Inside

# Inside — Intel Core i5-11400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

The measured frame rates for this pairing in Inside show a puzzle platformer that is thoroughly oversaturated with hardware capability, yet the data reveals meaningful scaling behavior across resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 273 FPS average, dropping to 126 FPS at 4K Ultra — a 54% reduction in raw throughput that illustrates how even a lightweight title can become GPU-bound when pixel count rises. The RTX 4080 SUPER sits in the 86th percentile among all GPUs tested, while the Core i5-11400F ranks in the 71st percentile among CPUs, and the combined configuration places 1008th out of 3716 tested combos for this game.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS deltas between resolutions tell a clear story about where the bottleneck shifts. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, average FPS falls from 210 to 188 — an 11% drop. The same resolution step at Low settings sees 273 FPS become 244, a 10.6% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at High, the average drops from 188 to 132, a 29.8% decline — substantially steeper than the 1080p-to-1440p step. This accelerating degradation with pixel count is the signature of a GPU-limited scenario at higher resolutions.

At Ultra settings, the pattern intensifies. The 1440p-to-4K transition moves from 185 FPS down to 126 FPS, a 31.9% loss. The 1080p-to-1440p Ultra step is comparatively mild at 10.2% (206 to 185 FPS). Across all four settings presets, the 4K penalty relative to 1080p ranges from 23.4% at Low (273 to 209 FPS) to 40% at Ultra (206 to 126 FPS). The Low preset shows the smallest absolute drop, suggesting that at minimal graphical load, the GPU has more headroom to absorb resolution increases before hitting its ceiling.

The medium preset provides the only complete min/max data in the measured set: at 1080p, frames range from 214 to 290; at 1440p, 192 to 259; at 4K, 164 to 222. The spread between minimum and maximum FPS narrows from 76 frames at 1080p to 58 frames at 4K. This compression of the frame-time distribution at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU's consistent work per frame becomes a larger portion of total frame time, reducing variance caused by CPU-side spikes.

That the 4K Low preset still delivers 209 FPS average is notable — it demonstrates that even at 8.3 megapixels, this GPU has ample throughput for a 2D side-scrolling puzzle game with modest geometry. The scaling curve suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER is never the limiting factor below 4K in this title; the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at every measured point, with the frame rate ceiling appearing to be around 273 FPS at 1080p Low.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark profile shows a single-thread score of 868 in 3DMark and 2024 in Cinebench R23, with multi-threaded results of 5652 in 3DMark max threads and 14340 in Cinebench R23. These figures place the CPU in the 71st percentile of all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 17177 — within 0.6% of the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G and 0.4% below the Intel Core i5-12450H.

For Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016, the CPU's single-thread performance is the more relevant metric. The game's 2D rendering and physics simulation do not scale meaningfully across many cores; the data supports this by showing that at 1080p Low, where GPU load is minimal, average FPS reaches 273 — the highest measured value across the entire dataset. This ceiling is likely imposed by the CPU's per-thread throughput or by the game engine's own frame pacing logic, not by the GPU, which is capable of far higher output in synthetic benchmarks.

Comparing the 1080p Low result to the 4K High result (132 FPS), the CPU is clearly not the constraint at higher resolutions — the GPU's workload scales with pixels, and frame rates drop accordingly. However, at 1080p across settings, the variation is modest: Low produces 273 FPS, Medium 252, High 210, and Ultra 206. The 24.5% gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p suggests that while the CPU can sustain very high frame rates, the additional GPU work from higher presets begins to introduce a GPU-side limit even at 1080p.

The CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are ample for this title's data footprint. The processor's Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process, delivers single-core performance that remains competitive for a game that does not demand high core counts — the 3DMark 2-thread score of 1691 and 4-thread score of 3171 confirm that even a small subset of the CPU's resources can handle the game's threading model.

FAQ

Q: Why is the 1080p Low FPS (273) so much higher than the 4K Ultra FPS (126)?

