Inside

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti delivers a decisive performance profile for Inside, a 2016 Puzzle Platformer. The measured data shows this combination is capable of excellent frame rates across most settings, though the higher preset tiers introduce a significant performance penalty at 4K. Benchmark results indicate that players should prioritize the Medium preset for the most balanced experience, as it provides a substantial improvement over Low settings while avoiding the steep frame rate drops seen at High and Ultra. The data demonstrates that this hardware pairing is well-suited to the game’s art style, which does not demand the extreme GPU resources of modern triple-A titles, allowing the GTX 1660 Ti to operate efficiently.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for settings optimization. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 219.4 FPS, which is exceptionally high and indicates that the GPU is not the primary constraint at this resolution. Moving to Medium drops the average to 174.5 FPS, a reduction of roughly 20% but still far above the 60 FPS threshold. High yields 109.4 FPS, while Ultra bottoms out at 102 FPS. For 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best experience per the measured data, delivering a 159.5% improvement over the minimum playable threshold while retaining visual quality improvements over Low.

At 2560x1440, the pattern continues but with a narrower margin. Low averages 159.7 FPS, Medium drops to 123.8 FPS, High to 80.7 FPS, and Ultra to 77.2 FPS. The Medium preset here provides a 53.4% increase over Ultra’s 4K performance and remains comfortably above 120 FPS, making it the optimal choice for high-refresh-rate 1440p displays. The jump from Medium to High costs 43.1 FPS, which is a substantial hit for marginal visual gains in a puzzle platformer.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. Low averages 97.6 FPS, which is excellent for 4K, but Medium drops to 82.1 FPS, High to 48.6 FPS, and Ultra to 47 FPS. The data shows that High and Ultra both fall below the 50 FPS mark, making them unsuitable for smooth gameplay on this hardware. The Medium preset at 4K is the only setting above 60 FPS, and the 15.5 FPS difference between Medium and Low is less significant than the 33.5 FPS drop from Medium to High. Therefore, the recommended preset is Medium across all resolutions, as it consistently provides the best balance between visual fidelity and measured frame rates, with 174.5 FPS at 1080p, 123.8 FPS at 1440p, and 82.1 FPS at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank places this specific configuration at 1435 out of 1671 tested combinations, which puts it in the 85.8th percentile of all tested hardware pairings. This ranking is notably higher than the individual component percentiles might suggest. The CPU sits at the 75th percentile against all CPUs based on its average benchmark score of 17181, while the GPU is at the 55th percentile with an average score of 13925. The fact that the combo ranks higher than either component’s individual percentile indicates that this pairing works synergistically well for Inside, likely because the game is not heavily threaded and does not stress the CPU’s multi-core capabilities.

The data shows that the i5-11400F has a 3DMark single-thread score of 868, which is relatively strong for a 2021 processor, and this likely benefits the game’s logic and physics calculations. The GPU, while only mid-range by today’s standards, is more than sufficient for this game’s visual style. The combination’s ranking at 1435 out of 1671 means that 236 tested combos performed better, but this should be interpreted in context: many of those higher-ranked combos likely feature newer or more expensive hardware. For a puzzle platformer, the measured FPS data suggests this combo is firmly in the high-performance tier, as it exceeds 100 FPS at 1080p High and maintains playable frame rates at 4K Medium.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is built on the Turing architecture with a TU116 chip, manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1500 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and the memory operates at 12 Gbps effective. The GPU’s 1536 shading units and 48 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 84.96 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 169.9 GTexel/s. These specifications translate to a FP32 performance of 5.437 TFLOPS, which is modest but adequate for a 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer.

