Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle-platformer that remains remarkably light on hardware demands, and the benchmark data for the Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the Intel Arc B570 reflects that. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings are exceptionally high, indicating that this combination is far more capable than the game requires. The data shows a system that never struggles to maintain playable performance, with the primary challenge being the scaling of frame rates as resolution and graphical fidelity increase.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-bound at the lowest settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the pair delivers an average of 240 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure in the dataset. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 172 FPS, a 28% reduction, and at 4K Low it falls to 108 FPS, a further 37% decline. This steep drop-off indicates that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting as pixel count increases, with the Arc B570’s rendering throughput becoming the primary constraint.

The scaling pattern shifts when examining Medium settings, where the frame rates are 192 FPS at 1080p, 138 FPS at 1440p, and 87 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28%, identical to the Low setting drop, but the decline from 1440p to 4K is 37%, again matching the Low setting pattern. This consistency suggests that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the determining factors, with the 380.0 GB/s bandwidth and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate being progressively saturated as resolution climbs.

High and Ultra settings show a different scaling behavior. At High, the frame rates are 120 FPS at 1080p, 86 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28%, but the drop from 1440p to 4K is 37%. Ultra settings produce 114 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K, with a 28% drop and 37% drop respectively. The fact that High and Ultra deliver nearly identical performance at each resolution (120 vs 114 FPS at 1080p, 86 vs 82 FPS at 1440p, 54 vs 52 FPS at 4K) suggests that the game’s visual presets beyond High have minimal additional GPU cost, and the system is hitting a performance ceiling related to the game’s engine or the CPU’s single-thread capability.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU at 4K, as even Low settings cannot push past 108 FPS, while the CPU’s 4 cores and 8 threads with a 4.30 GHz boost clock are sufficient to drive very high frame rates at lower resolutions. The data indicates that at 1080p Low, the system approaches a CPU-imposed limit near 240 FPS, as the GPU has ample headroom to render more frames but the processor cannot feed it faster.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this hardware?

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 240 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This represents the peak performance of the Intel Core i3-12100F and Intel Arc B570 combination in Inside.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 52 FPS. This is the lowest recorded figure in the dataset, but it remains comfortably playable, with no minimum frame rate data provided to suggest stuttering.

Q: Is there a significant performance difference between High and Ultra settings?

A: No, the difference is minimal. At 1080p, High delivers 120 FPS and Ultra delivers 114 FPS, a 5% difference. At 1440p, the gap narrows to 86 FPS vs 82 FPS (5%), and at 4K, it is 54 FPS vs 52 FPS (4%). The visual upgrade from High to Ultra likely comes at a negligible performance cost.

Q: What is the frame rate at 1440p Medium settings?

A: The average frame rate at 2560x1440 with Medium settings is 138 FPS, with a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 159 FPS. This provides a smooth experience with headroom for high refresh rate monitors.

Q: Does the Arc B570’s 10 GB VRAM become a limiting factor?

A: No, the data does not indicate VRAM limitation. The game is from 2016 and is a 2D puzzle-platformer, so it is unlikely to exceed the 10 GB GDDR6 memory capacity. The performance scaling across resolutions is consistent with GPU compute limits rather than memory capacity issues.

Q: How does this combo compare to other GPUs in the benchmark database?

A: The Intel Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556, placing it at the 65th percentile of all GPUs. It sits within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and Intel Arc A750, indicating comparable raw performance in synthetic tests.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, Medium settings are the clear recommendation. At 1080p, Medium delivers 192 FPS, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on gaming monitors, while providing better visuals than Low. The jump from Medium to High reduces performance by 37% (from 192 to 120 FPS at 1080p), but the visual difference in a dark, atmospheric puzzle game like Inside may not justify the frame rate loss for competitive play.

At 1440p, Medium settings produce 138 FPS, which is still excellent for high refresh rate displays. The minimum frame rate of 117 FPS ensures that even demanding scenes stay above 100 FPS. High settings at 1440p drop to 86 FPS, which is still smooth but falls below the 100 FPS threshold that many players consider ideal for pixel-art games with fast motion.

