Inside

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers outstanding performance in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer. Benchmark data shows this combination handles the game with remarkable ease, producing high frame rates even at 4K resolution. The measured results indicate that the RTX 3070 is the dominant component in this pairing, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a bottleneck in most scenarios. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data across resolutions and settings to provide a clear picture of what users can expect.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with High settings, the combo achieves an average of 179 FPS. Moving to 1440p reduces this to 136 FPS, a drop of approximately 24%. At 4K, the average falls further to 85 FPS, representing a 53% decrease from the 1080p figure. This scaling behavior indicates that the RTX 3070 is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the workload on the GPU increases substantially with pixel count.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens significantly at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low (233 FPS) and Ultra (176 FPS) is 57 FPS. At 1440p, this gap grows to 79 FPS (208 FPS vs 129 FPS). At 4K, the spread becomes even more pronounced at 90 FPS (171 FPS vs 81 FPS). This trend confirms that the GPU's rendering workload scales more steeply with both resolution and graphical fidelity, while the CPU's contribution remains relatively constant.

The 4K Medium preset shows an average of 136 FPS with a minimum of 116 FPS and maximum of 157 FPS. This suggests that even at the highest resolution, the system maintains playable frame rates with room to spare. The fact that 4K Low still produces 171 FPS indicates that the RTX 3070 has substantial headroom for this title, and users prioritizing frame rate over visual quality can achieve very high refresh rates even at 4K.

Interestingly, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is more aggressive than from 1440p to 4K for the Low preset. The 1080p Low score of 233 FPS drops to 208 FPS at 1440p (an 11% reduction), while 1440p to 4K Low drops to 171 FPS (an 18% reduction). This nonlinear scaling suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources begin to saturate as resolution increases, with the 4K resolution pushing the RTX 3070 closer to its limits.

Settings Recommendations

For users seeking the optimal balance between visual quality and performance, the Medium preset emerges as the clear recommendation across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 215 FPS, which is only 18 FPS less than Low but provides noticeably better graphical fidelity. At 1440p, Medium achieves 192 FPS with a minimum of 164 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even during demanding scenes. The 4K Medium result of 136 FPS with a minimum of 116 FPS remains well above the 60 FPS threshold for comfortable play.

The High preset offers a reasonable middle ground, producing 179 FPS at 1080p, 136 FPS at 1440p, and 85 FPS at 4K. While these numbers are respectable, the incremental visual improvements over Medium may not justify the performance cost, particularly at 4K where the drop from 136 FPS to 85 FPS is substantial. For users with high refresh rate monitors, the Medium preset at 1440p provides the best combination of smoothness and detail.

Ultra settings, while producing the highest visual quality, result in the lowest frame rates: 176 FPS at 1080p, 129 FPS at 1440p, and 81 FPS at 4K. The performance difference between Ultra and High is relatively small, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not particularly demanding. However, given that Medium consistently outperforms both, users should prioritize Medium for the best experience unless they specifically value the extra visual polish.

The data indicates that the Low preset is unnecessary for this hardware combination. Even at 4K, the Low setting produces 171 FPS, which far exceeds typical display refresh rates. Users should never need to compromise graphical quality this heavily, as Medium provides significantly better visuals while maintaining frame rates above 130 FPS at all tested resolutions.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K with high refresh rates?*

A: Yes. At 4K with Medium settings, the combo achieves 136 FPS average with a minimum of 116 FPS. Even at High settings, the 4K average remains at 85 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS standard for most displays.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 compare to its nearest rival in terms of benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 3070 has an average benchmark score of 17208, which places it 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17083) and 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037). It trails the NVIDIA Tesla K40c by 1.5%.

Q: What is the CPU's performance percentile relative to all processors?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F ranks in the 68th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14185. Its closest rival, the Intel Xeon 6756E, has a nearly identical score of 14163, placing it just 0.2% behind.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The benchmark results suggest the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU at lower resolutions. The 1080p Low preset produces 233 FPS, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU effectively. However, the frame rate scaling with resolution suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: What are the CPU's clock speeds and core configuration?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. It features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 256 KB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth and capacity?

