Inside

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 delivers a decisive performance class for Inside, exceeding the 60 FPS playable threshold at every resolution and preset combination measured. At 4K Ultra, the combo still achieves 66 FPS, while at 1080p it scales to 309 FPS on Low, demonstrating that this pairing is far more capable than the game demands. The data shows a system that is entirely bottlenecked by the GPU at higher resolutions, but at 1080p the powerful 20-core processor ensures headroom that pushes framerates into esports territory for a puzzle platformer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data, captured across three resolutions and four quality presets, reveals a consistent hierarchy. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 309 FPS, which is the highest average in the entire dataset. Moving up the quality ladder, Medium delivers 247 FPS with a minimum of 210 and a maximum of 284 FPS, while High produces 155 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p still maintains a strong 147 FPS average. This indicates that at 1080p, the GPU is never the limiting factor; even the most demanding preset leaves massive performance reserves.

At 2560x1440, the averages drop but remain exceptionally high. Low settings produce 222 FPS, Medium delivers 178 FPS with a frame window of 151 to 204 FPS, and High comes in at 111 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p still holds 106 FPS, which is more than 70% above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a typical 28-30% reduction in average framerate across presets, which is a modest drop indicative of a game that is not heavily reliant on pixel fill rate.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope tightens but never breaks. The Low preset achieves 140 FPS, Medium runs at 112 FPS with a min of 95 and max of 128 FPS. High settings yield 70 FPS, and Ultra drops to 66 FPS. The 4K data reveals that the gap between Low and Ultra is just 74 FPS (140 vs 66), which is proportionally smaller than at lower resolutions, suggesting that the game's visual features have diminishing returns as resolution scales. Crucially, even the worst-case 4K Ultra average of 66 FPS sits above the playable minimum of 60 FPS.

Notably, min and max FPS data is only provided for Medium presets across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the min is 210 FPS and the max is 284 FPS, a 74 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the spread is 53 FPS (151 to 204). At 4K Medium, the spread is 33 FPS (95 to 128). This tightening of frame pacing with resolution indicates that the bottleneck shifts from CPU-side frame generation to GPU-side rasterization as pixel count rises.

Best Settings per Resolution

For 1920x1080, the best settings are Ultra, which delivers an average of 147 FPS. This is the only preset that maxes out visual quality while staying vastly above the 60 FPS line. The data shows that all four presets at 1080p are playable, but Ultra is the clear recommendation since it offers the highest fidelity without any compromise.

At 2560x1440, the best settings are also Ultra, with an average of 106 FPS. This is a significant finding because many GPUs in this class would require Medium or High to maintain 60 FPS at 1440p. Here, the RX 9060 clears the threshold by a wide 46 FPS margin even at the most demanding preset, making Ultra the only sensible choice for a 1440p display.

For 3840x2160, the best settings are Ultra, with an average of 66 FPS. This is the only resolution where the system approaches the 60 FPS playability limit. While 66 FPS is technically above threshold, the data shows that High settings (70 FPS) and Ultra (66 FPS) are nearly identical in performance, suggesting that Ultra is not significantly more demanding than High. For a smooth 4K experience with headroom, Medium at 112 FPS is the safest bet, but Ultra remains playable.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results indicate that the GPU is the primary determinant of performance at all resolutions above 1080p. The scaling from 1080p Low (309 FPS) to 4K Low (140 FPS) shows a 55% performance drop, which is entirely attributable to the GPU's rendering workload. Similarly, the 4K Ultra score of 66 FPS is 55% lower than the 1080p Ultra score of 147 FPS. This consistent 55% reduction across Low, Medium, High, and Ultra presets proves that the core i7-14700K is never the limiting factor; the RX 9060's compute and memory bandwidth are what scale.

