To The Core

Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with Intel Arc B390 delivers a playable, though not exceptional, experience in To The Core, an idle game that is far more forgiving on hardware than most modern titles. The measured frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings confirm that this combination is heavily skewed toward the CPU, with the integrated GPU acting as the primary bottleneck at higher quality presets. While the combo ranks in the bottom 12% of all tested configurations, the game’s undemanding nature still allows for smooth gameplay at 1080p and even 1440p with some settings adjustments.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread desktop processor built on the Arrow Lake architecture using a 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, drawing a 65 W TDP. This CPU sits in the 85th percentile of all processors in the benchmark database, indicating strong general-purpose performance that far exceeds what an idle game like To The Core requires. The processor’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample headroom for the game’s logic and simulation loops, which typically rely on single-threaded efficiency rather than raw multi-core throughput.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 225 demonstrates its strengths. It scores 25,891 points in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,655 points in single-core, with a PassMark single-thread score of 4,412. These figures place it alongside rivals such as the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, which has an average score of 36,945, and the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D at 37,018. The delta between the Core Ultra 5 225 and these competitors is negligible—0% and -0.2% respectively—meaning that swapping between these CPUs would yield virtually identical performance in To The Core.

For an idle game, the CPU’s role is primarily to maintain a stable frame pacing and handle background calculations. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 147 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure. This suggests that the CPU is never the limiting factor at lower settings; instead, the graphics pipeline takes over as the bottleneck when visual fidelity increases. The processor’s 10 cores and 10 threads are more than sufficient for To The Core, which likely utilizes only a fraction of the available resources. Even at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS drops to 33, the CPU still has headroom to spare, as evidenced by the fact that reducing settings to Low at the same resolution nearly doubles the frame rate to 56 FPS.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process with a 80 W TDP. It features 1,536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation pipelines, along with 12 ray tracing cores. The GPU’s base clock is 300 MHz, which boosts up to 2500 MHz. Critically, the Arc B390 uses "System Shared" memory, meaning it draws from the system’s DDR5 RAM rather than dedicated VRAM. The memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent," which in practice ties the GPU’s performance directly to the CPU’s memory subsystem.

The Arc B390’s benchmark results are underwhelming. It scores 1,482 points in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. This puts it in direct competition with legacy mobile and entry-level discrete parts like the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, which scores 1,463, and the GeForce 800M at 1,460. The delta percentages are small—1.3% and 1.5% respectively—confirming that the Arc B390 performs at the level of a decade-old entry-level graphics card. This explains why To The Core’s frame rates drop so precipitously when moving from Low to Ultra settings.

In practice, the GPU’s shared memory architecture means that at higher resolutions and quality presets, the iGPU struggles to keep up with the fill rate demands. The texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s are respectable for an integrated part, but they are insufficient for sustained high-fidelity rendering. The 12 ray tracing cores are present, but To The Core is an idle game that almost certainly does not utilize ray tracing, making this feature irrelevant to the measured results. The GPU’s DirectX 12 Ultimate support ensures API compatibility, but the raw throughput is the limiting factor.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern: performance scales inversely with resolution, but the rate of decline accelerates as settings increase. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 147 FPS. Dropping to 1440p Low reduces this to 99 FPS—a 33% decrease—while 4K Low yields 56 FPS, a further 43% drop. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is heavily taxed by pixel count alone, even at the lowest settings.

When moving to High settings, the trend continues but with less severity. At 1080p High, the average is 107 FPS. At 1440p High, it falls to 72 FPS (a 33% drop), and at 4K High, it reaches 41 FPS (a 43% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and High settings suggests that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints, rather than any specific rendering feature.

The Medium preset tells a similar story. At 1080p Medium, the average is 124 FPS with a minimum of 105 FPS and maximum of 143 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 83 FPS (min 71, max 96), and at 4K Medium, it falls to 48 FPS (min 41, max 55). The variance between minimum and maximum FPS widens at higher resolutions, indicating that the shared memory system is struggling to feed the GPU consistently.

