To The Core

# To The Core with Intel Core Ultra 5 245 + Intel Arc B570

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a surprisingly consistent experience in To The Core, an idle genre title that clearly favors high refresh rate play. Across 12 measured configurations spanning three resolutions and four quality presets, this combo never dips below 51 FPS at 4K Ultra, while at 1080p Low it reaches 225 FPS. The data reveals a system where the GPU is the primary scaling factor at higher resolutions, but the CPU’s 14 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock keep frame rates high even when settings are lowered. This combination ranks in the 79.6th percentile of tested combos for this game, placing it in the upper quintile but not among the elite pairings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable drop as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly by quality preset. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 165 FPS at 1920x1080 to 111 FPS at 2560x1440, then down to 64 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 33% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 42% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 61%, which indicates that the Arc B570’s 10 GB GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed heavily at the highest resolution.

The scaling pattern at Low settings tells a different story. From 225 FPS at 1080p to 152 FPS at 1440p, the drop is 32%, but from 1440p to 4K the decline is 43% (152 to 87 FPS). This suggests that even at Low settings, the GPU remains a limiting factor at 4K, though the absolute frame rates are still playable. At Medium settings, the frame rates are 191 FPS at 1080p, 128 FPS at 1440p, and 73 FPS at 4K — a pattern that mirrors High settings closely, with a 62% total drop from 1080p to 4K.

Ultra settings produce the steepest scaling curve, with 133 FPS at 1080p dropping to 89 FPS at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 51 FPS at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 62%, the largest percentage decline of any preset. This indicates that at Ultra settings, the combination of higher resolution and maximum quality effects pushes the Arc B570 to its limits, with 4K Ultra producing the lowest measured result in the entire dataset.

The data also shows that resolution scaling is not uniform across presets. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 92 FPS (225 vs 133), while at 4K that gap narrows to 36 FPS (87 vs 51). This compression at higher resolutions is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance, where the additional workload from Ultra settings has less relative impact when the GPU is already saturated by pixel throughput. The CPU’s role becomes more prominent at lower resolutions, where frame rates exceed 200 FPS and the 14 cores can flex their muscle.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame places this pairing at 2380 out of 2991 tested combinations, which translates to a percentile ranking of roughly 79.6%. This means the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 + Intel Arc B570 outperforms approximately four out of every five combos tested in To The Core, but it sits below the top 20% of configurations. For an idle game that rarely stresses hardware to its absolute limits, this ranking reflects a balanced pairing rather than an extreme one.

The CPU’s individual standing helps contextualize this combo rank. The Core Ultra 5 245 holds a percentileVsAllCpus of 90, meaning it outperforms 90% of all CPUs in the benchmark database. Its avgBenchmarkScore of 48995 places it within 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228, deltaPct -0.5) and just 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600K (48618, deltaPct 0.8). The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196), sits only 0.4% higher. This tight clustering around the 49,000-score mark indicates that the Ultra 5 245 is competitive with several strong desktop processors, though it does not dominate them.

On the GPU side, the Arc B570’s percentileVsAllGpus of 65 is notably lower than the CPU’s 90. Its avgBenchmarkScore of 20556 places it in a tight race with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, deltaPct 0.1) and the Intel Arc A750 (20582, deltaPct -0.1). The AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662) is 0.5% faster, while the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480) is 0.4% slower. This grouping suggests the B570 delivers performance comparable to mid-range GPUs from previous generations, which aligns with its measured FPS results in this game where it produces playable but not exceptional frame rates at 4K.

The discrepancy between the CPU’s 90th percentile and the GPU’s 65th percentile explains why this combo ranks only in the 79.6th percentile for this game. The CPU has headroom to push higher frame rates, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions and settings. This is evident in the resolution scaling data, where 4K Ultra drops to 51 FPS despite the CPU’s strong single-threaded performance of 4648 in Cinebench R23.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture using TSMC’s 5 nm process, with 19,600 million transistors packed into a 272 mm² die. Its GPU chip, designated BMG-G21, operates at a fixed clock of 2500 MHz for both base and boost, which simplifies power delivery but limits dynamic overclocking headroom. The 10 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective) across a 160-bit bus, yielding 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the measured FPS drops at 4K suggest that the 160-bit bus becomes a limiting factor when pixel throughput demands exceed available bandwidth.

The GPU’s compute resources include 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units, along with 18 ray tracing cores. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 11.52 TFLOPS. In To The Core, these resources produce 225 FPS at 1080p Low, which indicates strong raw throughput at lower resolutions. However, the 4K Ultra result of 51 FPS shows that the GPU struggles when both resolution and quality settings are maximized.

The memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s is a critical factor in this game’s performance. At 4K, the difference between Low (87 FPS) and Ultra (51 FPS) is 36 FPS, a 41% reduction. This suggests that the higher quality settings increase memory pressure, and the 160-bit bus cannot keep pace with the demands of 4K rendering at maximum quality. The fixed clock of 2500 MHz means there is no boost variability to compensate, so the GPU operates at a consistent throughput level regardless of workload.

