Inside

# Inside — Intel Core i5-10400F + Intel Arc B580

The Intel Core i5-10400F and Intel Arc B580 pairing delivers a surprisingly strong experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer that scales well across hardware tiers. With measured frame rates ranging from a low of 59.2 FPS at 4K Ultra to a high of 233.4 FPS at 1080p Low, this combo demonstrates that the Arc B580’s 12 GB of VRAM and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth are more than sufficient for this title’s modest visual demands. The data shows a system that is clearly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the 6-core, 12-thread Comet Lake processor with a 4.30 GHz boost clock keeps pace without becoming the limiting factor at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium as the sweet spot for this pairing, delivering 215.7 FPS at 1080p, 155.9 FPS at 1440p, and 98.7 FPS at 4K. These figures represent a substantial improvement over High settings — roughly 64% faster at 1080p, 57% faster at 1440p, and 58% faster at 4K — while the visual difference between Medium and High in a side-scrolling puzzle platformer is typically minimal. For players with 144Hz or 165Hz displays, Medium at 1440p clears the refresh-rate threshold comfortably, and even 4K Medium remains well above 60 FPS.

Ultra settings are not recommended for this combo. At 4K, Ultra drops to 59.2 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target that most modern displays expect. The 128 FPS at 1080p Ultra is playable, but the 40% performance cost over Medium yields diminishing returns in a game with this art style. Low settings, while delivering 233.4 FPS at 1080p and 192.9 FPS at 1440p, are unnecessary sacrifices; the visual simplicity of Inside means Low does not meaningfully improve responsiveness over Medium. The data suggests that High at 1080p (131.4 FPS) is a viable alternative for those who prioritize image quality, but Medium offers the best balance of frame rate headroom and visual fidelity across all three resolutions.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580, built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with the BMG-G21 chip, plays the dominant role in this game’s performance profile. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth, is far more than Inside requires — the game’s 2016 release date and 2D side-scrolling presentation mean texture loads are trivial by modern standards. The 2,560 shading units and 80 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s, which explains why this combo can push 233.4 FPS at 1080p Low without breaking a sweat.

The GPU’s 2670 MHz base and boost clocks are identical, indicating that the card sustains its maximum frequency under load. Memory runs at 2375 MHz with 19 Gbps effective speed. The benchmark data shows that the Arc B580 sits in the 66th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23,021. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, scores 23,181 — a delta of just -0.7%, meaning the B580 trades blows with that card in synthetic tests. However, in Inside, the measured frame rates suggest the Arc B580’s raw throughput is more than adequate; the GPU is never the bottleneck until 4K Ultra, where the 59.2 FPS result indicates the card is finally reaching its limits with this workload.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At Medium settings, frame rates drop from 215.7 FPS at 1080p to 155.9 FPS at 1440p (a 28% reduction), then to 98.7 FPS at 4K (a 37% reduction from 1440p). This steep decline — 54% lower from 1080p to 4K — indicates that the Arc B580’s compute and memory resources are being taxed proportionally with pixel count. The 456.0 GB/s bandwidth and 19.6 billion transistors on a 272 mm² die are working harder as resolution increases, and the results show a predictable, linear scaling pattern.

At High settings, the drop from 1080p (131.4 FPS) to 1440p (99.1 FPS) is 25%, and from 1440p to 4K (62.5 FPS) is another 37%. Ultra settings show the most dramatic degradation: 128 FPS at 1080p falls to 92.3 FPS at 1440p, then to 59.2 FPS at 4K — a 54% total reduction. This pattern confirms that the CPU, with its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth, is not the limiting factor; if it were, we would see smaller gaps between 1080p and 1440p as the GPU becomes less stressed. Instead, the consistent percentage drops across settings point to the Arc B580 as the primary performance arbiter, particularly at 4K where even Medium settings require 98.7 FPS from a card that is only in the 66th GPU percentile.

How This Combo Ranks

This particular combination of Intel Core i5-10400F and Intel Arc B580 ranks 1309 out of 1671 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the bottom 22% of all pairings benchmarked. This ranking may seem surprising given the strong absolute frame rates, but it reflects the fact that many other combos — likely featuring newer CPUs and higher-end GPUs — achieve even higher scores in this lightweight title. The i5-10400F itself sits in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 14,168, and its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7552 (14,115, +0.4% delta) and the Intel Core i5-8500 (14,332, -1.1% delta), showing that the processor is mid-pack in synthetic tests.

In the context of Inside, the combo rank indicates that this pairing is not optimized for maximum frame rates — it is positioned for balanced 1080p and 1440p gaming rather than competitive 4K or high-refresh-rate esports. The data shows that the CPU is not holding back the GPU at 1080p, since the 233.4 FPS Low result approaches what the Arc B580 can physically output in this game. The ranking is a function of the GPU’s 66th percentile standing and the CPU’s 73rd percentile position; together they form a competent but not top-tier combination. For a puzzle platformer like Inside, this rank is perfectly acceptable, as the game does not demand the extreme hardware that would push a combo into the top quartile.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Inside at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, at Medium settings the average FPS is 98.7, and at High it is 62.5. Ultra drops to 59.2 FPS, which is marginally below the 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 144Hz monitor at 1440p?

A: Medium settings deliver 155.9 FPS at 2560x1440, which clears the 144Hz refresh rate. High settings at 1440p drop to 99.1 FPS, so Medium is the recommended choice.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B580 compare to the RTX 4060 in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B580 has an average benchmark score of 23,021, while the RTX 4060 scores 23,181, a delta of -0.7%. The two GPUs are effectively tied in overall performance.

Q: Is the i5-10400F a bottleneck for the Arc B580 in this game?

A: The data suggests no. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 233.4 FPS, and the frame rate drops consistently with resolution increases, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor rather than the CPU.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 131.4 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings. This is well above the 60 FPS target and suitable for 120Hz displays.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM on the Arc B580 matter for Inside?

A: Not practically. The game’s 2016 release and 2D art style do not stress the 12 GB GDDR6 memory, but the 456.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures smooth texture streaming at all resolutions tested.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range shows this combo’s high-end capability. Low settings produce 233.4 FPS, Medium reaches 215.7 FPS, High drops to 131.4 FPS, and Ultra settles at 128 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is only 3.4 FPS, suggesting that Ultra’s additional effects are not particularly demanding, while the jump from Medium to High costs 84.3 FPS — a significant trade-off for marginal visual gains.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern holds with lower absolute numbers. Low achieves 192.9 FPS, Medium delivers 155.9 FPS, High reaches 99.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 92.3 FPS. The Medium-to-High drop of 56.8 FPS is proportionally similar to the 1080p result, reinforcing that settings have a consistent multiplicative effect on performance regardless of resolution.

At 3840x2160, the 4K results reveal the GPU’s limits. Low still manages 125 FPS, which is impressive for a card in the 66th GPU percentile, while Medium falls to 98.7 FPS. High drops to 62.5 FPS, and Ultra dips below 60 FPS at 59.2. The spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is 65.8 FPS, the largest absolute difference of any resolution, confirming that the Arc B580’s 13.67 TFLOPS FP32 compute is fully utilized at this pixel count. Across all settings, the data shows that Medium is the most efficient preset — it maintains 60+ FPS at every resolution while providing better visual quality than Low, and it does so without the steep performance penalties of High or Ultra.