To The Core

# To The Core with Intel Core i9-14900K + Intel Arc B390

The pairing of Intel's 24-core Core i9-14900K with the integrated-class Intel Arc B390 creates a striking imbalance in To The Core, an idle game that nonetheless scales heavily with resolution. Benchmark data shows this combo ranks 2643rd out of 2991 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 12th percentile of all system pairings. The Arc B390, scoring just 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, while the Core i9-14900K ranks at the 95th percentile across all CPUs. This is a system where the processor is clearly the dominant component, and the measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets confirm that the integrated GPU is the limiting factor at every single setting.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lives. At Low settings, the combo delivers 147 FPS at 1920x1080, which falls to 99 FPS at 2560x1440 — a 33% reduction — and then to 56 FPS at 3840x2160, which is 62% below the 1080p figure. Moving from 1440p to 4K alone costs 43 FPS. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the pixel throughput demands of higher resolutions outpace what the Arc B390 can deliver.

At High settings, the scaling curve is similar but starts lower. The system produces 107 FPS at 1080p, 72 FPS at 1440p, and 41 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 33% from 1080p to 1440p and 43% from 1440p to 4K. Ultra settings show the most dramatic falloff: 86 FPS at 1080p, 58 FPS at 1440p, and just 33 FPS at 4K — a 62% total reduction from the lowest to highest resolution. The pattern across all presets is consistent: each resolution step incurs a significant penalty, and the gap widens as settings increase.

The data suggests that the Arc B390's fixed-function units — 48 texture mapping units and 24 raster output pipelines — are being saturated quickly. The GPU's 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate and 120.0 GTexel/s texture rate are modest figures, and the 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K. Even the least demanding setting in the test, Low at 1080p, only reaches 147 FPS, which indicates the GPU is working near its ceiling rather than being held back by the CPU.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i9-14900K bottlenecking the Arc B390 in To The Core?

A: No. The Core i9-14900K ranks at the 95th percentile across all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 79097, while the Arc B390 ranks at just the 9th percentile among GPUs. The measured FPS drops sharply with resolution and settings, which is the signature of a GPU-limited system.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in To The Core?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all four settings presets exceed 86 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low and Medium settings stay above 83 FPS, while High and Ultra drop to 72 and 58 FPS respectively. At 4K, every preset falls below 56 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the Arc B390 scores 1482, which is 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% ahead of the GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% ahead of the GeForce GT 710 (1443). These are all low-end parts from previous generations.

Q: Does the Core i9-14900K's 24-core configuration help in To The Core?

A: The CPU's multithreaded performance is exceptional — 39399.5 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 58674 in Passmark multithread — but To The Core's frame rates do not scale with CPU headroom. Since the GPU is the bottleneck, the processor's 32 threads are largely idle in this workload.

Q: What is the playable 4K experience like?

A: At 3840x2160, the best result is 56 FPS on Low settings, while Medium averages 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS. High drops to 41 FPS and Ultra falls to 33 FPS. None of these reach a smooth 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2643rd out of 2991 combinations in To The Core, which places it in the bottom 11.6% of all tested pairings. This reflects the Arc B390's weak absolute performance despite the powerful CPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 2643 out of 2991 tested combinations in To The Core places it firmly in the lower quartile of system performance. With 348 combinations ranking below it, this pairing outperforms only about 11.6% of all tested configurations. The primary reason is the Arc B390's position in the GPU hierarchy: its 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs means the vast majority of discrete graphics cards outperform it. The Core i9-14900K, by contrast, sits at the 95th percentile among all CPUs, meaning 95% of processors are slower than it.

The delta between the two components' percentile rankings — 86 points — is among the largest imbalances possible in a desktop system. The GPU's nearest rivals in the 3DMark Steel Nomad test are all NVIDIA parts from the early 2010s: the GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710. The Arc B390 beats each by a narrow margin, with deltaPct values of 1.3%, 1.5%, 2.5%, and 2.7% respectively. These are not meaningful performance gaps; they represent a cluster of similarly weak GPUs.

