Inside

Inside is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer that is anything but demanding on modern hardware, and the combination of the Intel Core i5-14400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 obliterates it at every resolution tested. The benchmark data shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-limited at 1080p, where frame rates climb into territory that exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors. For a game from 2016, this pairing delivers a flawless experience, with the only meaningful question being how much headroom you want for future titles or higher refresh rate displays.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four quality presets, with the most complete data available at Medium settings where both minimum and maximum frame rates were recorded. At 3840x2160, the RX 9060 produces an average of 70 FPS on High settings, which is already well above the 60 FPS playability threshold. Dropping to Medium at 4K yields an average of 112 FPS, with a minimum of 95 FPS and a maximum of 128 FPS, showing remarkable consistency. Low settings at 4K push the average to 140 FPS, while Ultra settles at 66 FPS average, still playable but with less margin than the other presets.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance curve steepens considerably. High settings deliver an average of 111 FPS, Medium hits 178 FPS with a range of 151 to 204 FPS, and Low reaches 222 FPS. Ultra at 1440p produces an average of 106 FPS, which is nearly identical to the High preset at the same resolution, suggesting that the Ultra preset’s additional effects are not fully taxing the GPU at this resolution. The scaling from 4K to 1440p is nearly linear for the lower presets, but the High and Ultra presets show relatively smaller gains, indicating that CPU overhead begins to play a larger role.

At 1920x1080, the frame rates become extreme. Low settings produce an average of 309 FPS, Medium averages 247 FPS with a minimum of 210 FPS and maximum of 284 FPS, High averages 155 FPS, and Ultra averages 147 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is particularly large — a 92 FPS drop — which points to a specific setting within the High preset that has an outsized performance impact. The minimum frame rate at 1080p Medium is 210 FPS, which is still more than three times the playability threshold, so even the worst-case frame pacing is far beyond what any display can show.

The data reveals that Inside’s rendering demands are modest enough that even the most demanding preset at 4K stays playable, but the frame rate differences between presets are not uniform. At 4K, the jump from Low to Medium costs 28 FPS, from Medium to High costs 42 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs just 4 FPS. This suggests that Ultra at 4K is only marginally more expensive than High, while Medium is a much more efficient step down from Low. At 1080p, the pattern shifts — Low to Medium costs 62 FPS, Medium to High costs 92 FPS, and High to Ultra costs only 8 FPS — which implies that the High preset’s additional cost is mostly independent of resolution, further indicating a CPU-side bottleneck appears at lower resolutions.

Best Settings per Resolution

The verdict data confirms that every preset at every resolution is playable, but the "best" setting is defined as the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS. At 3840x2160, the best setting is Ultra, which averages 66 FPS. This is the only resolution where Ultra dips close to the threshold, but it still clears it by 6 FPS, meaning you can run the game at maximum visual quality on a 4K display without compromise.

At 2560x1440, the best setting remains Ultra, with an average of 106 FPS. This provides a substantial 46 FPS margin over the playability threshold, so even if a scene were to cause a frame rate dip, there is plenty of headroom before hitting 60 FPS. The High preset at 1440p averages 111 FPS, which is only 5 FPS higher than Ultra, so there is little reason to sacrifice visual quality for such a marginal performance gain.

At 1920x1080, Ultra again takes the top spot with an average of 147 FPS. This is more than double the playability threshold and leaves enough performance reserve for a 144Hz display, though not quite enough for a 165Hz or 240Hz panel at maximum settings. For the absolute highest frame rates at 1080p, the Low preset averages 309 FPS and Medium averages 247 FPS, but these come with reduced visual fidelity. Given that Ultra at 1080p still produces 147 FPS, the practical recommendation is to run Ultra at all resolutions, with the understanding that 4K Ultra is the only configuration where the margin over 60 FPS is narrow.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results indicate that Inside is a game where the GPU dominates at 4K, but the CPU becomes noticeably more relevant as resolution drops. The clearest evidence is the scaling between presets at different resolutions. At 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra is 74 FPS (140 to 66), while at 1080p, the same preset jump costs 162 FPS (309 to 147). If the GPU were the sole bottleneck, the absolute frame rate difference between Low and Ultra would scale roughly with pixel count — the fact that the 1080p delta is more than twice the 4K delta shows that something other than the GPU is limiting performance at lower resolutions.

The Intel Core i5-14400F has 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, and its single-thread performance is strong enough to feed the RX 9060 at 1080p up to a point. The 1080p Low average of 309 FPS appears to be near the CPU’s practical limit for this game’s engine, because the jump to Medium only drops to 247 FPS, but the jump to High drops to 155 FPS — a much larger relative reduction. This pattern suggests that High and Ultra presets introduce CPU-side effects (likely related to physics or draw call overhead) that the 14400F cannot process quickly enough to maintain the same frame rate as the GPU would otherwise allow.