A: The 54% reduction in average FPS from 1080p Low to 4K Ultra reflects the GPU's increasing workload as pixel count more than quadruples (from 2.07 million to 8.29 million pixels). The RTX 4080 SUPER must shade and texture four times as many pixels at 4K, and the data shows that this overwhelms the GPU's capacity before the CPU becomes a factor.

Q: Does this CPU bottleneck the RTX 4080 SUPER in this game?

A: At 1080p Low, the 273 FPS average is the highest in the entire dataset, and the CPU's single-thread 3DMark score of 868 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2024 indicate sufficient per-core performance. The data shows no evidence of CPU limitation — frame rates scale down with resolution and settings in a pattern consistent with GPU-bound behavior.

Q: Which resolution provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate?

A: The 1440p High preset delivers 188 FPS average, which is 42.4% faster than 4K High's 132 FPS while still offering the High preset's visual features. For users prioritizing smoothness, 1440p Medium at 226 FPS nearly matches 1080p High's 210 FPS while rendering at a higher native resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 54209 is 0.1% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080's 54247 and 1.1% below the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X's 54828. In the measured game data, the RTX 4080 SUPER's performance aligns with its 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

Q: Is the 1080p Medium min FPS of 214 a concern for gameplay?

A: The minimum FPS of 214 at 1080p Medium, with a maximum of 290, represents a 76-frame range. Even the lowest recorded frame rate is far above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the 4K Medium min FPS of 164 remains comfortably playable.

Q: What does the 1008th rank out of 3716 combos indicate for this pairing?

A: This placement in the 27th percentile of tested combos for Inside reflects that many other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates in this title, likely due to CPUs with stronger single-thread performance. The RTX 4080 SUPER's GPU capability is not the differentiator here, as the game's modest requirements allow many processors to reach high FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 273 FPS, the highest measured value in the dataset. Medium produces 252 FPS average with a minimum of 214 and maximum of 290. High drops to 210 FPS average, and Ultra is nearly identical at 206 FPS. The 1080p results show a 24.5% spread between the lowest and highest presets, indicating that even at the lowest resolution, graphical settings have a measurable impact on frame rate.

Moving to 2560x1440, Low averages 244 FPS, Medium 226 FPS (min 192, max 259), High 188 FPS, and Ultra 185 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p across presets ranges from 10.2% at Ultra to 10.6% at Low, showing a consistent ~10% penalty for the 77% increase in pixel count. The 1440p results demonstrate that this resolution remains well within the GPU's comfort zone, with every preset exceeding 180 FPS average.

At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more pronounced. Low averages 209 FPS, Medium 193 FPS (min 164, max 222), High 132 FPS, and Ultra 126 FPS. The 4K Low result is remarkable — it exceeds the 1080p Ultra result by 1.5%, showing that the GPU can handle 4K rendering when visual effects are minimized. However, the jump from Medium to High at 4K incurs a 31.6% penalty (193 to 132 FPS), which is the largest single-setting drop in the entire dataset. This suggests that the High preset introduces significantly more GPU-intensive rendering features — likely improved lighting, shadows, or post-processing — that disproportionately impact 4K performance.

The Ultra preset at 4K (126 FPS) is only 4.5% slower than High (132 FPS), indicating diminishing returns in GPU load between these two presets at the highest resolution. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset shows the most stable frame-time behavior, with the narrowest min/max spread relative to its average FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the AD103 chip using TSMC's 5 nm process, with 45,900 million transistors packed into a 379 mm² die. Its base clock of 2295 MHz boosts to 2550 MHz, and the 16 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 1438 MHz with 23 Gbps effective speed across a 256-bit bus, yielding 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's 10240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s.

In the context of Inside, the GPU's raw compute power — 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput — is vastly overprovisioned for a 2D puzzle platformer. The measured FPS data confirms this: even at 4K Ultra, the average of 126 FPS represents only a fraction of the GPU's theoretical capability. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54209, places it just below the RTX 4080 (54247, -0.1%) and above the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698, -2.7% relative to the RTX 4080 SUPER).

