Inside

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX achieves a combo rank of 496 out of 1,671 tested combinations for Inside in this database. This places the pairing in the upper 30% of all tested systems, indicating a strong configuration for this title. The ranking reflects that while the CPU is a mid-range part from 2021, its performance is more than sufficient to avoid bottlenecking a top-tier GPU in a game of this genre and age, allowing the graphics card to operate at very high frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 496 out of 1,671 tested combinations underscores a significant performance ceiling. Benchmark results indicate that this pairing is not near the top of the list, which is expected given the CPU's position in the broader market; the i5-11400F sits at the 75th percentile of all CPUs. However, the ranking also shows that the system is far from the bottom, delivering a playable and fluid experience that outranks nearly 70% of other recorded setups. The data suggests that for Inside, a game that is not typically demanding on multi-threaded processing, the combination of a six-core CPU with a high-end RDNA 3 GPU creates a platform that is well-balanced for high-refresh-rate gaming, even if the processor holds back the GPU at lower resolutions.

The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals are all within a tight band, with the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U matching its average score (0% delta) and the Intel Core i7-1260P and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U being just 0.2% slower. This indicates that the i5-11400F's compute potential is consistent with other mainstream processors, and none of these CPUs would create a meaningful difference in Inside. The GPU, meanwhile, sits at the 85th percentile of all GPUs, a much stronger position, and its nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon Pro 580 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile—are within 0.4% to 0.8% of its average score. This tells us the graphics card is the dominant component in this pairing, and the overall combo rank is likely dragged down by the processor relative to systems using faster CPUs.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. Its base clock is 2.60 GHz, and it can boost up to 4.40 GHz. For a game like Inside, which is a 2D puzzle platformer from 2016, the workload is largely single-threaded and light on parallel processing. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by a 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,029, is adequate to feed the GPU ample frames. The L3 cache is 12 MB shared, and memory support is dual-channel DDR4 with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, which is standard for this generation.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU does not appear to be the limiting factor at 4K, where the GPU is more stressed. At 1080p Low, the system hits 272.1 FPS, which is a high number that still leaves headroom. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1,691 and 4-thread score of 3,171 suggest that the CPU can handle the game's logic and physics threads without issue. The processor's 65 W TDP and end-of-life production status indicate it is an older but still capable part. Its average benchmark score of 17,181 places it just behind the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, which scores 17,189, confirming that the CPU's computational power is comparable to other mid-range mobile and desktop chips of its era.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a high-end graphics card based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, with a chip codenamed Plum Bonito. It features 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 6,144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, and 192 raster operations pipelines, along with 96 ray-tracing cores. Its boost clock is 2,498 MHz, and the memory runs at an effective 20 Gbps. This hardware makes it far more powerful than what Inside requires, and its percentile rank of 85 versus all GPUs confirms its top-tier status.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU's strength. At 4K Ultra settings, the card still delivers 116.6 FPS on average, which is exceptionally smooth for a 2016 title. At 1080p Low, it reaches 272.1 FPS, a figure that is likely limited by the CPU's ability to issue draw calls rather than the GPU's rendering capacity. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 31,238 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6,841 illustrate its raw power. Compared to its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, the RX 7900 XTX has a 2% higher average score, placing it in a performance tier above that card. The GPU's 355 W TDP and 2x 8-pin power connectors are typical for a flagship part, but the benchmark results confirm that for a light game like Inside, the RX 7900 XTX is overkill, providing frame rates far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Inside with this combo?*

A: The data shows that at 4K High settings, the average FPS is 122.4, which is still very high. At 1440p High, the average is 186.4 FPS, and at 1080p High, it reaches 209.1 FPS. All three resolutions provide a smooth experience, but 4K is the best choice to utilize the GPU's power, as it still exceeds 120 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its direct rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17,181. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, scores 17,189, which is a 0% difference. The Intel Core i7-1260P scores 17,212, just 0.2% higher. This indicates the i5-11400F is statistically tied with these other processors in overall compute performance.

Q: Does the GPU bottleneck the CPU at 1080p?

A: The FPS data suggests yes. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 272.1, while at 4K Low, it drops to 207.4. The smaller drop from 1080p to 1440p (272.1 to 242.7) compared to the drop from 1440p to 4K (242.7 to 207.4) indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is hitting its limit and preventing the GPU from rendering even more frames.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the CPU?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F had a launch MSRP of $157.

Q: How does the GPU's performance compare to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has an average benchmark score of 44,019. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile scores 43,667, which is 0.8% lower. Therefore, the RX 7900 XTX is slightly faster than that mobile GPU in the aggregate benchmark data.

Resolution Scaling

Examining the measured FPS across resolutions reveals how the system scales and where the bottleneck lies. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 209.1 at 1080p to 186.4 at 1440p, a reduction of approximately 10.9%. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drops further to 122.4, a much steeper 34.3% decline. This pattern shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, which is expected given the card's high pixel throughput.

At Low settings, the scaling is different. The average FPS at 1080p is 272.1, dropping to 242.7 at 1440p (a 10.8% decrease), and then to 207.4 at 4K (a 14.5% decrease from 1440p). The relatively smaller drop from 1440p to 4K at Low settings compared to High settings suggests that the CPU is constraining performance at lower resolutions and lower graphical loads. The GPU is capable of more, but the i5-11400F's processing speed limits the frame rate. The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p with Low settings, the system is CPU-bound, while at 4K, the GPU's workload balances the load, making it the primary bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience for this hardware. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 116.6, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold but below the 120 FPS mark that some high-refresh-rate displays target. At 4K High, the average FPS rises to 122.4, a marginal improvement of about 5% over Ultra while maintaining a high visual quality. Since the visual difference between High and Ultra in a game with this art style is often minimal, High at 4K is the recommended setting to achieve a smoother frame rate without sacrificing significant graphical fidelity.

For players with 1440p monitors, the High preset delivers 186.4 FPS, which is an excellent experience. Moving to Ultra only drops the average to 181.1 FPS, a negligible difference of 3%. Therefore, Ultra is a viable choice at 1440p. At 1080p, the Ultra preset yields 208.8 FPS, which is slightly lower than the 209.1 FPS at High, but still far above any display's refresh rate. The data shows that the High preset is the best balance across all resolutions, providing a noticeable FPS boost over Ultra at 4K (122.4 vs. 116.6) without a major visual penalty. The Low and Medium presets offer higher frame rates (207.4 and 192.9 FPS at 4K, respectively), but they are unnecessary given that High already exceeds 120 FPS at 4K, making the higher-quality preset the superior choice for this configuration.