Inside

The Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination delivers overwhelming performance in Inside, a 2016 Puzzle Platformer. Benchmark data confirms that this pairing is far beyond the requirements of the title, producing triple-digit frame rates even at maximum settings in 4K. The measured frames per second (FPS) across all resolutions and presets never approach the 60 FPS playability threshold, indicating a substantial performance headroom that makes the game exceptionally fluid on this hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160 (4K), the combo starts at an average of 133 FPS on High settings. Moving to Low settings produces a dramatic jump to 265 FPS average, while Medium settings land at 212 FPS average, with a minimum of 181 FPS and a maximum of 244 FPS. The most demanding preset, Ultra, still holds an average of 126 FPS. The scaling from High to Ultra at 4K represents a modest reduction of 7 FPS, while the gap between Low and Ultra is substantial, with Ultra delivering roughly 48% of the Low preset's frame rate. This indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a significant but still manageable load on the GPU at this resolution.

Stepping down to 2560x1440, the performance becomes even more extreme. High settings produce an average of 211 FPS, Low settings hit 385 FPS, and Medium settings reach 338 FPS with a minimum of 287 FPS and a maximum of 389 FPS. Ultra settings at this resolution still deliver 201 FPS average. The difference between 4K Ultra and 1440p Ultra is 75 FPS, showing a clear resolution scaling effect. Across all presets at 1440p, the minimum recorded frame rate is 287 FPS, which is still well above any conceivable display refresh rate for smooth gameplay.

At 1920x1080, the results are staggering. High settings average 294 FPS, Low settings average 430 FPS, and Medium settings average 397 FPS with a minimum of 337 FPS and a maximum of 456 FPS. Ultra settings deliver 280 FPS average. The delta between 1080p Low and 4K Ultra is 304 FPS, highlighting how resolution dominates the performance envelope for this title. Even at the most demanding combination tested—4K Ultra—the average FPS of 126 is more than double the 60 FPS playability threshold, and the lowest recorded average across any setting is 126 FPS.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data suggests that the GPU is the primary scaling factor between resolutions, while the CPU remains largely uninvolved in limiting performance. The Intel Core i9-14900K, with a boost clock of 6.00 GHz and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5, provides massive single-thread and multi-thread headroom for a game like Inside, which is not typically demanding on processor resources. The GPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and a 716.8 GB/s bandwidth, becomes the determining component as resolution increases.

Comparing 4K High (133 FPS) to 1080p High (294 FPS) shows a 161 FPS difference, a clear sign that the GPU is doing progressively heavier work at higher pixel counts. The RTX 4080’s pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s are well suited to handle the game’s visual style at 4K, but the frame rate still drops by over half from 1080p to 4K at the same preset. This behavior is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where the CPU’s role is to feed frames fast enough, and the i9-14900K’s 24 cores and 32 threads are more than sufficient for that task.

At 1080p, the differences between presets are smaller in absolute terms than at 4K, with Low (430 FPS) and Ultra (280 FPS) separated by 150 FPS. In contrast, at 4K, the same preset comparison shows a 139 FPS difference. The relative scaling suggests that at 1080p, the CPU might be starting to contribute to frame pacing, but the i9-14900K’s PassMark single-thread score of 4697 and Geekbench single-core score of 2655 indicate it can sustain very high frame delivery. The GPU remains the bottleneck at all tested resolutions, as evidenced by the consistent pattern where lowering settings increases FPS proportionally more at lower resolutions.

Best Settings per Resolution

For 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which delivers an average of 126 FPS. This is the highest quality setting available in the test, and it clears the playability threshold by a wide margin. There is no need to compromise on visual fidelity at 4K, as even the heaviest preset produces more than double the required frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the best settings are also Ultra, with an average of 201 FPS. The margin above 60 FPS is even larger here, making Ultra the obvious choice for maximum visual quality without any performance concerns. The minimum recorded frame rate at 1440p Medium is 287 FPS, and while no minimum is listed for Ultra, the average of 201 FPS suggests that even the lowest frames are likely far above 60 FPS.

For 1920x1080, Ultra settings again provide the best experience, averaging 280 FPS. This is the highest average FPS for Ultra across all resolutions, and it represents a 154 FPS improvement over 4K Ultra. The 1080p Ultra preset is so far above the playability threshold that users with high-refresh-rate monitors can fully exploit this hardware, as the average exceeds 240 FPS.

The Verdict

The verdict by resolution is unambiguous: this PC can run Inside at every resolution and preset combination tested. At 3840x2160, all four settings—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—are playable, with the best being Ultra at 126 FPS average. At 2560x1440, the same is true, with Ultra reaching 201 FPS average. At 1920x1080, Ultra delivers 280 FPS average. The RTX 4080, which sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, and the i9-14900K, in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, produce a system that is not merely capable of running this game but is overwhelmingly overpowered for it. The data indicates that no setting combination will ever drop below 60 FPS, and the only limitation a user might face is the refresh rate of their display. For competitive or high-refresh-rate play, even the most demanding 4K Ultra preset offers a smooth experience, while 1080p Ultra approaches the limits of many gaming monitors.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals for the CPU and GPU provides context for what other hardware would behave similarly. The Intel Core i9-14900KF is the closest CPU alternative, with an average benchmark score of 79371 and a delta of -0.3% compared to the i9-14900K’s average score of 79097. This means the i9-14900KF performs essentially identically, differing by less than one percent. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is also close, with a score of 79574 and a -0.6% delta, indicating slightly lower average performance. The AMD EPYC 7413, scoring 80041, is -1.2% relative to the i9-14900K, while the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 scores 77740, which is 1.7% higher. In practical terms, any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical frame rates in Inside, as the game is not CPU-limited at the tested resolutions.

On the GPU side, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the direct rival, with an average score of 54209 and a delta of 0.1%, meaning it is effectively a match for the RTX 4080’s 54247 average score. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828, a -1.1% delta, while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698, a -2.6% delta, and the AMD Radeon 8060S scores 55757, a -2.7% delta. These differences are minor, and all would deliver frame rates in the same broad range as the RTX 4080. For Inside, any of these GPUs paired with the i9-14900K or its rivals would yield playable performance at all resolutions, given the game’s low graphical demands. The RTX 4080 SUPER is the most obvious drop-in equivalent, while the AMD options would show slightly different performance but not enough to change the overall verdict.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination ranks 101 out of 3716 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the top 2.7% of all systems in the database. This high ranking reflects the substantial performance headroom demonstrated in the measured FPS data. The combo’s percentile ranking for the CPU (95th) and GPU (86th) aligns with this position, though the game’s modest requirements mean that even lower-ranked hardware can achieve playable frame rates. The rank of 101 indicates that only 100 other CPU-GPU pairings out of 3716 produce higher average performance in this specific title, which reflects the raw power of this configuration. However, because Inside is not a demanding game, the practical difference between this combo and many others is negligible in terms of playability, as the frame rates are already far beyond what is needed for a smooth experience. The ranking is still useful for gauging relative hardware strength, and this pairing sits comfortably near the top of the list, with only a handful of more powerful components ahead of it. The data confirms that users with this setup have one of the most capable combinations available for running Inside at maximum settings with exceptional fluidity.