The GPU's memory subsystem is particularly relevant for 4K rendering. The 16 GB VRAM capacity and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth ensure that texture streaming and frame buffer operations at 8.3 megapixels never encounter memory constraints. The data shows that the GPU's compute and memory resources are sufficient to maintain 209 FPS at 4K Low, meaning that the 4K Ultra result of 126 FPS is determined by shader complexity and pixel shading load rather than memory bandwidth or capacity.

The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600, indicates that the card excels in modern API workloads, though Inside's 2016 release date predates many of these features. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 260075 and OpenCL score of 219065 further demonstrate the GPU's compute capability, yet the game's rendering demands are modest enough that the GPU operates well below its saturation point in most measured configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data identifies the Medium preset as the most balanced configuration across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 252 FPS average with a minimum of 214 FPS, providing a 20% improvement over High's 210 FPS while maintaining the same visual tier. At 1440p, Medium's 226 FPS average exceeds High's 188 FPS by 20.2%, and the minimum of 192 FPS ensures consistent frame delivery. At 4K, Medium's 193 FPS average represents a 46.2% advantage over High's 132 FPS, with a minimum of 164 FPS that remains far above display refresh rates.

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, the Ultra preset is viable at every resolution, with 206 FPS at 1080p, 185 FPS at 1440p, and 126 FPS at 4K. The step from High to Ultra costs only 1.9% at 1080p (210 to 206 FPS) and 1.6% at 1440p (188 to 185 FPS), making Ultra a nearly free upgrade over High at these resolutions. At 4K, the High-to-Ultra step costs 4.5% (132 to 126 FPS), which is still a minor penalty given the visual improvement.

The Low preset offers the highest frame rates — 273 FPS at 1080p, 244 FPS at 1440p, and 209 FPS at 4K — but the Medium preset's additional visual features come at a modest cost: 7.7% at 1080p (273 to 252 FPS), 7.4% at 1440p (244 to 226 FPS), and 7.7% at 4K (209 to 193 FPS). Given the consistent ~7.5% penalty across resolutions, Medium provides the best experience per frame rate unit lost. The 4K Medium result of 193 FPS is particularly compelling, as it offers a 46.2% improvement over High with identical frame-time stability characteristics (min 164, max 222).

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination ranks 1008th out of 3716 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the 27th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects that the game's low system requirements allow many less powerful GPUs paired with faster single-thread CPUs to achieve comparable or better frame rates. The CPU's 71st percentile ranking (average benchmark score 17177) and the GPU's 86th percentile ranking (average benchmark score 54209) indicate a pairing where the GPU is relatively stronger than the CPU, yet the game's FPS data shows that this imbalance does not create a CPU bottleneck.

The CPU's nearest rivals — the AMD EPYC 7H12 (0.3% higher score), Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (0.6% higher), Intel Core i5-12450H (0.4% lower), and AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (0.6% lower) — all fall within 0.6% of the i5-11400F's average benchmark score, suggesting that any of these processors would produce nearly identical results in this game. The GPU's nearest rivals, including the RTX 4080 (0.1% higher score) and AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (1.1% higher), similarly bracket the RTX 4080 SUPER's performance within a narrow band.

The 1008th rank position indicates that the combo's performance is adequate but not exceptional for this title. The data shows that frame rates exceed 200 FPS at 1080p for all presets and exceed 180 FPS at 1440p for all presets, with only the 4K High and Ultra presets falling below 150 FPS. These results are more than sufficient for smooth gameplay, but the combo's percentile ranking suggests that many other tested configurations achieve even higher frame rates — likely due to CPUs with stronger single-thread performance from newer generations. The measured FPS data remains the authoritative reference: this pairing delivers excellent performance in Inside, with the GPU's headroom at lower resolutions being the primary observation from the dataset.