific title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the measured average frame rates across settings are: Low delivers 465.3 FPS, Medium delivers 395.8 FPS, High delivers 339.7 FPS, and Ultra delivers 273.2 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with the largest single-step drop occurring between Medium and High (56.1 FPS) and between High and Ultra (66.5 FPS). The difference from Low to Ultra is 192.1 FPS, representing a 41.3% reduction in frame rate when maxing out quality.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates are: Low at 310.3 FPS, Medium at 265.7 FPS, High at 231.1 FPS, and Ultra at 185.9 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 124.4 FPS, a 40.1% reduction. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at each setting shows consistent reductions: Low drops by 155.0 FPS (33.3%), Medium by 130.1 FPS (32.9%), High by 108.6 FPS (32.0%), and Ultra by 87.3 FPS (31.9%). This near-uniform percentage reduction across settings indicates that resolution scaling is consistent regardless of quality level.

At 4K, the measured averages are: Low at 177.8 FPS, Medium at 152.0 FPS, High at 131.1 FPS, and Ultra at 103.9 FPS. The total reduction from Low to Ultra is 73.9 FPS, a 41.6% drop. Comparing 1440p to 4K, the reductions are: Low drops by 132.5 FPS (42.7%), Medium by 113.7 FPS (42.8%), High by 100.0 FPS (43.3%), and Ultra by 82.0 FPS (44.1%). The slightly larger percentage drops at higher settings when moving to 4K suggest that the GPU's workload scales more steeply with resolution when quality settings are higher.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake-R architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and it carries a 125 W TDP. Its benchmark results are strong, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44534 and single-core score of 6287, plus a Geekbench multi-core score of 18896 and single-core score of 2932.

In To The Core, the CPU's role is likely dominant at lower resolutions. The fact that 1080p Low produces 465.3 FPS while 4K Ultra produces 103.9 FPS suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding frames far faster than the GPU can render them, even at low quality settings. The CPU's high single-thread performance, evidenced by its 4472 Passmark single-thread score and 2964 Passmark physics score, helps maintain high frame rates in a game that may rely on game logic updates typical of idle games.

The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all processors indicates it is among the top tier for general performance. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, shows essentially identical average scores, while the AMD EPYC 9115 is 0.3% ahead and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is 0.5% behind. This tight clustering suggests the i7-14700K is well-positioned among high-end CPUs. For an idle game like To The Core, the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads are far more than necessary, but its high boost clock of 5.60 GHz likely contributes to the excellent frame rates at 1080p and 1440p where CPU-bound behavior dominates.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate does this combo achieve at 4K Ultra settings in To The Core?

A: The measured average frame rate is 103.9 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is the lowest frame rate recorded across all tested configurations, yet it remains comfortably above 100 FPS.

Q: How does the frame rate scale from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 High, the average is 339.7 FPS; at 2560x1440 High, it drops to 231.1 FPS; and at 3840x2160 High, it falls to 131.1 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 4K is 208.6 FPS, representing a 61.4% decrease.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 374th out of 1756 tested combinations in To The Core. This places it in the upper quintile of all tested configurations, though not at the very top.

Q: How does the CPU's single-core performance compare to its multi-core performance in benchmarks?

A: The i7-14700K scores 6287 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 44534 in multi-core, while Geekbench shows 2932 single-core and 18896 multi-core. These scores indicate strong performance in both areas, with multi-core scaling well due to the 20-core configuration.

Q: What memory specifications does the RTX 5070 have?

A: The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s and memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). This is sufficient for To The Core's demands at all tested settings.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 310.3 FPS while Ultra settings produce 185.9 FPS. The difference is 124.4 FPS, which represents a 40.1% reduction in frame rate when switching from the lowest to the highest quality preset.