Inside

Inside is not a demanding title by modern standards, but this pairing of an Intel Core i5-9400 with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 turns it into a showcase for extreme frame rates. The recorded data shows that the GPU is vastly overqualified for the game’s rendering workload, while the six-core CPU from 2018 is more than sufficient to feed it. The result is a system that never drops below 126 FPS average at any tested setting, which makes the concept of a playability threshold almost irrelevant here. The following analysis breaks down exactly how this combination behaves across resolutions and presets.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which delivers an average of 126 FPS. The data also shows High at 131 FPS, Medium at 157 FPS, and Low at 170 FPS, so every preset clears the threshold with substantial headroom. The best visual setting, Ultra, runs at more than double the 60 FPS target.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds. Ultra runs at an average of 150 FPS, High at 153 FPS, Medium at 183 FPS, and Low at 199 FPS. Again, all settings are playable, and Ultra is the recommended choice for maximum quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 1920x1080, the least demanding resolution in this test, Ultra averages 168 FPS. High runs at 171 FPS, Medium at 205 FPS, and Low at 222 FPS. Every preset is far above the 60 FPS threshold, so the best settings per resolution are simply the highest quality options available. The data indicates that the only meaningful decision for the user is whether to prioritize visual fidelity or raw frame rate, since even the heaviest preset leaves massive performance on the table.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the Intel Core i5-9400 and the RTX 4080 is unusually one-sided for this title. Inside is a puzzle platformer with a modest rendering load, so the RTX 4080’s 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 716.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth are barely stressed. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 6 threads, is the more relevant component for maintaining consistent frame pacing, though even it has ample capacity.

The scaling between resolutions confirms that the GPU is not the bottleneck. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 reduces the Ultra average from 168 FPS to 150 FPS, a drop of roughly 11%. Moving from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 reduces the Ultra average from 150 FPS to 126 FPS, another drop of roughly 16%. This is a modest degradation for a resolution increase that more than doubles the pixel count, which suggests the game’s rendering paths are not heavily pixel-bound at these settings. The RTX 4080 is simply so fast that even 4K Ultra does not create a significant load.

The CPU’s role is more visible in the difference between Low and High settings at the same resolution. At 1920x1080, Low averages 222 FPS while High averages 171 FPS, a gap of 51 FPS. At 2560x1440, the gap between Low and High is 46 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it is 39 FPS. These gaps show that the GPU is doing more work as quality rises, but the CPU still keeps up. The Core i5-9400’s single-core performance, measured at 935 in Cinebench R23 single-core, is adequate for the game’s logic and physics updates, and its multi-core score of 6629 in the same test is far beyond what this title requires.

The percentile data places the CPU at the 47th percentile among all tested CPUs, meaning it is an average performer in the broader database, yet it still delivers over 200 FPS in this game at 1080p Low. The GPU sits at the 86th percentile among all tested GPUs, which is a much stronger relative standing. The mismatch in percentile ranks explains why the GPU has so much unused headroom. For this game, the CPU matters more at lower resolutions because the GPU finishes its work quickly and waits on the CPU, but even then, the i5-9400 is never the limiting factor.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Core i5-9400 in the database’s average benchmark score are a group of processors with very similar overall performance. The Intel Core i7-1068NG7 scores 2259, which is 0.2% higher than the i5-9400’s 2254 average. The Intel Core i7-10710U scores 2248, a 0.3% deficit. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246, a 0.4% deficit, and the Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264, a 0.4% advantage. In practice, any of these CPUs would deliver nearly identical frame rates in Inside, since the game’s CPU demands are so low that even a 0.4% difference in synthetic benchmarks would be invisible in real gameplay.

For the GPU, the nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, which scores 54209 in the database’s average, a 0.1% difference from the RTX 4080’s 54247. That is effectively a tie, and in a game like Inside, the two cards would be indistinguishable. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828, which is 1.1% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698, which is 2.6% higher. The AMD Radeon 8060S scores 55757, a 2.7% advantage. These percentage differences are so small that any of these GPUs would produce the same experience in this title, with all of them easily exceeding 120 FPS at 4K Ultra. The data suggests that the RTX 4080’s performance tier is crowded at the top, and the specific model chosen matters far less than the fact that it belongs to this performance class.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Inside? The answer is a definitive yes at every resolution and preset tested. The verdict by resolution shows that all four settings, Low, Medium, High, and Ultra, are playable at 3840x2160, 2560x1440, and 1920x1080. The best settings at each resolution are Ultra, with average frame rates of 126 FPS at 4K, 150 FPS at 1440p, and 168 FPS at 1080p. These numbers are all more than double the 60 FPS playable threshold.

The only scenario where this system would struggle is if the user demands an extremely high refresh rate, such as 240 Hz, at 4K Ultra. The 126 FPS average at 4K Ultra would not fully saturate a 240 Hz display, though it would still be a smooth experience on a 120 Hz or 144 Hz panel. At 1440p and 1080p, the averages of 150 FPS and 168 FPS respectively are sufficient for high refresh rate monitors up to 165 Hz in most cases. The combination is effectively overkill for this game, and the user could easily run it at maximum settings on a 4K display with no concerns about frame drops.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The recorded frame rate data covers three resolutions and four settings, with the most complete data available for Medium settings, which includes minimum and maximum values.

At 1920x1080, the Low setting averages 222 FPS. Medium averages 205 FPS, with a minimum of 174 FPS and a maximum of 235 FPS. High averages 171 FPS. Ultra averages 168 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 54 FPS, which is the largest spread in the entire dataset.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 199 FPS. Medium averages 183 FPS, with a minimum of 156 FPS and a maximum of 211 FPS. High averages 153 FPS. Ultra averages 150 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 49 FPS.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 170 FPS. Medium averages 157 FPS, with a minimum of 133 FPS and a maximum of 181 FPS. High averages 131 FPS. Ultra averages 126 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 44 FPS.

The minimum frame rates recorded at Medium settings are notable. At 1080p, the minimum is 174 FPS, at 1440p it is 156 FPS, and at 4K it is 133 FPS. These minimums are all well above the 60 FPS threshold, and they indicate that the frame pacing is consistent even during demanding scenes. The maximum frame rates of 235 FPS at 1080p, 211 FPS at 1440p, and 181 FPS at 4K show that the system has spare capacity even at the highest peaks. The absence of minimum and maximum values for Low, High, and Ultra in the database means the analysis relies on averages for those presets, but the Medium data suggests that frame time variance is low across the board.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 1789 out of 3716 tested combinations in the database for this game. That places it in the 48th percentile of all tested combos, which is a surprisingly low rank given the absolute performance on display. The reason is that the ranking is relative to other tested hardware, and many of the combinations in the database pair newer, higher-end CPUs with GPUs like the RTX 4080. The i5-9400, being a 2018 mid-range processor, drags the combined score down even though it does not meaningfully hurt performance in this specific title.

The rank reflects the synthetic average of the CPU and GPU benchmarks rather than the game-specific frame rates. The GPU’s 86th percentile standing is offset by the CPU’s 47th percentile standing. If the RTX 4080 were paired with a top-tier modern CPU, the combo rank would likely be much higher. However, for Inside specifically, the i5-9400 is not a limiting factor, and the recorded frame rates demonstrate that this combo behaves like a much higher-ranked pairing. The 1789 rank is a statistical artifact of the database’s methodology, not a reflection of real-world performance in this game. In actual gameplay, this system delivers frame rates that would satisfy any user, regardless of the relative ranking.