Inside

Inside pairs an AMD Ryzen 5 8400F with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, a combination that lands at rank 1402 out of 1671 tested combos for this title. The CPU is a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 4 part with a 4.20 GHz base and 4.70 GHz boost clock, while the GPU uses 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 256.3 GB/s bandwidth. This is an older GPU pairing with a modern mid-range CPU, and the benchmark results show a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher settings but capable of very high frame rates when settings are reduced.

Settings Recommendations

The data shows a clear pattern: this combo delivers playable performance at every preset, but the sweet spot depends on your target resolution and refresh rate. At 1080p, the Medium preset produces 182 FPS average, which is a massive jump from the 107.9 FPS seen at Ultra. The High preset sits at 117.7 FPS, which is still well above the 60 FPS threshold and leaves headroom for a 120 Hz display. Given that Ultra only yields 107.9 FPS at 1080p, the visual fidelity gain from High to Ultra costs roughly 10 FPS, a trade-off that may not be worth it for competitive play.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 131.5 FPS, which is an excellent result for this resolution. High drops to 85.1 FPS, still smooth but noticeably lower. Ultra falls to 81.4 FPS, which is a marginal difference from High. For 1440p users, Medium is the recommended starting point because it maintains a high refresh rate experience, while High remains viable for those prioritizing image quality over frame rate.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. Medium produces 83.4 FPS, which is actually quite good for this resolution, but High drops to 50.8 FPS and Ultra falls to 47.8 FPS. The Low preset at 4K reaches 104.1 FPS, making it the only 4K option that clears the 100 FPS mark. For 4K gaming, Medium is the most balanced choice, offering 83.4 FPS which is smooth for most titles, while Low is the option for high-refresh 4K displays. The gap between Medium and High at 4K is 32.6 FPS, indicating that the GTX 1070's 8 GB VRAM and 256.3 GB/s bandwidth struggle with the higher preset's demands at this resolution.

GPU Role

The GTX 1070 is the clear bottleneck in this pairing. Its base clock runs at 1506 MHz with a boost of 1683 MHz, and the 8 GB of GDDR5 memory operates at 2002 MHz (8 Gbps effective). These specs, combined with 1920 shading units and 64 ROPs, produce a pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 6.463 TFLOPS, which is modest by modern standards but sufficient for a game of this genre.

The GPU's role becomes apparent when comparing settings across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 230.2 FPS, indicating the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more frames than it can render at higher settings. As resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the frame rate drops by 27.9% and 54.8% respectively at Low settings (165.9 and 104.1 FPS). This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is reaching its pixel throughput limits. The GTX 1070's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for this game even at 4K Ultra, as the 47.8 FPS result shows no catastrophic stuttering, but the performance cliff between Medium and High at 4K suggests memory bandwidth constraints play a role.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the GTX 1070 scores 13498 in Passmark G3D, which is 0.7% higher than the Quadro K4200 and 1.4% lower than the GTX 1650 SUPER. This puts it in the 51st percentile of all GPUs, confirming its status as a mid-range part that is now several generations old. The GPU's DirectX 12 benchmark score of 48 is notably low, but this game likely uses more traditional rendering paths given its release date.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo sits at rank 1402 out of 1671 tested combinations, placing it in the lower 16% of all pairings for this game. This ranking reflects the GPU's age more than the CPU's capability. The Ryzen 5 8400F is a strong processor with an average benchmark score of 25064, placing it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest CPU rivals include the Ryzen 7 2700X at 25057 (0% delta) and the Ryzen 5 7500F at 24993 (0.3% higher). This means the CPU is not holding the system back.