The Arc B570’s 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it below the median of high-end graphics cards, but its measured performance in this game is respectable. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649 and Passmark G3D score of 14195 indicate moderate DirectX 12 capability, while the Geekbench OpenCL score of 83514 and Vulkan score of 96844 show strong compute performance. These synthetic benchmarks align with the game’s results, where the GPU delivers smooth frame rates at 1080p and 1440p but becomes the primary bottleneck at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

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

A: Based on measured data, 2560x1440 at High settings (111 FPS) offers the best balance between visual quality and frame rate. For maximum smoothness, 1920x1080 at Low (225 FPS) provides the highest measured average, while 4K Ultra (51 FPS) is the most demanding configuration and should only be used if 50+ FPS is acceptable.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B570’s avgBenchmarkScore of 20556 is 0.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% ahead of the Intel Arc A750 (20582). The AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662) leads by 0.5%, while the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480) trails by 0.4%. These differences are negligible in real-world gaming.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. Frame rates drop from 87 FPS at Low to 51 FPS at Ultra, showing that quality settings have a significant impact. The CPU’s 90th percentile ranking and high single-threaded score of 4648 in Cinebench R23 suggest it has ample headroom, but the GPU’s 65th percentile ranking and fixed 2500 MHz clock constrain performance at this resolution.

Q: What is the CPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 scores 48995 on average, which is 0.4% below the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196) and 0.5% below the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228). It is 0.6% ahead of the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698) and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600K (48618). These margins are all under 1%, placing the Ultra 5 245 in a tightly competitive field.

Q: Does the game favor higher refresh rates at lower settings?

A: Yes, the data shows a clear preference for lower settings at 1080p. Low settings produce 225 FPS, which is 36% higher than High (165 FPS) and 69% higher than Ultra (133 FPS). This suggests the game scales well with reduced quality, but even at Ultra, 133 FPS is sufficient for most high-refresh displays.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings?

A: At High settings, the drop is from 165 FPS to 64 FPS, a 61% reduction. At Low settings, it falls from 225 FPS to 87 FPS, a 61% reduction as well. Medium settings see a 62% drop (191 to 73 FPS), while Ultra settings lose 62% (133 to 51 FPS). The consistency of these percentages indicates that resolution scaling is uniform across quality presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 + Intel Arc B570 delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 225 FPS, which is the single highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings follow at 191 FPS, with a minimum of 162 FPS and a maximum of 219 FPS, showing good frame time consistency. High settings drop to 165 FPS, while Ultra settings yield 133 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 92 FPS, representing a 41% reduction from the lowest to highest quality preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but show a noticeable step down. Low settings average 152 FPS, which is still well above the 144 Hz refresh threshold. Medium settings produce 128 FPS, with a minimum of 109 FPS and maximum of 147 FPS. High settings achieve 111 FPS, while Ultra settings fall to 89 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 63 FPS, a 41% reduction that mirrors the 1080p scaling. At this resolution, all four settings remain playable, though Ultra dips below 90 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limitations become apparent. Low settings average 87 FPS, which is playable but noticeably lower than the 1440p results. Medium settings drop to 73 FPS, with a minimum of 62 FPS and maximum of 84 FPS. High settings achieve 64 FPS, while Ultra settings produce just 51 FPS — the lowest measured result in the dataset. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 36 FPS, a 41% reduction that matches the scaling observed at lower resolutions, but the absolute values are much lower, making 4K Ultra a marginal experience.

The Medium settings data is the only preset with complete min/max FPS information across all three resolutions. At 1080p, the range from 162 to 219 FPS represents a 35% spread between minimum and maximum, indicating some frame time variability. At 1440p, the range tightens to 109 to 147 FPS, a 35% spread. At 4K, the range narrows to 62 to 84 FPS, a 35% spread as well. This consistency suggests that the game’s frame pacing remains stable regardless of resolution, though the absolute values scale with pixel count.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on TSMC’s 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and boosts up to 5.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth, and it includes 24 MB of shared L3 cache, with 192 KB of L1 and 3 MB of L2 per core. The 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs reflects its strong overall performance, with an average benchmark score of 48995.

In To The Core, the CPU’s role is most evident at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the 225 FPS result indicates that the 14 cores are capable of feeding the GPU with enough data to sustain very high frame rates. The single-threaded performance is particularly strong, with Cinebench R23 scoring 4648 in single-core tests and 32924 in multi-core tests. The Passmark single-thread score of 4394 and multithread score of 38706 further confirm the CPU’s balanced capabilities.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and dual-channel DDR5 support provide sufficient data throughput for this idle game, which likely does not require extreme memory bandwidth. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce latency for frequently accessed game data, while the 14 threads can handle the game’s background tasks without bottlenecking. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and 3 nm process node ensure efficient operation, though the game appears to be GPU-bound at higher resolutions regardless of CPU efficiency.

The nearest CPU rivals highlight the Ultra 5 245’s positioning. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900, with an avgScore of 49228, is only 0.5% faster, while the Intel Core i5-14600K is 0.8% slower. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G leads by 0.4%, and the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H trails by 0.6%. These sub-1% differences mean that in practice, the CPU choice between these models would have negligible impact on To The Core performance. The game’s measured FPS data confirms this, as the CPU’s 90th percentile ranking does not translate into 4K performance beyond the GPU’s capabilities.