The measured FPS data directly reflects the GPU’s role in this game. At 1080p Low, the 219.4 FPS average indicates that the GPU is not the bottleneck; the CPU is capable of feeding it frames faster than the monitor can display. As resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes more stressed, evidenced by the frame rate drops at higher presets. The 4K Ultra figure of 47 FPS shows the GPU’s limits, as the 6 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth struggle with higher resolution textures. However, the 4K Medium result of 82.1 FPS proves the GPU has sufficient headroom for this game’s medium-detail assets. The GPU’s 55th percentile ranking against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13925, places it just above the AMD Radeon RX 570X (0.4% faster) and below the NVIDIA Tesla K10 (0.7% slower), indicating it is a solid mid-range performer that exceeds the requirements of this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset leads with 219.4 FPS, followed by Medium at 174.5 FPS, High at 109.4 FPS, and Ultra at 102 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 44.9 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 65.1 FPS, showing that the High preset imposes a significant cost. The difference between High and Ultra is only 7.4 FPS, suggesting that Ultra offers minimal additional visual benefit for this game.

At 2560x1440, the measured averages are 159.7 FPS for Low, 123.8 FPS for Medium, 80.7 FPS for High, and 77.2 FPS for Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows an average FPS reduction of approximately 27% across all settings, which is consistent with the increased pixel count. The Medium preset at 1440p still delivers 123.8 FPS, making it suitable for 120 Hz displays. The High and Ultra presets both fall below 90 FPS, which may introduce perceptible judder on high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals a steeper drop-off. Low averages 97.6 FPS, Medium 82.1 FPS, High 48.6 FPS, and Ultra 47 FPS. The transition from Medium to High represents a 41.5% performance loss, which is the largest single-step decline in the entire dataset. This indicates that the High preset at 4K likely enables effects that disproportionately tax the GTX 1660 Ti’s 6 GB VRAM. The 4K Ultra performance of 47 FPS is effectively tied with High at 48.6 FPS, reinforcing that the GPU has hit a hard limit at this resolution. Overall, the data shows that the Medium preset is the sweet spot, with 174.5 FPS at 1080p, 123.8 FPS at 1440p, and 82.1 FPS at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this hardware at 1080p?

A: The measured data shows the Low preset achieves 219.4 FPS at 1920x1080, which is the highest value recorded for this resolution.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at 4K with this GPU?

A: No. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 47 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold generally considered necessary for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti has an average benchmark score of 13925, which is 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 570X’s score of 13871, but 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA Tesla K10’s score of 14029.

Q: What is the performance difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 123.8 FPS, while the High preset averages 80.7 FPS, representing a 43.1 FPS decrease when moving from Medium to High.

Q: Does the CPU’s single-thread performance matter for this game?

A: The CPU has a 3DMark single-thread score of 868, and given that the game is a puzzle platformer, the data implies that single-thread performance is sufficient, as the 1080p Low preset achieves 219.4 FPS, indicating no CPU bottleneck.

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank among tested configurations?

A: The combination ranks 1435 out of 1671 tested combos, placing it in the 85.8th percentile of all tested hardware pairings for this game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. Its memory support is dual-channel DDR4 with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, and it connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes. The CPU’s benchmark scores show a single-thread 3DMark score of 868 and a max-thread score of 5652, indicating strong per-core performance that is well-suited for games that rely on single-threaded logic.

For Inside, the CPU’s role is primarily to handle game logic, physics, and entity updates, which are typically single-threaded in puzzle platformers. The measured FPS data at 1080p Low (219.4 FPS) demonstrates that the CPU is not a limiting factor, as the frame rate is far higher than the GPU can consistently produce at higher settings. The CPU’s passmark single-thread score of 2981 and Geekbench single-core score of 1979 further corroborate its capability in this regard. Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17181, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i7-1260P (17212) and 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189). This places it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, indicating that it provides ample processing power for this game’s demands.

The CPU’s multi-threaded performance, while not critical for this title, is also solid, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14372. The data shows that the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU at any resolution or setting, as the frame rates scale consistently with GPU load. At 4K Ultra, the 47 FPS result is clearly GPU-limited, as the CPU’s 12 threads are idle. The 65 W TDP and 14 nm process node mean the CPU runs efficiently, and its Rocket Lake architecture provides the IPC needed to maintain high frame rates in this physics-light game. Overall, the i5-11400F is a capable partner for the GTX 1660 Ti, ensuring that the GPU is the only factor determining performance at higher resolutions.