To The Core

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the Intel Arc B370 lands at rank 2750 out of 2991 tested combos in To The Core. That places this configuration in the bottom 92nd percentile of all systems tested for this title, a position that reflects the Arc B370's status as an integrated graphics solution rather than any shortcoming in the processor. The combo sits ahead of only a small fraction of the field, and the data suggests that the GPU is the primary anchor on performance.

The CPU itself, however, is a different story. The Core Ultra 5 245 ranks in the 90th percentile against all CPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 48995. Its nearest rivals show how tightly clustered the processor is at this performance tier: the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G scores 49196 (0.4% higher), the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 scores 49228 (0.5% higher), the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48698 (0.6% lower), and the Intel Core i5-14600K scores 48618 (0.8% lower). The Core Ultra 5 245 is essentially at parity with these chips, sitting within a single percentage point of all four rivals. This is a processor that can hold its own in compute-heavy workloads, but To The Core is not where that strength shows.

The GPU, by contrast, ranks in the 5th percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its nearest rivals are all legacy parts: the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 scores 1186 (0.2% higher), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 scores 1190 (0.5% higher), the AMD Radeon HD 7650M scores 1192 (0.7% higher), and the AMD FirePro M2000 scores 1168 (1.4% lower). The Arc B370 is bracketed by graphics hardware from more than a decade ago, which contextualizes its measured frame rates in this game. When a modern integrated GPU trades blows with the ATI Radeon HD 5770, expectations for high-refresh gameplay must be tempered.

The combination of a top-decile CPU with a bottom-twentieth-percentile GPU creates a lopsided system. In To The Core, an idle game that does not stress the processor heavily, the GPU bottleneck dominates. The measured frame rates confirm this: even at 1080p Low, the combo only reaches 132 FPS average, which is far from the territory where the CPU would become the limiting factor. The rank of 2750 out of 2991 is therefore a GPU-limited ranking, and the data indicates that swapping the Arc B370 for even a modest discrete GPU would dramatically improve this combo's position.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics processor built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, using the Panther Lake chip. It is fabricated on Intel's 3 nm process. The GPU operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, a wide frequency range that allows it to scale with thermal headroom. The memory configuration is entirely system shared, meaning the GPU draws from the same DDR5 pool as the CPU, with bandwidth listed as system dependent. There is no dedicated VRAM; the memory size, type, and bus width are all listed as system shared.

The shading infrastructure is modest: 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster operation units. The GPU also includes 10 ray tracing cores. Pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s. Floating point performance is rated at 6.144 TFLOPS for FP32 and 12.29 TFLOPS for FP16 (at a 2:1 ratio). The thermal design power is 25 W, and the slot width is listed as IGP, meaning it is integrated into the processor package rather than occupying a PCIe slot. The bus interface is likewise IGP, and power connectors are listed as none.

In To The Core, the GPU's role is defined by its integrated nature and shared memory. The 25 W TDP and system-shared memory mean the GPU competes with the CPU for memory bandwidth, which is particularly relevant for an idle game that may not require high polygon counts but still needs consistent frame delivery. The measured FPS data shows the Arc B370 producing playable but not impressive results: 37 FPS average at 4K High, 65 FPS at 1440p High, and 97 FPS at 1080p High. These numbers align with the GPU's 5th percentile ranking among all GPUs, placing it in the company of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 and the ATI Radeon HD 5770.

The boost clock of 2400 MHz does help the GPU extract more performance than its 300 MHz base clock would suggest, but the architecture's 1280 shading units and 20 ROPs limit fill-rate-bound scenarios. The 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 figure is respectable for an iGPU, but in practice, To The Core's rendering demands still push the Arc B370 to its limits at higher resolutions. The lack of dedicated VRAM means the GPU relies on system memory bandwidth, which is listed as 102.4 GB/s for the CPU's dual-channel DDR5 configuration. This shared bandwidth is a bottleneck that becomes more pronounced as resolution increases, which the resolution scaling data confirms.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution sensitivity that points directly at the GPU as the limiting component. Moving from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, the frame rates drop in a manner consistent with a GPU that is struggling to keep up with pixel throughput, rather than a CPU that is hitting a compute ceiling.

At High settings, the Arc B370 delivers 97 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is a 33% reduction, and the drop from 1440p to 4K is a 43% reduction. These are substantial losses that track closely with the increase in pixel count. The 1080p to 4K transition represents a 62% decrease in average FPS, from 97 down to 37. This steep scaling curve is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the render resolution is the primary determinant of performance.

Low settings show the same pattern with higher absolute numbers: 132 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are similar, with a 33% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 43% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The consistency of these percentage drops across settings indicates that the GPU's fill-rate and memory bandwidth constraints are the limiting factor, not any particular setting. Medium and Ultra settings follow the same trend, with Medium producing 112, 75, and 43 FPS at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively, and Ultra producing 78, 53, and 30 FPS.

