Inside

The Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT pairing delivers a remarkably smooth experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer that is far more forgiving on hardware than modern AAA titles. The benchmark data reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but exhibits enough CPU headroom to push extreme frame rates at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across resolutions, settings, and component roles, providing a clear picture of what this combo offers.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across the three tested resolutions shows a classic pattern of GPU limitation emerging as pixel count increases. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 179 FPS, which rises to 139 FPS at 2560x1440, and then drops to 87 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 22% performance hit when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 37% drop when stepping up to 4K. The scaling is not linear, indicating that the Radeon RX 7700 XT is the primary bottleneck at the higher resolutions, while the CPU has ample capacity to feed frames at lower pixel counts.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens considerably at 4K. At 3840x2160, Low settings yield 175 FPS, while Ultra drops to 83 FPS—a difference of over 2x. This stark contrast suggests that the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth are being taxed heavily by the higher detail levels at 4K. At 1080p, the same settings spread is narrower: Low hits 233 FPS and Ultra manages 176 FPS, a 24% reduction. The data indicates that at 1080p, the system is approaching a CPU-imposed ceiling, as the frame rates across settings are compressed compared to the 4K results.

Interestingly, the Medium preset at 4K shows a min FPS of 119 and max of 161, with an average of 140 FPS. This variance of 42 FPS suggests that certain scenes in Inside are more demanding than others, but even the minimum remains far above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p Medium, the average climbs to 192 FPS with a min of 164 and max of 221, showing that the system handles mid-range settings with exceptional consistency. The resolution scaling data points to a system that is overkill for 1080p gaming but well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, while still capable of delivering a flawless 4K experience at High settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 32 chip, plays the dominant role in this game's performance at higher resolutions. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for Inside, which is not a texture-heavy title, and the benchmark results confirm that VRAM capacity is never a limiting factor. The GPU's boost clock of 2544 MHz and game clock of 2171 MHz contribute to its strong compute performance, with a FP32 rating of 35.17 TFLOPS.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 67th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 22549. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile (0.5% higher score), RTX 4060 Mobile (0.8% lower), and RTX 2080 (1.5% lower). These close margins indicate that the RX 7700 XT is positioned competitively in the mid-to-high range of graphics cards. In Inside specifically, the GPU's capabilities are evident in the 4K results: 87 FPS at High and 83 FPS at Ultra demonstrate that the card can handle demanding resolutions without breaking a sweat.

The GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between High (179 FPS) and Ultra (176 FPS) is negligible, suggesting that the CPU is preventing the GPU from fully stretching its legs. However, at 4K, the same settings show a larger gap (87 vs 83 FPS), indicating that the GPU is now the limiting factor. The GPU's pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s are more than adequate for the game's 2D side-scrolling visuals. The 96 ROPs and 3456 shading units provide ample fill rate for the game's art style, which relies on atmospheric lighting and shadow effects rather than complex geometry.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F, a 10th Gen Comet Lake processor, provides the foundational processing power for this combo. With 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz, this CPU is not the newest architecture but remains capable for gaming workloads. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for feeding the GPU in Inside. The CPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks shows a strong single-thread capability, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 688 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1451.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 68 against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14185, places it slightly above mid-pack. Its nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark database are the Intel Xeon 6756E (0.2% higher), Intel Core 7 160UL (0.3% lower), AMD EPYC 7552 (0.5% higher), and AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.6% lower). These tight deltas show that the i5-10400F is competitive with a range of enterprise and mobile processors, though its gaming performance is what matters here.