Given that the Core i9-14900K's nearest rivals are the Core i9-14900KF (0.3% slower), Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (0.6% slower), and AMD EPYC 7413 (1.2% slower), the CPU is clearly not the limiting factor. The data shows that even a much weaker processor would produce nearly identical frame rates in To The Core, as the Arc B390 is the binding constraint at every resolution and preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce 147 FPS average, which is the highest frame rate recorded across the entire test matrix. Medium settings average 124 FPS with a minimum of 105 and maximum of 143, showing a tight frame time distribution. High settings drop to 107 FPS, while Ultra settings bring the average down to 86 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 61 FPS, or 41% of the Low preset's performance.

At 2560x1440, the performance tier shifts downward noticeably. Low settings average 99 FPS, which is still respectable but 33% lower than the same preset at 1080p. Medium settings average 83 FPS with minimum and maximum values of 71 and 96, respectively. High settings produce 72 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 58 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 41 FPS, a 41% reduction from the Low preset.

At 3840x2160, the Arc B390 struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings average 56 FPS, which narrowly avoids dipping below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings average 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 and maximum of 55, meaning the experience can drop below 45 FPS during demanding scenes. High settings average 41 FPS, and Ultra settings average just 33 FPS. The scaling from 1080p Low to 4K Low represents a 62% performance loss, and from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra the loss is also 62% — a consistent pattern across the settings spectrum.

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data at all three resolutions, which provides insight into frame pacing. At 1080p, the 105-143 FPS range shows reasonable consistency. At 1440p, the 71-96 FPS range narrows in absolute terms but represents a similar percentage spread. At 4K, the 41-55 FPS range indicates that the GPU is operating near its limit, with occasional dips below 45 FPS that would be noticeable in gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It features a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory across a dual-channel bus, and it includes UHD Graphics 770 integrated graphics as a fallback.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i9-14900K posts exceptional numbers: 39399.5 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 2262.5 in Cinebench R23 singlecore, 21697 in Geekbench multicore, and 2655 in Geekbench singlecore. Its Passmark scores are equally impressive, with 58674 in multithread, 4697 in single thread, 210622 in integer math, and 152975 in floating point math. The CPU's percentile ranking of 95 among all CPUs confirms its position near the top of the desktop processor hierarchy.

However, in To The Core, the CPU's role is minimal. The measured FPS values show no indication of CPU limitation — frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings, which is the opposite of a CPU-bound scenario. If the processor were the bottleneck, the frame rates would remain relatively flat across resolutions, with the GPU having headroom to spare. Instead, the data shows the Arc B390 being pushed to its limits, with every increase in pixel count or visual fidelity producing a corresponding drop in performance.

The CPU's 24 cores and 32 threads are far more than an idle game like To The Core requires. The game's genre suggests minimal simulation or physics workload, and the frame rate patterns confirm that the GPU is the sole performance constraint. Even the i9-14900K's integrated UHD Graphics 770 would likely produce similar or slightly better results than the Arc B390 in this title, given the discrete GPU's 9th percentile ranking.

Settings Recommendations

For users targeting 1920x1080, the data supports running Ultra settings at 86 FPS average. This is the only resolution where the Ultra preset remains comfortably above 60 FPS, and the visual quality gain over High (107 FPS) or Medium (124 FPS) may be worth the frame rate trade-off. The 147 FPS available at Low settings is excessive for an idle game, and the extra visual fidelity at Ultra provides a better experience without compromising smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the recommended preset is Medium, which averages 83 FPS with a minimum of 71 FPS. This maintains a stable frame rate above 70 FPS while offering better visual quality than Low (99 FPS). High settings at 72 FPS are also playable, but the 11 FPS drop from Medium to High is noticeable, and Ultra at 58 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold. Users who prioritize smoothness should select Medium, while those who prefer visuals can choose High with the understanding that frame rates will occasionally dip.

At 3840x2160, the options are limited. Low settings at 56 FPS is the only preset that approaches 60 FPS, but it still falls short. Medium at 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS is borderline playable but may exhibit stutter during demanding scenes. High at 41 FPS and Ultra at 33 FPS are not recommended for a smooth experience. The data suggests that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo in To The Core, and users should either lower the resolution or accept sub-60 FPS performance.

The overall recommendation is to run the game at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings for the best combination of visual quality and performance. The 86 FPS average at this configuration is well above the minimum threshold for smooth gameplay, and the frame rate headroom means the system can handle any scene without dropping to uncomfortable levels. At 1440p, Medium settings provide a balanced experience, while 4K should be avoided unless the user is willing to accept the Low preset's 56 FPS average.