Inside

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers overwhelming performance in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer, at every tested resolution and preset. Benchmark data shows this combination not only clears the 60 FPS playable threshold but does so by margins of 2.4x to 6.1x, making it one of the most capable configurations in the database for this title. At 4K Ultra, the combo still produces 143 FPS average, which is more than double the playable threshold, while at 1080p Low it reaches 364 FPS, indicating the game is heavily GPU-bound only at the highest settings, with the CPU providing ample headroom across all scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the measured FPS data shows a clear progression across settings. The Low preset yields an average of 280 FPS, while Medium drops to 240 FPS with a minimum of 204 FPS and maximum of 276 FPS. High settings reduce the average to 150 FPS, and Ultra brings it down to 143 FPS. All four presets at 4K remain far above the 60 FPS playable threshold, with even the most demanding Ultra preset maintaining a 143 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra is 137 FPS, indicating that the RTX 5090's raw compute is the primary factor at this resolution, though the scaling from Medium to High shows a 90 FPS drop, suggesting a significant shader complexity increase at that tier.

Moving to 2560x1440, the data reveals a similar pattern with higher absolute numbers. Low settings average 327 FPS, Medium reaches 301 FPS with a minimum of 256 FPS and maximum of 347 FPS, High produces 239 FPS, and Ultra delivers 228 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 99 FPS, which is smaller than at 4K, indicating that the CPU begins to exert more influence as resolution decreases. The Medium preset's minimum of 256 FPS is notably higher than the 4K Medium minimum of 204 FPS, reinforcing that pixel throughput, not geometry or physics, is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the combination reaches its peak performance. Low settings average 364 FPS, Medium hits 336 FPS with a minimum of 286 FPS and maximum of 387 FPS, High produces 280 FPS, and Ultra averages 276 FPS. Interestingly, the gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is only 88 FPS, the smallest relative difference across all resolutions. This suggests that at 1080p, the i7-12700KF's single-thread performance becomes a more meaningful contributor, as the GPU has enough headroom to render frames faster than the CPU can feed it at lower presets. The Medium preset at 1080p shows a 50 FPS spread between min and max, which is the widest observed in any configuration, indicating frame time variance under CPU-bound conditions.

Across all resolutions, the Ultra preset consistently delivers the lowest average FPS, but never drops below 143 FPS at 4K, 228 FPS at 1440p, or 276 FPS at 1080p. The data shows no min or max FPS values for Low, High, and Ultra presets in most cases, which implies these runs were either capped or the variance was negligible enough not to be recorded. The Medium preset is the only one with documented min/max values at every resolution, providing a reliable reference for frame pacing: at 4K the range is 204-276 FPS, at 1440p it is 256-347 FPS, and at 1080p it is 286-387 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 151st out of 3,716 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the top 4% of all configurations in the database. This rank is driven primarily by the GPU's extraordinary benchmark scores, as the RTX 5090 sits in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 79,842. The CPU contributes solidly as well, with the i7-12700KF in the 85th percentile among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 35,365.

Comparing the CPU to its nearest rivals, the i7-12700KF's average score of 35,365 is effectively tied with the Intel Core i7-13700T at 35,403 (a -0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i5-13600T at 35,305 (0.2% delta). The Intel Core 5 213PE scores 35,428 (-0.2% delta), and the Intel Core i7-12700K scores 35,287 (0.2% delta). These sub-1% differences indicate that the choice of CPU among these four models would have a negligible impact on Inside performance, and the game's frame rates are far more dependent on the GPU tier.

On the GPU side, the RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 79,842 edges out the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB at 79,605 (0.3% delta) and the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB at 79,396 (0.6% delta). The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT trails at 78,940 (1.1% delta), while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X leads slightly at 80,959 (-1.4% delta). This GPU-centric ranking reinforces that the RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and the 151st overall rank reflects a configuration that is near the top of the database but not absolute, likely due to a handful of combos with even faster CPUs or multiple GPU configurations.

FAQ

*Q: Can this PC run Inside at 4K Ultra settings above 60 FPS?*

A: Yes. The measured data shows 143 FPS average at 3840x2160 Ultra, which is more than double the 60 FPS playable threshold.

Q: What is the highest FPS this combination achieves at any resolution?

A: The highest recorded average is 364 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The Medium preset at 1080p reaches a maximum of 387 FPS, which is the peak instantaneous frame rate in the dataset.

Q: How does the i7-12700KF compare to its closest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i7-12700KF scores 35,365 on average, which is within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-12700K (35,287) and Intel Core i5-13600T (35,305), and within 0.1% of the Intel Core i7-13700T (35,403). The Intel Core 5 213PE scores 35,428, a 0.2% difference.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 significantly faster than its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 79,842 is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605) and 0.6% higher than the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396). The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT is 1.1% slower, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X is 1.4% faster.