This pattern strongly indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect to see similar FPS across different resolutions at the same settings, since the processor’s workload would remain constant. Instead, the frame rate drops by roughly 30-40% with each resolution step, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The 4K Ultra preset, which averages 33 FPS, is particularly telling—it is the only preset where the game becomes borderline unplayable, and it does so because the iGPU simply cannot handle the pixel shader workload.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

In the database of tested hardware combinations for To The Core, the Core Ultra 5 225 + Arc B390 combo ranks 2,643 out of 2,991 total configurations. This places it in the bottom 12% of all tested systems, which is unsurprising given the GPU’s low benchmark percentile. The rank reflects that while the CPU is above average, the integrated graphics drag the overall package down significantly.

To contextualize this rank, consider that the CPU alone sits in the 85th percentile, while the GPU sits in the 9th percentile. The combo rank of 2,643 is much closer to the GPU’s percentile than the CPU’s, confirming that graphics performance dominates the overall score. This is typical for systems with integrated graphics, where the GPU is almost always the limiting factor in gaming workloads.

Compared to other combos in the database, this system is positioned alongside configurations featuring similarly low-end integrated or entry-level discrete GPUs. The nearest GPU rivals—NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710—all score within 3% of the Arc B390, which suggests that any system with these GPUs would rank similarly. The CPU’s superiority over its rivals (e.g., being 0% to 0.5% different from the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F or Intel Core i9-12900T) does little to improve the combo rank, as the GPU bottleneck dominates.

For a prospective user, this rank indicates that the system is suitable for light or casual gaming, particularly idle games like To The Core which do not demand high frame rates or advanced graphical features. However, it would struggle with more demanding 3D titles, especially at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for To The Core depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1080p, all presets are playable, but the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. It averages 124 FPS with a minimum of 105 FPS, ensuring no noticeable stuttering. The High preset at 107 FPS is also acceptable, but the 14% performance drop from Medium may not justify the marginal visual improvement in an idle game. Low at 147 FPS is overkill for a game that does not require high refresh rates to be enjoyable.

At 1440p, the Medium preset remains the sweet spot, averaging 83 FPS with a minimum of 71 FPS. This is still smooth for an idle game, and the visual fidelity is notably better than Low, which averages 99 FPS but sacrifices detail. High at 72 FPS is playable but begins to approach the threshold where frame pacing could become inconsistent. Ultra at 58 FPS is borderline; while playable, the reduced frame rate does not meaningfully improve the experience for a game of this genre.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts to Low, which averages 56 FPS. Medium at 48 FPS is acceptable but may exhibit occasional dips to 41 FPS, which could be noticeable. High at 41 FPS is marginal, and Ultra at 33 FPS is below the generally accepted threshold for smooth gameplay. Given that To The Core is an idle game with minimal visual complexity, the difference between Low and Medium at 4K may not be worth the 14% frame rate penalty.

Overall, the Medium preset is the best recommendation for most users, as it provides a consistent experience across all resolutions without pushing the GPU to its limits. For those prioritizing frame rate over visuals, Low is the safer choice at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo’s performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low averages 147 FPS, Medium averages 124 FPS (min 105, max 143), High averages 107 FPS, and Ultra averages 86 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 61 FPS, representing a 41% reduction in performance when maxing out settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates drop significantly: Low averages 99 FPS, Medium averages 83 FPS (min 71, max 96), High averages 72 FPS, and Ultra averages 58 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 41 FPS, a 41% reduction. Notably, the minimum FPS for Medium at this resolution is 71, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the performance degrades further: Low averages 56 FPS, Medium averages 48 FPS (min 41, max 55), High averages 41 FPS, and Ultra averages 33 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 23 FPS, again a 41% reduction. The minimum FPS for Medium at 4K is 41, which falls below the 60 FPS target but remains acceptable for a game of this type where rapid action is not a factor.

The data shows a consistent 41% performance drop from Low to Ultra across all resolutions, which indicates that the GPU’s scaling is linear and predictable. The maximum FPS values for Medium at each resolution (143 at 1080p, 96 at 1440p, 55 at 4K) suggest that the hardware can briefly spike higher, but the average is what matters for sustained gameplay. Overall, the combo is capable of delivering a playable experience at 1080p and 1440p with Medium settings, while 4K requires Low settings for acceptable frame rates.