The CPU's role becomes more visible at 1080p, particularly in the gap between Low and Medium settings. At 1080p Low, the system hits 309 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's practical frame submission limit for this game engine. When the preset moves to Medium, the average drops to 247 FPS, a 20% reduction. In contrast, the drop from Medium to Ultra at 1080p is only 40 FPS (247 to 147), which is a 40% reduction. This non-linear scaling suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU with new frames faster than the GPU can render them at Low settings, but at higher settings the GPU must divide its resources, which removes the CPU bottleneck.

At 1440p and 4K, the CPU's influence becomes negligible. The framerate scales almost perfectly with the pixel count, which is a textbook sign of a GPU-limited scenario. For example, the 4K Medium average of 112 FPS is 63% of the 1440p Medium score (178 FPS), and 1440p Medium is 72% of 1080p Medium (247 FPS). These ratios align with the pixel count differences rather than any CPU-side feature, proving that the i7-14700K's 28 threads are more than sufficient for this game's logic, which is a puzzle platformer with minimal AI and physical simulation.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Inside? Yes, without question. The verdict by resolution confirms that all three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160) are fully playable at every preset, including Ultra. The best settings per resolution are Ultra at 1080p (147 FPS), Ultra at 1440p (106 FPS), and Ultra at 4K (66 FPS). None of these scores dip below the 60 FPS playable threshold.

The data shows a system with massive headroom. For a 1440p monitor, this combo is overkill for Inside, delivering 106 FPS at the highest settings. For 4K, it still clears by a margin of 6 FPS at Ultra, but the min FPS is not recorded for that preset, so there is a small risk that intense scenes could dip closer to 60. If absolute smoothness is desired at 4K, the Medium preset, which has a recorded min of 95 FPS, is the safer choice. However, the verdict indicates Ultra is playable.

The only caveat is the GPU's 8 GB of VRAM. While the game is a 2D side-scroller and does not demand high memory, the data shows no issues at any resolution based on the measured FPS. The fact that 4K Ultra runs at 66 FPS confirms that memory capacity is not a limiting factor in this specific test.

FAQ

Q: Does this PC achieve 60 FPS at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, the 4K Ultra preset delivers an average of 66 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS playable threshold. The benchmark data lists Ultra as a playable setting at 3840x2160.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded?

A: The highest average FPS is 309, measured at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the max average across all tested configurations.

Q: Is there a big difference between High and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: The difference is small: High averages 70 FPS while Ultra averages 66 FPS, a delta of only 4 FPS. This suggests the Ultra preset adds minimal graphical overhead at 4K.

Q: How does the min FPS compare between 1080p and 4K Medium?

A: At 1080p Medium, the min FPS is 210, while at 4K Medium the min FPS drops to 95. This is a 55% reduction in minimum frame time, matching the average FPS scaling.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the system's bottleneck at 1440p?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck. Evidence is the 1440p Ultra average of 106 FPS being 72% of the 1080p Ultra score (147 FPS), which corresponds to the pixel count increase rather than any CPU limitation.

Q: Which settings should I use for a 60Hz 4K display?

A: Ultra is playable at 66 FPS, but Medium provides a more comfortable margin at 112 FPS with a recorded min of 95 FPS, ensuring no drops below 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i7-14700K and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 2129 out of 3716 tested combinations in Inside, placing it in the 57th percentile of all systems. This ranking is lower than the individual components' percentiles (the CPU scores in the 94th percentile for all CPUs, and the GPU in the 59th percentile for all GPUs), which indicates that the game is not particularly demanding on the CPU, thus the GPU's relative mid-tier performance limits the overall ranking. Nevertheless, the rank is misleading in terms of playability; since the game is easy to run, even a mid-tier GPU like the RX 9060 is more than enough. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, has an average benchmark score 0.7% higher, but the RX 9060 still achieves 147 FPS at 1080p Ultra, proving that the 3060 Ti would produce a similar result in this game. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, scores 0.2% higher, but the i7-14700K's 20 cores are already overkill for Inside. The ranking therefore reflects the hardware's general capabilities rather than its performance in this specific title, where it is decisively playable.