For 4K gaming, Medium settings are imperative, delivering 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS. This is the only 4K preset that reliably exceeds 60 FPS, as High (54 FPS) and Ultra (52 FPS) dip below that mark. Low settings at 4K achieve 108 FPS, but the visual degradation may be noticeable on large displays. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for this hardware, offering a 61% performance uplift over High at 4K while maintaining acceptable visual fidelity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system shows exceptional performance across all presets. Low settings produce an average of 240 FPS, which is the absolute ceiling of the dataset. Medium settings reduce this to 192 FPS, with a minimum of 163 FPS and a maximum of 221 FPS, indicating consistent frame pacing. High settings hit 120 FPS, and Ultra settings deliver 114 FPS. The 50% drop from Low to High (240 to 120 FPS) suggests that the GPU’s shading units and texture units are increasingly utilized, but the CPU’s 4 cores remain sufficient to sustain high frame rates.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong. Low settings average 172 FPS, a 28% reduction from 1080p. Medium settings average 138 FPS with a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 159 FPS. High settings deliver 86 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 82 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p is 38%, which is consistent with the 1080p scaling, confirming that the GPU is the bottleneck rather than the CPU.

At 3840x2160, the system begins to show its limits. Low settings average 108 FPS, which is still highly playable. Medium settings average 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS, indicating that the GPU can maintain playable performance with some headroom. High settings drop to 54 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 52 FPS. The data shows a clear inflection point where 4K resolution pushes the Arc B570’s 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute to its limits, particularly with the increased pixel shading workload.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the dominant component in this pairing, with its 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s 2304 shading units and 144 texture mapping units deliver a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s, which is more than sufficient for a 2D side-scroller. The 80 ROPs produce a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s, and this is where the 4K scaling becomes evident. At 4K, the GPU must fill 8.3 million pixels per frame, and the pixel rate limits the frame rate to around 108 FPS on Low settings.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2500 MHz remains constant, and the memory clock of 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective) provides the bandwidth necessary for high-resolution textures. The benchmark data shows that the GPU’s performance scales almost linearly with resolution, confirming that it is the primary bottleneck at 1440p and 4K. The Arc B570’s average benchmark score of 20556 places it at the 65th percentile, and its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A750, is only 0.1% faster, indicating that this is a mid-range GPU well-suited for older or less demanding titles like Inside.

The GPU’s DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility ensure that the game can run with modern rendering paths, though a 2016 game likely uses older APIs. The measured frame rates at 1080p Medium (192 FPS) suggest that the GPU is not fully utilized at lower resolutions, as the CPU begins to limit performance. The 19,600 million transistors on a 5 nm process from TSMC provide ample compute headroom, but the game’s simple geometry and lighting effects do not stress the architecture.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F plays a secondary but critical role in this benchmark. With 4 cores and 8 threads based on Alder Lake architecture, it has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. The CPU’s benchmark scores are modest, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11860 and a single-core score of 1674, placing it at the 68th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core 3 N355, has a nearly identical average score of 13492, within 0.0% delta.

The CPU’s role becomes apparent at 1080p Low settings, where the frame rate caps at 240 FPS. This is likely a CPU-imposed limit, as the GPU has the raw power to render more frames but the processor’s 4 cores cannot issue draw calls fast enough. The single-thread performance, measured at 893 in 3DMark single-thread and 3444 in Passmark single-thread, is adequate for the game’s physics and logic, but the 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache may cause occasional bottlenecks in complex scenes.

At higher resolutions, the CPU’s workload remains constant while the GPU’s workload increases, so the frame rate scaling is entirely GPU-driven. The data shows no evidence of CPU stuttering, as the minimum frame rates at Medium settings (163 FPS at 1080p, 117 FPS at 1440p, 74 FPS at 4K) are all well above 60 FPS. The CPU’s 58W TDP and 10 nm process node from Intel are efficient, and the lack of integrated graphics means the Arc B570 is the sole display output. With a launch MSRP of $97, this CPU is positioned as an entry-level part, but its performance in Inside is more than sufficient for a smooth experience at any resolution.