At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The RX 9060’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus provide 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for this title but still caps performance at 4K Ultra to 66 FPS. The GPU’s 1792 shading units and 64 ROPs are the likely constraint at this resolution, as the 4K Low to Medium scaling (140 to 112 FPS) is a 28 FPS drop, which is proportionate to the GPU load increase. The 14400F’s role at 4K is minimal, as even the most demanding preset leaves the CPU with spare capacity.

For players targeting 1440p, the balance shifts slightly. The 1440p Ultra average of 106 FPS is only 40 FPS lower than the 4K Ultra average of 66 FPS, despite 1440p having roughly half the pixels of 4K. This sub-linear scaling indicates that the CPU is beginning to assert itself at 1440p, particularly on the Ultra preset where the frame rate difference between 1440p and 1080p is just 41 FPS (106 to 147), versus the 74 FPS difference between 4K and 1440p. In practical terms, the i5-14400F is sufficient for this game at all resolutions, but its influence is most pronounced at 1080p where frame rates exceed 300 FPS on Low settings.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, the average frame rate is 66 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS playability threshold. This is the closest the system comes to the boundary, but it remains playable.

Q: What is the highest frame rate this combination can achieve?

A: The highest recorded average is 309 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 247 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra it is 147 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, where the frame rate scales with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU becomes more influential, as evidenced by the 92 FPS drop from Medium to High at 1080p compared to only a 42 FPS drop at 4K for the same preset change.

Q: How much performance is lost going from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra?

A: The average frame rate drops from 147 FPS at 1080p Ultra to 66 FPS at 4K Ultra, a reduction of 81 FPS. This is a 55% decrease, which is expected given the four-fold increase in pixel count.

Q: Are the minimum frame rates ever below 60 FPS?

A: No. The only recorded minimum frame rates are at Medium settings: 95 FPS at 4K, 151 FPS at 1440p, and 210 FPS at 1080p. All are well above 60 FPS.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a smooth experience at 1440p?

A: Yes, with an average of 106 FPS and a minimum of 151 FPS at Medium settings (the only preset with recorded minimums), the Ultra preset at 1440p should maintain smooth frame pacing without dropping below 60 FPS.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals for both components, several combinations would produce nearly identical performance in Inside. The CPU’s closest match is the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U, with an average benchmark score 0.1% higher than the i5-14400F, followed by the Intel Core i9-11900 at 0.2% higher and the Intel Core i7-12800H at 0.5% higher. The AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS sits 0.2% lower. For a game like Inside that is not heavily multi-threaded, any of these CPUs would deliver effectively the same frame rates, particularly at 4K where the GPU is the limiting factor.

On the GPU side, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the closest rival, with an average benchmark score 0.7% higher than the RX 9060. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is 1% higher, while the AMD Radeon R9 370X is 1% lower and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 is 2.1% lower. Given that the RX 9060 already produces 66 FPS at 4K Ultra, a system using an RTX 3060 Ti would likely achieve a slightly higher frame rate at the same settings, but the difference would be imperceptible in practice. The R9 370X, despite being an older architecture, would still be expected to handle Inside at playable frame rates based on its proximity in benchmark scores.

For a system builder choosing between these parts, the key takeaway is that the i5-14400F is more than adequate for this game at any resolution, and the RX 9060 provides enough headroom that even a slightly slower GPU (like the R9 370X) would likely maintain playable performance. Conversely, pairing the i5-14400F with a faster GPU would yield diminishing returns at 1080p, since the CPU appears to become the limiting factor at frame rates above 300 FPS. At 4K, a faster GPU would help, but the RX 9060 already meets the 60 FPS threshold on Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination ranks 2129 out of 3716 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the 43rd percentile of all systems. This might sound modest, but it is important to contextualize this ranking: Inside is an undemanding game, so the ranking includes many systems with far more powerful components that achieve similar frame rates. The ranking is not a reflection of this combo’s adequacy — it reflects that Inside does not meaningfully differentiate between a mid-range system and a high-end one.

The combo’s percentile ranking for the CPU alone is 83rd among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at 59th among all GPUs. The fact that the combined ranking is lower than either individual percentile suggests that Inside is not pushing either component to its limit, and the frame rates are instead capped by the game’s engine or the 60 FPS playability threshold. The data shows that this combo achieves 66 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is the most demanding scenario, and every other configuration exceeds 100 FPS. In practical terms, this means the combo is overqualified for Inside, and any perceived ranking weakness is an artifact of the game’s low requirements rather than a limitation of the hardware.

For a player who owns this system, the 2129th ranking out of 3716 combos should not cause concern. The benchmark results indicate that the system is comfortably above the playability threshold at every resolution and preset, and the only way to improve the ranking would be to use a more powerful GPU for 4K Ultra, where the 66 FPS average could be pushed higher. However, since 66 FPS is already above 60 FPS, the practical benefit of a higher ranking is negligible for this title. The combination is a strong match for Inside, delivering high frame rates across the board with no compromises required.