Inside

This pairing of the Intel Core i3-12100F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is an exercise in extreme asymmetry, placing a 4-core budget processor alongside the most powerful consumer GPU available. The benchmark results for Inside reveal a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher settings but increasingly CPU-bound as resolution drops and settings are lowered. The data shows a combo rank of 183 out of 1671 tested combinations, placing it in the top 11% of all pairings for this title, a strong position that is nonetheless held back by its processor.

How This Combo Ranks

Out of 1671 tested processor and graphics card combinations, this specific pairing achieves a rank of 183 for Inside. This places the system well within the top tier of performers for this game, a positioning that is almost entirely attributable to the GPU’s raw power. However, the rank also reflects a significant bottleneck; the Core i3-12100F’s modest multi-threaded throughput prevents the system from climbing higher into the top 100. The data suggests that while the RTX 5090 is capable of delivering frame rates far beyond what most displays can show, the CPU’s 4-core, 8-thread configuration becomes the limiting factor in many scenarios. This is a case where the whole is less than the sum of its parts, as the GPU’s potential is frequently left untapped.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the undisputed engine of this system. Its specifications are staggering: 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, ensuring that texture data is never starved even at 4K. The GPU’s architecture, Blackwell 2.0, features 21,760 shading units and 170 RT cores. Clock speeds are high, with a base of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz. For a 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer like Inside, the GPU’s immense compute power is massively overprovisioned. The benchmark scores reflect this, with a Passmark G3D score of 39,650 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,411. In terms of its nearest rivals, the RTX 5090 is effectively tied with the RTX 5090 D, showing a delta of just 0.1%, and it leads the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 by 1.3%. The data indicates that the GPU is never the limiting factor in this game; its role is to provide such a high ceiling that the CPU becomes the primary constraint.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F presents a stark contrast to its GPU counterpart. This Alder Lake-S chip uses a 10 nm process and offers just 4 cores and 8 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its cache configuration includes 12 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 11,912, while its single-core score is 1,681. The CPU’s percentile ranking against all CPUs is 72, which is respectable for a budget part but pales in comparison to the GPU’s 94th percentile. When looking at its nearest rivals, the i3-12100F is nearly identical in average benchmark score to the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, with a delta of -0.1%, and it is 1.8% faster than the Intel Core i7-7700K. In Inside, the CPU's role is to handle game logic and physics, which is a light load. However, the frame rate data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 315.7 FPS, a figure that suggests the CPU is nearing its ceiling for frame generation, as the GPU is capable of far more.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable scaling pattern across resolutions and settings. At 4K (3840x2160), the system averages 149.5 FPS on High settings, 224.1 FPS on Medium, 242.8 FPS on Low, and 147.2 FPS on Ultra. Moving down to 1440p (2560x1440), the averages increase to 219.2 FPS on High, 257.5 FPS on Medium, 285.1 FPS on Low, and 211.5 FPS on Ultra. At 1080p (1920x1080), the numbers climb further: 242.9 FPS on High, 292.8 FPS on Medium, 315.7 FPS on Low, and 240.6 FPS on Ultra. The most striking observation is the performance cliff between the Low/Medium settings and the High/Ultra settings, particularly at 1080p and 1440p. The gap between Medium and High at 1080p is 49.9 FPS, while the gap between Low and Medium is only 22.9 FPS. This indicates that the High and Ultra presets introduce a significant GPU workload increase, even for a game like Inside.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K provides clear evidence of a CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions. At High settings, the FPS drops from 242.9 at 1080p to 219.2 at 1440p, a modest decline, and then to 149.5 at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is a substantial 69.7 FPS, indicating that the GPU is finally being tasked with a heavy enough load to matter. However, at Low settings, the scaling is much flatter: 315.7 FPS at 1080p, 285.1 FPS at 1440p, and 242.8 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is only about 23%, whereas at High settings it is about 38%. This suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is limiting the frame rate at all resolutions, preventing the GPU from showing its full strength. As resolution increases, the GPU workload rises, and the frame rate becomes more GPU-dependent, but the CPU still caps performance at the lower end.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal settings for this combination depend on the user's display and preference for frame rate versus visual fidelity. For users with a 4K 144Hz display, the High preset, averaging 149.5 FPS, is the best choice to maintain a high refresh rate experience with good visual quality. The Ultra preset, at 147.2 FPS, offers a marginal visual improvement but comes with a slight performance cost, making High the more balanced option. For 1440p users with high refresh rate displays (240Hz), the Medium preset, at 257.5 FPS, is the sweet spot. It provides a significant FPS boost over High (219.2 FPS) while still looking substantially better than Low. For 1080p users, the situation is more complex. The data shows that the CPU limits performance, as the difference between Low (315.7 FPS) and Medium (292.8 FPS) is only 22.9 FPS. Since the CPU is the bottleneck, selecting Medium or High settings is recommended, as they provide better visuals for a minimal FPS penalty. The Low preset is not advisable, as it does not unlock a proportional increase in frame rate.

FAQ

*Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 in Inside?*

A: Yes, the data strongly indicates this. At 1080p Low, the system only reaches 315.7 FPS, and the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is shallow, suggesting the CPU is preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential.

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this combo?

A: 1440p appears to be the most balanced. At Medium settings, it achieves 257.5 FPS, which is a high frame rate that is closer to the GPU’s capability than at 1080p, while still being far above the 4K High result of 149.5 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D?

A: The average benchmark scores are nearly identical, with the RTX 5090 D showing a delta of just 0.1% from the RTX 5090. In practical terms, they are performance equals.

Q: Why is the FPS difference between Medium and High settings so large?

A: The difference is significant; for example, at 1080p, the gap is 49.9 FPS. This suggests that the High preset enables graphical features that impose a much larger workload on the GPU than the Medium preset, even in a game with simple visuals.

Q: Does the CPU’s 4-core, 8-thread configuration limit performance in this game?

A: The benchmark results suggest it does, particularly at lower resolutions and settings. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11,912 is modest, and the frame rate data shows a ceiling effect at 1080p Low, where the average FPS of 315.7 does not increase proportionally with reduced resolution.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 315.7, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is likely near the maximum frame generation capability of the CPU in this title.