Inside

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers an overwhelming performance envelope for Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer. Measured data shows this combination never dips below triple-digit average frame rates at any tested resolution or preset, making it a candidate for high-refresh-rate displays even at 4K. The benchmark results position this build as exceptionally overpowered for the title’s demands, with the only meaningful question being how much headroom remains for future or more demanding software.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are extraordinarily high across all four presets. The Low preset produces an average of 317 FPS, while Medium reaches 293 FPS with a minimum of 249 FPS and a maximum of 337 FPS. High settings yield 244 FPS average, and Ultra still maintains 234 FPS average. The spread between Low and Ultra is 83 FPS, indicating that even the most demanding settings leave substantial performance on the table.

Moving to 2560x1440, the scaling is consistent. Low delivers 284 FPS average, Medium drops to 262 FPS (with min/max of 223/302), High produces 176 FPS, and Ultra maintains 168 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 116 FPS, showing that resolution scaling has a more pronounced effect than preset changes at this tier. The Medium preset’s minimum of 223 FPS still far exceeds any playability threshold.

At 3840x2160, the performance remains extremely strong. Low averages 222 FPS, Medium averages 177 FPS with a minimum of 151 FPS and maximum of 204 FPS, High averages 111 FPS, and Ultra averages 106 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 116 FPS, mirroring the 1440p delta. Notably, the Ultra preset at 4K still produces over 100 FPS average, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay on standard 60 Hz displays and comfortably within reach of 120 Hz panels.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: doubling resolution from 1080p to 1440p reduces average FPS by roughly 25-35% depending on the preset, while moving from 1440p to 4K reduces it by another 35-40%. The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, showing a variation of about 53 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 53 FPS at 4K — indicating frame pacing remains stable even under load.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data shows that the GPU dominates performance scaling across resolutions, as expected for a visually simple game. At 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor at Low and Medium presets, where the RTX 5070’s raw throughput cannot be fully utilized — the jump from Low (317 FPS) to Medium (293 FPS) is modest, but the drop from Medium to High (244 FPS) suggests the GPU begins to take over. The i5-12400’s six cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, provide ample single-thread performance for this title’s physics and logic.

At 1440p, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced. The difference between Low (284 FPS) and Medium (262 FPS) is only 22 FPS, while High (176 FPS) and Ultra (168 FPS) show a much larger drop from Medium. This indicates that the RTX 5070’s memory bandwidth — 672.0 GB/s across a 192-bit bus — becomes a factor at higher presets, though the CPU still keeps pace without bottlenecking.

At 4K, the GPU is unequivocally the primary constraint. The scaling from Low (222 FPS) to Medium (177 FPS) to High (111 FPS) to Ultra (106 FPS) shows a steep degradation curve that aligns with the GPU’s shading units (6144) and texture rate (482.3 GTexel/s) reaching their limits. The CPU’s role diminishes to near irrelevance at this resolution, as the frame rates are entirely dictated by the GPU’s ability to fill pixels — 201.0 GPixel/s — and process geometry.

The fact that the i5-12400’s benchmark scores (e.g., 15,989 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 2,257 single-core) place it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs suggests it has ample headroom for this game. Conversely, the RTX 5070’s 82nd percentile ranking among GPUs, combined with its 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 performance, indicates that the GPU is the more capable component for this workload, yet still heavily underutilized at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this CPU-GPU combination holds the 787th rank out of 3,716 tested combos for Inside. That places it in the top 21% of all configurations, which is notable given the game’s modest requirements. The combo’s average benchmark score of 40,377 (derived from the GPU’s Passmark G3D score of 29,137 and the CPU’s average of 18,683) reflects a balanced pairing where neither component significantly drags the other down.

The ranking is likely suppressed by the fact that many higher-ranked combos use more powerful CPUs or multi-GPU setups, but for this specific game, the ranking understates the practical experience. At 4K Ultra, the combo delivers 106 FPS average, which is 76% higher than the 60 FPS playability threshold. At 1440p Ultra, the 168 FPS average represents a 180% margin over the threshold. These margins are so large that the combo’s rank primarily reflects its position among other high-end configurations rather than any weakness in this title.

The CPU’s 72nd percentile standing and the GPU’s 82nd percentile standing suggest that this pairing is well-matched, with the GPU slightly ahead. The combo rank of 787 out of 3,716 indicates that while many configurations outperform it, the vast majority of tested builds would deliver lower frame rates in Inside.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the Intel Core i5-12400, the nearest rivals by average benchmark score include the AMD EPYC 7643 (18,697 vs. 18,683, a -0.1% difference), the Intel Core i7-1355U (18,730, -0.3%), and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 (18,811, -0.7%). These CPUs would behave nearly identically in Inside, given that the game’s CPU load is minimal. The Intel Core i3-14100F (18,519, +0.9%) is also a close match, offering similar single-thread performance at a lower core count. Any of these alternatives would produce virtually the same frame rates in this game, as the GPU would remain the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, the nearest rivals by average score are the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40,318, +0.1%), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40,063, +0.8%), and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40,870, -1.2%). The NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39,568, +2.0%) is also within a narrow margin. These GPUs would deliver nearly identical performance in Inside, meaning a system with any of these alternatives paired with the i5-12400 would see frame rates within a few percent of the measured values. The deltaPct values are all under 2%, so the practical difference is negligible — a user swapping the RTX 5070 for a Radeon Pro 580 would lose roughly 0.1% performance, which is imperceptible.

The key takeaway is that this combo sits in a dense performance cluster. Neither the CPU nor the GPU is an outlier, so buyers could substitute any of these near-identical alternatives without changing the gameplay experience in Inside.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset tested — Ultra — maintains an average of 234 FPS. This is the best choice for maximizing visual quality while still delivering a frame rate nearly four times the 60 FPS playability threshold. The Medium preset offers 293 FPS average, but the visual upgrade to Ultra is worth the 59 FPS trade-off given the enormous headroom.

At 2560x1440, Ultra again stands as the best setting, averaging 168 FPS. This remains well above 60 FPS and even clears 144 Hz refresh rates. The High preset at 176 FPS is only 8 FPS faster, so Ultra provides marginal extra visual fidelity with virtually no penalty.

At 3840x2160, Ultra averages 106 FPS, which is the optimal choice for 4K displays. This clears the 60 FPS threshold by 46 FPS, making it suitable for 60 Hz monitors and even some 100 Hz panels. The High preset at 111 FPS is only 5 FPS faster, so Ultra is clearly preferable for the visual gains. All four presets at every resolution exceed 60 FPS, but Ultra is the best setting at each tier because it provides the highest visual quality without sacrificing playability.

The Verdict

This PC can run Inside with exceptional ease. The verdict data confirms that all four tested settings — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — are playable at every resolution from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. The best settings per resolution are Ultra everywhere: 234 FPS at 1080p, 168 FPS at 1440p, and 106 FPS at 4K. These figures represent margins of 290%, 180%, and 77% above the 60 FPS playable threshold, respectively.

The i5-12400 + RTX 5070 combo is overkill for this title, but that is not a criticism. The data shows no scenario where this hardware struggles — the lowest recorded minimum FPS across all tests is 151 FPS at 4K Medium, which still exceeds the threshold by 151%. Gamers with high-refresh-rate 1440p or 4K displays will see smooth performance at maximum settings, while those with 1080p 360 Hz panels can push toward the 317 FPS Low preset ceiling. This is a configuration that will not need upgrading for Inside under any foreseeable circumstance.