The discrepancy between the CPU's high percentile and the combo's low rank suggests that Inside is not a CPU-intensive title, or that the GTX 1070 simply cannot leverage the CPU's full potential. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 230.2 FPS, which is exceptional, but this is likely the upper ceiling for this GPU in this game. The combo rank would improve significantly if paired with a more modern GPU, but as configured, the GTX 1070 prevents the Ryzen 5 8400F from demonstrating its full gaming capability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are as follows: Low averages 230.2 FPS, Medium 182 FPS, High 117.7 FPS, and Ultra 107.9 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 48.2 FPS, which is a 20.9% reduction. High to Ultra is a smaller drop of 9.8 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at the top end. The difference between Low and Ultra is 122.3 FPS, showing that settings have a massive impact on this GPU at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results are: Low 165.9 FPS, Medium 131.5 FPS, High 85.1 FPS, and Ultra 81.4 FPS. The Low to Medium gap is 34.4 FPS, while High to Ultra is only 3.7 FPS. This indicates that High and Ultra are nearly identical in performance cost at this resolution. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 27.9% at Low, 27.7% at Medium, 27.7% at High, and 24.6% at Ultra, showing a consistent scaling pattern.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 104.1 FPS, Medium 83.4 FPS, High 50.8 FPS, and Ultra 47.8 FPS. The Low to Medium drop is 20.7 FPS, but the Medium to High drop is 32.6 FPS, indicating a sharp performance cliff. High and Ultra are close at 50.8 and 47.8 FPS respectively. The 4K results show that this GPU can handle 4K but only at lower presets; anything above Medium will struggle to maintain 60 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU-bound nature of this system. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 230.2 to 104.1 FPS when moving from 1080p to 4K, a 54.8% reduction. At Medium, the drop is from 182 to 83.4 FPS, a 54.2% reduction. High goes from 117.7 to 50.8 FPS, a 56.8% reduction, and Ultra from 107.9 to 47.8 FPS, a 55.7% reduction.

These percentages are remarkably consistent across all settings, hovering around 55%. This uniformity indicates that the limiting factor is the GPU's raw rendering throughput rather than a specific setting. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the scaling to be more severe at lower resolutions where the CPU has to work harder. Instead, the consistent ~55% drop suggests the GTX 1070's pixel fill rate and bandwidth are the primary constraints.

The fact that 1080p Low achieves 230.2 FPS while 4K Low achieves 104.1 FPS shows that the GPU has a theoretical ceiling around 230 FPS at this game's lowest load. The Ryzen 5 8400F, with its 3dmark single-thread score of 951 and Cinebench R23 single-core of 2943, is clearly capable of feeding the GPU at these frame rates. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would see the 1080p Low result capped at a lower number, but 230 FPS indicates the CPU has plenty of headroom.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming with this combo?

A: Medium is the recommended preset for 1440p, delivering 131.5 FPS average. High produces 85.1 FPS, which is also playable but a 46.4 FPS drop from Medium. Ultra only reaches 81.4 FPS, so the extra visual fidelity is not worth the performance loss over High.

Q: Can this system handle 4K at playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only at lower presets. Medium at 4K achieves 83.4 FPS, which is smooth. High drops to 50.8 FPS and Ultra to 47.8 FPS, both below the 60 FPS threshold. Low at 4K reaches 104.1 FPS for high-refresh displays.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in Inside?

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The Ryzen 5 8400F ranks in the 82nd percentile of CPUs with a 20851 Cinebench R23 multicore score, while the GTX 1070 ranks in the 51st percentile of GPUs. The consistent ~55% frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings confirms GPU limitation.

Q: How does this combo compare to others tested for this game?

A: It ranks 1402 out of 1671 combos, placing it in the lower 16% of tested configurations. The CPU is powerful enough to be in the top 18% of all CPUs, so the low ranking is entirely due to the older GPU.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p, High averages 117.7 FPS and Ultra 107.9 FPS, a 9.8 FPS difference. At 1440p, the gap narrows to 3.7 FPS (85.1 vs 81.4). At 4K, High is 50.8 FPS and Ultra 47.8 FPS, a 3.0 FPS difference. The visual upgrade from High to Ultra is minimal in performance cost, especially at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the GTX 1070's 8 GB VRAM limit performance at 4K?

A: The data does not show VRAM capacity as a limiting factor. The 4K Ultra result of 47.8 FPS indicates the game runs without memory-related crashes or severe stuttering. The performance cliff between Medium and High at 4K is more likely due to bandwidth (256.3 GB/s) and pixel throughput (107.7 GPixel/s) limits rather than capacity.