In Inside, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. At Low settings, the combo achieves 233 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame output for this game. The fact that Ultra settings at 1080p still hit 176 FPS suggests the CPU can maintain high throughput even when the GPU is less taxed. However, the CPU's limitations become apparent when comparing 1080p and 1440p results at Low settings: 233 FPS at 1080p drops to 208 FPS at 1440p, a smaller relative drop than the 4K Low result of 175 FPS. This indicates that the CPU is still contributing to frame generation at lower resolutions, but the GPU takes over as the primary constraint at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, all presets achieve well above 170 FPS, making even Ultra settings viable for high-refresh-rate monitors. The data shows 176 FPS at Ultra, 179 FPS at High, and 215 FPS at Medium, so users with 144Hz displays can comfortably run Ultra and still have headroom. For those pushing 240Hz displays, Medium provides 215 FPS with a min of 183 FPS, which is the best balance of visual quality and frame rate stability.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts toward High or Medium settings. High delivers 139 FPS, which is excellent for 144Hz monitors, while Ultra manages 132 FPS—still smooth but with less margin. Medium at 1440p produces 192 FPS with a min of 164 FPS, making it the best choice for 165Hz or 180Hz displays. Low settings at 1440p reach 208 FPS, but the visual downgrade is likely not worth the extra frames given the game's art style. The 4K results suggest High settings are the sweet spot: 87 FPS is comfortably above 60 FPS and provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium's 140 FPS.

For the best overall experience, the data supports using High settings at any resolution. At 1080p, High hits 179 FPS; at 1440p, it reaches 139 FPS; and at 4K, it maintains 87 FPS. This consistency across resolutions indicates that High is the most balanced preset for this hardware combo. Ultra offers only marginal gains over High at 1080p (176 vs 179 FPS) and 1440p (132 vs 139 FPS), while costing more performance at 4K (83 vs 87 FPS). Given the minimal visual difference between High and Ultra in a game like Inside, High is the recommended preset for all scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested CPU and GPU combinations for Inside, this pairing ranks 1973 out of 3716 total combos. This places it in the 47th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 53% of other combinations perform better in this specific game. While not a top-tier ranking, this position is respectable given the mid-range nature of both components. The rank reflects the fact that Inside is not a demanding title, so even modest hardware can achieve playable frame rates, which compresses the performance spread among different combos.

The rank of 1973 out of 3716 suggests that many lower-end combos can also run this game well, while higher-end systems may achieve frame rates above 300 FPS at 1080p. The i5-10400F's 68th percentile CPU ranking and the RX 7700 XT's 67th percentile GPU ranking might suggest a higher combo position, but the game's low requirements mean that the absolute frame rates are less differentiated. A combo with a weaker GPU but a stronger CPU might achieve similar or better results in this title, explaining the mid-pack ranking.

However, the combo's actual measured performance is excellent in absolute terms. At 1080p High, the 179 FPS result is more than sufficient for any mainstream display, and the 4K High result of 87 FPS demonstrates that this system can handle 4K gaming without compromise. The ranking might be mid-pack, but the user experience is far from average. The data indicates that this combo is a solid performer for Inside, and the rank is more a reflection of the game's accessibility than any weakness in the hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings reveals a consistent pattern of performance. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low 233 FPS, Medium 215 FPS (min 183, max 247), High 179 FPS, and Ultra 176 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 57 FPS, showing that the game's settings have a moderate impact at this resolution. The Medium preset's max of 247 FPS approaches the Low setting's average, indicating that Medium is nearly as fast as Low in less demanding scenes.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down predictably: Low 208 FPS, Medium 192 FPS (min 164, max 221), High 139 FPS, and Ultra 132 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 76 FPS, larger than at 1080p, which confirms the GPU's increasing role. The Medium preset's min of 164 FPS is still exceptionally high, suggesting that this resolution and setting combination is ideal for high-refresh-rate gaming. The difference between High and Ultra narrows to just 7 FPS, making Ultra a viable option at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the results show the most variation: Low 175 FPS, Medium 140 FPS (min 119, max 161), High 87 FPS, and Ultra 83 FPS. The drop from Low to High is 88 FPS, demonstrating the GPU's workload at 4K. Interestingly, the Medium preset at 4K outperforms High at 1440p (140 vs 139 FPS), highlighting the efficiency of the Medium settings. The Ultra preset at 4K produces 83 FPS, which is still above 60 FPS but the closest this combo comes to any performance concern. Across all 12 measured rows, the system never drops below 119 FPS even at the lowest minimum measurement, confirming that this hardware combination provides a consistently smooth experience in Inside regardless of the chosen settings.