The resolution scaling data also shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution. If the CPU were limiting, the frame rates would cluster more tightly across resolutions, with the GPU only becoming the constraint at higher pixel counts. Instead, the Arc B370 shows a consistent ~33% drop at each step up in resolution, which is a classic GPU-bound signature. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245, with its 14 cores and 14 threads, has ample headroom to feed the GPU at all tested resolutions. The fact that 1080p Low produces 132 FPS while 4K Ultra produces 30 FPS — a 77% reduction — underscores how much of the performance envelope is dictated by the integrated GPU's capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo in To The Core are as follows, organized by resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, Low settings produce an average of 132 FPS, Medium produces 112 FPS (with a minimum of 95 and maximum of 129), High produces 97 FPS, and Ultra produces 78 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 54 FPS, which indicates that the settings presets have a meaningful impact on the integrated GPU's workload. The Medium setting data shows a 34 FPS range between minimum and maximum, suggesting some frame time variance but nothing that would classify the experience as unstable.

At 2560x1440, Low settings deliver 89 FPS average, Medium delivers 75 FPS (with a minimum of 64 and maximum of 87), High delivers 65 FPS, and Ultra delivers 53 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is roughly one-third, which aligns with the increased pixel count. The Medium setting at 1440p shows a 23 FPS range between minimum and maximum, a tighter envelope than at 1080p, likely because the GPU is more consistently saturated at the higher resolution.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates fall further. Low settings produce 51 FPS average, Medium produces 43 FPS (with a minimum of 37 and maximum of 50), High produces 37 FPS, and Ultra produces 30 FPS. At 4K, even Low settings cannot reach 60 FPS, and Ultra drops to exactly 30 FPS, which is the minimum threshold for playable in many titles. The Medium setting at 4K shows a 13 FPS range, the tightest of all tested configurations, which suggests the GPU is running at its performance ceiling and frame times are constrained.

The data reveals that the Arc B370 can deliver smooth 60+ FPS gameplay at 1080p across all settings, with Low and Medium exceeding 100 FPS. At 1440p, Low and Medium remain above 60 FPS, but High and Ultra fall below that threshold. At 4K, no setting reaches 60 FPS, and only Low and Medium exceed 40 FPS. For an idle game like To The Core, these frame rates are likely sufficient for a playable experience, but the resolution scaling shows that the integrated GPU is the definitive limiting factor. The CPU's role in these results is minimal, as the processor's compute capabilities far exceed what the GPU can utilize.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on TSMC's 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy consists of 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. It also supports ECC memory and uses the Intel Socket 1851. The integrated graphics are listed as Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 execution units, which is separate from the Arc B370 GPU used in this combo.

In To The Core, the CPU's role is largely supportive. The game is an idle title, which typically does not demand heavy single-threaded or multi-threaded performance. The Core Ultra 5 245's benchmark scores show it is a capable processor, but those scores do not translate directly to this game's frame rates. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 32924, and the single-core score is 4648. The PassMark multi-thread score is 38706, and the single-thread score is 4394. These are strong numbers, placing the CPU in the 90th percentile against all CPUs, but the measured FPS in To The Core are dictated by the GPU.

The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads provide ample parallel processing headroom, and the 5.10 GHz boost clock ensures responsive single-threaded performance. However, the data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this configuration. The resolution scaling pattern, where frame rates drop consistently with pixel count increases, indicates that the GPU is fully saturated before the CPU becomes a limiting factor. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU produces 132 FPS, the CPU is not under significant load, as an idle game's logic and rendering calls are unlikely to stress a modern 14-core processor.

The CPU's nearest rivals reinforce its positioning. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900 scores just 0.5% higher, and the Intel Core i5-14600K scores 0.8% lower. These are chips that would perform nearly identically in To The Core when paired with the same GPU, because the game does not differentiate between these processors at the frame rates the Arc B370 can deliver. The CPU's 17,800 million transistors and 243 mm² die size are impressive specs, but they do not influence the measured FPS in this title. The processor's role is to feed the GPU without bottlenecking, and the data confirms it does so at all tested settings and resolutions.

FAQ

*Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in To The Core?*

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 + Intel Arc B370 combination ranks 2750 out of 2991 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower portion of the field.

Q: How does the Arc B370 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, putting it 0.2% behind the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186), 0.5% behind the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190), and 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192). It is 1.4% ahead of the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168).

Q: What is the best performance this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo averages 132 FPS. Medium settings average 112 FPS, High averages 97 FPS, and Ultra averages 78 FPS.

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings average 89 FPS and Medium averages 75 FPS, both above 60 FPS. High settings average 65 FPS, also above 60 FPS, but Ultra drops to 53 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Arc B370 ranks in the 5th percentile among all GPUs, while the Core Ultra 5 245 ranks in the 90th percentile among all CPUs. The resolution scaling data shows consistent frame rate drops as resolution increases, which is a GPU-bound signature.

Q: What does the CPU's benchmark performance look like relative to its rivals?

A: The Core Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48995. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G scores 49196 (0.4% higher), the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 scores 49228 (0.5% higher), the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48698 (0.6% lower), and the Intel Core i5-14600K scores 48618 (0.8% lower).