Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle-platformer with modest visual demands, yet the measured frame rates for the Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 reveal a configuration that is substantially over-provisioned for the title at every tested resolution. The data shows a system capable of triple-digit frame rates even at 4K Ultra settings, indicating that the primary bottleneck is neither the CPU nor the GPU but rather the game’s inherent frame pacing limits. This analysis breaks down the resolution scaling, component roles, and optimal settings based strictly on the benchmark rows provided.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS values demonstrate a clear and predictable degradation as resolution increases, though the magnitude of the drop is relatively modest given the hardware’s capabilities. At 1080p High settings, the system delivers an average of 212.6 FPS, which falls to 189.5 FPS at 1440p and further to 154.5 FPS at 4K. This represents a 27.3% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, a scaling pattern that suggests the RTX 5090 has ample headroom even at the highest pixel count.

The Low preset shows the most extreme scaling behavior, with 273.1 FPS at 1080p dropping to 243.9 FPS at 1440p and 209.6 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K here is 23.3%, which is slightly less severe than the High preset’s drop. This indicates that even at minimal graphical load, the frame rate is not doubling or halving with resolution changes, pointing to a CPU-side limitation or game engine cap rather than pure GPU fill-rate constraints. The RTX 5090’s 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are far beyond what Inside requires, so the resolution scaling is primarily driven by the game’s rendering pipeline.

Medium settings follow a similar trajectory: 254.5 FPS at 1080p, 228.6 FPS at 1440p, and 195.1 FPS at 4K. The gap between Medium and High is consistent across resolutions, with High being roughly 16-20% slower than Medium. Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates of any preset, with 205.1 FPS at 1080p, 185.7 FPS at 1440p, and 148.2 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K on Ultra is 27.8%, nearly identical to High’s scaling, suggesting that the additional visual effects in Ultra impose a fixed cost rather than a resolution-dependent one.

The data reveals that the limiting component at 1080p is not the GPU, as even the most demanding preset exceeds 200 FPS. At 4K, the frame rates remain above 148 FPS across all presets, confirming that the RTX 5090 is never saturated by this title. The scaling pattern—where 4K is consistently 27-28% slower than 1080p across all presets—indicates a uniform resolution penalty that is characteristic of a game that is not heavily GPU-bound, as a truly GPU-limited scenario would show a larger drop (e.g., 50% or more) when pixel count quadruples.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Rocket Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores show a processor that is solidly mid-range, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14,372 and a single-core score of 2,029. The CPU’s percentile ranking against all CPUs is 75th, indicating it outperforms three-quarters of the tested processors in aggregate benchmarks.

In the context of Inside, the CPU’s role is primarily to maintain a high frame rate ceiling, and the data suggests it does so effectively. The game is a 2D puzzle-platformer with relatively simple physics and logic, so the 12 threads are ample for the workload. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low (273.1 FPS) approach what could be considered an engine-level cap, as the CPU’s single-thread performance (3DMark single-thread score of 868) is sufficient to feed the GPU without creating a bottleneck.

Comparing the i5-11400F to its nearest rivals in aggregate CPU benchmarks, it scores nearly identically to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (deltaPct of 0%) and the Intel Core i7-1260P (deltaPct of -0.2%). This indicates that for multi-threaded workloads, the i5-11400F is performance-equivalent to those mobile processors, despite being a desktop part. The 12 threads and 12 MB of shared L3 cache are more than adequate for Inside’s demands, and the CPU’s 65W TDP suggests it is not thermally constrained in a typical desktop configuration.

The CPU’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz is critical for maintaining high frame rates in less demanding scenes, as the game’s frame pacing relies on consistent single-thread performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 2,981 places it well above the threshold needed for 200+ FPS gameplay in this title. The data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking, as frame rates scale consistently across resolutions, which would not occur if the CPU were the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the flagship Blackwell architecture GPU, featuring 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its compute capabilities are extraordinary, with 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 21,760 shading units. The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect this dominance, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,411 and a PassMark G3D score of 39,650, placing it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs.