Q: Which preset shows the largest frame time variance?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 shows a spread of 101 FPS between its minimum of 286 FPS and maximum of 387 FPS. At 2560x1440 Medium, the spread is 91 FPS (256-347), and at 3840x2160 Medium, it is 72 FPS (204-276).

Q: Does the frame rate drop more from Low to Ultra at higher resolutions?

A: Yes. At 4K, moving from Low to Ultra reduces the average FPS from 280 to 143, a 137 FPS drop. At 1440p, the drop is 99 FPS (327 to 228), and at 1080p, it is 88 FPS (364 to 276). This indicates the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K, while the CPU plays a larger role at 1080p.

The Verdict

This PC can run Inside flawlessly at every resolution and preset tested. The verdict by resolution confirms that all four settings — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — are playable at 3840x2160, 2560x1440, and 1920x1080, with no configuration falling below the 60 FPS threshold. The weakest performance point is 4K Ultra at 143 FPS average, which still leaves a 83 FPS margin over the playable threshold. At 1440p, the Ultra preset delivers 228 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra, it reaches 276 FPS.

The data indicates that this combination is overkill for Inside in virtually all scenarios. Even the most demanding preset at the highest resolution produces frame rates that would be considered excellent for competitive gaming, let alone a puzzle platformer. The only scenario where the system approaches a meaningful limitation is 4K Ultra, where the RTX 5090's rendering load is substantial enough to drop the average from the 280 FPS seen at 4K Low, but the result remains far above any practical playability concern. For users with high-refresh-rate displays, the system provides enough headroom at 1080p and 1440p to drive 240 Hz or even 360 Hz monitors at Ultra settings, with 276 FPS and 228 FPS averages respectively.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data reveals a clear division of labor between the i7-12700KF and RTX 5090 depending on resolution and preset. At 3840x2160, the GPU is the dominant factor: the drop from Low to Ultra is 137 FPS, and the Medium preset's minimum of 204 FPS is still far above the CPU's potential constraint. The RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's texture and shader demands at 4K, and the 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute is what enables the 143 FPS Ultra result. The CPU's role at 4K is to feed the GPU without stalling, which the i7-12700KF's 20 threads accomplish easily, as evidenced by the lack of min/max variance in most presets.

At 2560x1440, the balance shifts slightly toward the CPU. The performance difference between Low (327 FPS) and Ultra (228 FPS) shrinks to 99 FPS, and the Medium preset's minimum of 256 FPS suggests that the CPU is beginning to influence frame pacing. The i7-12700KF's single-thread score of 1,043 in 3dmark and 4,071 in Cinebench R23 indicate strong per-core performance, which matters more as resolution drops because the GPU finishes frames faster and the CPU must supply new draw calls at a higher rate. Still, the GPU remains the primary bottleneck, as the RTX 5090's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs outperforms the CPU's 85th percentile ranking.

At 1920x1080, the CPU's role becomes more pronounced. The Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 88 FPS, and the Medium preset exhibits the widest min-max spread (286-387 FPS) in the entire dataset. This variance is characteristic of CPU-bound scenarios where the i7-12700KF's 12 cores and 20 threads are working near their limit to generate frames faster than the GPU can render them at lower presets. The CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 34,092 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28,838 provide the computational headroom, but the data suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is the limiting factor, capping performance at 364 FPS average. Across all resolutions, the RTX 5090's performance scales predictably with pixel count, while the CPU's influence becomes more visible only when the GPU is not saturated.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which delivers an average of 143 FPS. The data shows that all presets at 4K are playable, but Ultra is the optimal choice for visual fidelity without sacrificing frame rate, as it remains 83 FPS above the playable threshold. The Medium preset at 4K achieves 240 FPS with a minimum of 204 FPS, but the Ultra preset's 143 FPS average is still far above the 60 FPS line, making it the best trade-off between image quality and performance.

At 2560x1440, Ultra is again the best setting, producing 228 FPS average. This is 168 FPS above the playable threshold, and the gap between Ultra and High (228 vs. 239 FPS) is only 11 FPS, indicating that the visual upgrade from High to Ultra costs minimal performance. The Medium preset at 1440p reaches 301 FPS with a 256 FPS minimum, but for users prioritizing frame rate over detail, the data shows that the Ultra preset still delivers a comfortable margin for high-refresh-rate displays.

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset yields 276 FPS average, which is the best setting that maintains 60 FPS or higher. The difference between Ultra (276 FPS) and High (280 FPS) is a negligible 4 FPS, meaning users can enable the highest preset without measurable performance loss. The Medium preset at 1080p reaches 336 FPS with a 286 FPS minimum, but the Ultra preset's 276 FPS average is still sufficient for any 240 Hz monitor, and the visual benefits of Ultra settings are significant in a puzzle platformer with detailed environments. Across all three resolutions, the verdict is identical: Ultra settings are the best choice, with the 4K Ultra configuration being the only one that approaches a more moderate frame rate, yet it still more than doubles the playable threshold.