To The Core

To The Core is an idle game that places surprisingly heavy demands on the rendering pipeline, and the Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers a dataset that clearly illustrates the balance between CPU and GPU limits. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets reveal a system that is never truly constrained at 1080p, but becomes progressively more GPU-bound as pixel count increases. The data indicates that this combination is positioned at rank 123 out of 1756 tested combos, placing it in the top 7% of all configurations for this title, a strong showing that reflects the high ceiling of both components.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 and then to 3840x2160 shows a predictable but uneven decline in average FPS, which tells a clear story about where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 404.5 FPS, and moving to 1440p drops that to 268.9 FPS, a 33.5% reduction. The further jump to 4K brings the score down to 157.9 FPS, another 41.3% drop from the 1440p figure. This scaling pattern is typical of a system where the CPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions, but the GPU's rendering workload grows disproportionately with each resolution step.

The Low preset makes the CPU limitation at 1080p even more apparent, as the frame rate reaches 549.3 FPS, which is nearly 36% higher than the High preset at the same resolution. When the resolution is raised to 1440p on Low, the FPS falls to 366.4, and at 4K it settles at 211.5. The gap between Low and High at 4K is 53.6 FPS, which is a significant margin, but the absolute numbers remain high enough that even the most demanding preset at 4K, Ultra, still clears 124.1 FPS. The data suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to prevent memory-related stutters, as the frame rates remain smooth and scale consistently without any anomalous dips.

The most telling statistic for the limiting component is the difference between the 1080p Low and 4K Ultra results: a spread of 425.2 FPS. This wide range indicates that the system is capable of extreme performance at low resolution but is heavily throttled by the GPU at 4K. The 4K Ultra figure of 124.1 FPS is still well above the standard 60 FPS target, but the 4.4x reduction from the peak 1080p Low score highlights that the GPU is the primary constraint in the highest-fidelity scenarios. The CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads, with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, are clearly not the limiting factor at any tested setting, as even the most CPU-intensive low-resolution scenarios do not show signs of a plateau.

Settings Recommendations

Choosing the optimal preset depends on the target display and whether the user prioritizes raw frame rate or visual fidelity. For 1080p displays, the data shows that Ultra is the best choice, as it still delivers 321.5 FPS, which is more than sufficient for even the highest refresh rate monitors. The gap between Ultra and High at 1080p is 83 FPS, but the visual improvement from High to Ultra is substantial enough that the frame rate loss is acceptable given the sheer headroom. Medium at 1080p offers 461.6 FPS, which is only useful for competitive scenarios where every millisecond matters, but the difference between Medium and Ultra is 140.1 FPS, making Ultra the clear winner for general use.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts to High, which produces 268.9 FPS. Ultra at this resolution drops to 217.8 FPS, a 19% reduction that may not be worth the extra graphical load for most users. The Medium preset at 1440p yields 313.4 FPS, but the visual downgrade from High is noticeable, and the 44.5 FPS gain is not substantial enough to justify it. Low at 1440p, at 366.4 FPS, is only relevant for esports-level competitive play, but for an idle game, the High preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance.

For 4K displays, the Ultra preset is still viable at 124.1 FPS, but the High preset at 157.9 FPS is the recommended choice. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is 33.8 FPS, which is a 21% performance penalty for the highest settings. Medium at 4K, at 177.6 FPS, offers a slight improvement over High, but the visual drop is more pronounced at this resolution. Low at 4K, at 211.5 FPS, is overkill for most displays, as the reduction in visual quality is significant. The data suggests that High at 4K is the sweet spot, providing a high frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most 4K monitors while maintaining good visual fidelity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER achieves a rank of 123 out of 1756 tested combos in To The Core, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all configurations. This is a strong result that reflects the high-end nature of both components. The CPU's average benchmark score of 70104 places it at the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals being the Intel Core i7-14700K at 70074 and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X at 70420, showing that the 14700KF is essentially tied with its direct sibling and only 0.4% behind the Ryzen 9. The GPU's average benchmark score of 53610 places it at the 88th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT at 53489, a margin of only 0.2%.

The rank of 123 out of 1756 means that there are 122 other combinations that perform better in this specific game, but given the high frame rates measured, the differences are likely marginal. The combo's performance is particularly strong in the context of the game's genre, as idle games typically do not require extreme hardware, yet this pairing still manages to deliver frame rates that are several times higher than what is necessary for smooth gameplay. The data shows that the CPU's multicore performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 44557, and the GPU's raw compute power, with an FP32 performance of 52.22 TFLOPS, combine to create a system that exceeds the requirements of To The Core by a wide margin.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete matrix of results across all combinations of resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 549.3 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. Medium produces 461.6 FPS, High drops to 404.5 FPS, and Ultra rounds out the 1080p results at 321.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 227.8 FPS, showing the significant impact of graphical settings on performance at this resolution. At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 366.4 FPS, Medium produces 313.4 FPS, High delivers 268.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 217.8 FPS. The spread at 1440p is 148.6 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is starting to become a more significant factor.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers 211.5 FPS, Medium produces 177.6 FPS, High drops to 157.9 FPS, and Ultra yields 124.1 FPS. The spread at 4K is 87.4 FPS, which is the smallest of the three resolutions, confirming that the GPU is the dominant constraint at this resolution. The data also shows that the gap between consecutive presets varies by resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Medium is 87.7 FPS, Medium to High is 57.1 FPS, and High to Ultra is 83 FPS. At 1440p, the differences are 53 FPS, 44.5 FPS, and 51.1 FPS respectively. At 4K, the differences are 33.9 FPS, 19.7 FPS, and 33.8 FPS. This pattern shows that the relative cost of each preset level decreases as resolution increases, further evidence of the GPU bottleneck at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER plays a pivotal role in the performance of this combo, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is more than adequate for To The Core, as the game does not appear to have extreme VRAM requirements based on the measured frame rates. The GPU's boost clock of 2550 MHz and base clock of 2295 MHz, combined with its 10240 shading units, allow it to handle the rendering load efficiently. The Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, provides a high transistor density of 121.1M per square millimeter, with a total of 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die.

The GPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks aligns with its measured FPS results. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 and Passmark G3D score of 34245 place it at the 88th percentile of all GPUs. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, has an average benchmark score of 53489, which is only 0.2% lower than the RTX 4080 SUPER's 53610. This close margin in synthetic benchmarks is reflected in the game's performance, where the RTX 4080 SUPER consistently delivers high frame rates. The GPU's power draw of 320 W and the suggested 700 W PSU indicate that it is a power-hungry component, but the measured performance justifies the power consumption.

The GPU's role is most evident at 4K, where the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 87.4 FPS. At 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to push the frame rate to 549.3 FPS on Low, but the GPU still manages to keep up with the demand. The data shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER is not the bottleneck at 1080p, as the frame rates are limited by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls. However, at 4K, the GPU's rendering workload becomes the primary constraint, and the frame rates scale more predictably with the settings preset.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo can achieve in To The Core?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 549.3, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers an average FPS of 124.1, which is still well above the standard 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the rank of this CPU-GPU combination among all tested combos?

A: The combo ranks 123 out of 1756 tested combinations in To The Core, placing it in the top 7% of all configurations.

Q: Is the CPU or the GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is more likely the limiting factor, as the frame rates are extremely high (up to 549.3 FPS on Low) and the GPU has enough headroom to process the frames.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 268.9 FPS while Ultra delivers 217.8 FPS, a difference of 51.1 FPS or approximately 19% lower performance for Ultra.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth and how does it relate to performance?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has a memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, which is sufficient to maintain consistent frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings without any indication of memory-related throttling.