A: The RTX 3070 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory operates at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show consistently high performance across all settings. The Low preset delivers the highest average at 233 FPS, followed by Medium at 215 FPS with a minimum of 183 FPS and maximum of 247 FPS. High settings produce 179 FPS, while Ultra achieves 176 FPS. The small difference between High and Ultra (3 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects have minimal performance impact at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain impressive but show expected scaling. Low settings produce 208 FPS, while Medium delivers 192 FPS with a minimum of 164 FPS and maximum of 221 FPS. High settings drop to 136 FPS, and Ultra falls to 129 FPS. The performance gap between Medium and High (56 FPS) is more pronounced at this resolution, indicating that the High preset introduces more demanding visual effects.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 3070 begins to show its limits. Low settings still achieve 171 FPS, and Medium maintains a solid 136 FPS with a minimum of 116 FPS. However, High settings drop to 85 FPS, and Ultra falls to 81 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium at 4K (35 FPS) is notable, but the gap between Medium and High (51 FPS) is even more significant, making High a less attractive option at this resolution.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the best balance of frame rate stability, as indicated by its available minimum and maximum values. The minimum FPS figures for Medium at 1080p (183), 1440p (164), and 4K (116) all remain well above playable thresholds, ensuring a smooth experience even during intense gameplay moments.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 1983 out of 3716 tested combinations in Inside. This places the combo in the upper-middle tier of all tested systems, which is a strong result given the game's age and the hardware's generation. The ranking reflects the GPU's solid performance, which sits in the 61st percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU's 68th percentile ranking provides adequate support.

The RTX 3070's nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark rankings include the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, which scores 17083 (0.7% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690, which scores 17037 (1% lower). These close scores indicate that the RTX 3070 is positioned competitively within its performance class, though the measured FPS in Inside suggests the GPU's real-world performance exceeds what the synthetic benchmarks might imply.

The CPU's nearest rivals show a tight cluster of performance. The Intel Xeon 6756E scores 14163 (0.2% higher), while the AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115 (0.5% higher). The AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277 (0.6% lower). This clustering indicates that the i5-10400F's performance is typical for its class, with no significant outliers among comparable processors.

Given that the combo ranks in the 53rd percentile (1983/3716) of all tested combinations, the system is neither exceptionally strong nor weak for this title. The high frame rates achieved in practice, particularly at 1080p and 1440p, suggest that the ranking may be influenced by other factors such as higher-end GPU configurations that achieve even more extreme frame rates in this lightweight game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F, released on 2020-04-29, is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz provide sufficient single-thread performance for Inside, which is not a heavily threaded title. The CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache aids in game performance by reducing memory latency.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-10400F achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10283 and a single-core score of 1451. Its Passmark multi-thread score is 12115, with a single-thread score of 2541. These scores indicate balanced performance across both multi-threaded and single-threaded workloads, though the game's relatively simple engine means that even modest CPU performance is sufficient.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s, delivered via dual-channel DDR4 support, is adequate for this game. The 3DMark scores show scaling from 1350 in the 2-thread test to 4748 in the 16-thread test, suggesting that the processor can effectively utilize additional threads when needed, though Inside likely does not demand extensive multi-threading.

At lower resolutions like 1080p, the CPU's role becomes more prominent, as the GPU has spare capacity. The 233 FPS result at Low settings indicates that the CPU can maintain high frame rates without becoming a bottleneck. However, the fact that frame rates increase from 1080p to 1440p with the same settings (e.g., Low goes from 233 to 208) suggests that the GPU begins to dominate as resolution increases, with the CPU's contribution remaining relatively constant.

The i5-10400F's 65W TDP and Intel Socket 1200 compatibility make it an accessible choice for mainstream builds. Its 14nm process node and Comet Lake architecture represent a mature design that offers reliable performance. In the context of Inside, the CPU provides ample processing power, with benchmark results indicating it ranks in the 68th percentile among all CPUs, comfortably supporting the RTX 3070 without introducing significant performance limitations.