For Inside, the RTX 5090 is massively overkill. The game’s visual fidelity is modest by modern standards, and the GPU’s 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate and 176 ROPs are far beyond what a 2D platformer requires. The measured frame rates confirm this, as even at 4K Ultra settings, the GPU delivers 148.2 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target most players would consider smooth. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s is entirely unnecessary for a game that likely uses less than 4 GB of VRAM, even at 4K with Ultra textures.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks include the RTX 5090 D (deltaPct of 0.1%), RTX 5050 Mobile (deltaPct of 0.2%), and AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (deltaPct of 1.3%). The RTX 5090’s average benchmark score of 84,306 is virtually identical to these competitors, which is notable because the RTX 5090 D is a region-specific variant, while the RTX 5050 Mobile is a laptop part. This suggests that Inside’s performance is not sensitive to GPU differences within this performance tier, as the game is not GPU-bound.

The GPU’s clock speeds—base 2017 MHz and boost 2407 MHz—are high but do not meaningfully influence frame rates in this title. The data shows that the RTX 5090 is operating well below its maximum potential, as evidenced by the relatively small frame rate differences between Low and Ultra presets at any given resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low (273.1 FPS) and Ultra (205.1 FPS) is 68 FPS, which indicates that even the most demanding preset cannot fully utilize the GPU’s capabilities.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the High preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, delivering 189.5 FPS. This is only 8.5% slower than the Medium preset at the same resolution (228.6 FPS), yet it provides superior visual fidelity without pushing frame rates below 180 FPS. For players with 144Hz displays, the High preset at 1440p is ideal, as it maintains frame rates well above the refresh rate while providing enhanced graphical details.

At 4K, the High preset (154.5 FPS) is the recommended choice for high-refresh-rate displays, as it exceeds 150 FPS while offering better visuals than Medium (195.1 FPS). The Ultra preset at 4K (148.2 FPS) is marginally slower than High and provides diminishing returns in visual quality for a 6.3 FPS difference, making it a less appealing option unless absolute maximum fidelity is desired. For 1080p displays, the High preset (212.6 FPS) is sufficient for any refresh rate currently available, and the Ultra preset (205.1 FPS) can be used without significant frame rate penalties.

The Low preset offers the highest frame rates (273.1 FPS at 1080p, 243.9 FPS at 1440p, 209.6 FPS at 4K) but sacrifices visual quality unnecessarily, given that even the High preset exceeds 150 FPS at all resolutions. The Medium preset (254.5 FPS at 1080p) is a middle ground that provides a 16.5% frame rate improvement over High but with noticeably reduced visual effects. The data suggests that players should prioritize High settings as the default, with Ultra reserved for those who prioritize visual fidelity over the already-abundant frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 425th out of 1,671 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the top 25.4% of all configurations. This ranking is surprisingly modest given the raw performance of the components, but it reflects the fact that Inside is not a demanding title, and many lower-tier GPUs paired with faster CPUs may achieve higher frame rates due to better CPU-GPU balance.

The combo’s ranking is influenced by the CPU’s position in the 75th percentile of all processors, which is lower than the GPU’s 94th percentile ranking. This mismatch suggests that the i5-11400F is the weaker link in this pairing, though it does not bottleneck the game’s performance in practice. The measured frame rates show that the combo is capable of 205.1 FPS at 1080p Ultra, which is likely near the game’s engine limit, so the ranking is more a reflection of how other CPU-GPU pairs perform in this title rather than a limitation of this specific setup.

Compared to other combos that use the RTX 5090, this pairing is likely underperforming due to the CPU’s relatively modest single-thread performance. However, the data does not include direct comparisons to other RTX 5090 pairings, so the ranking of 425 suggests that some configurations with faster CPUs achieve higher frame rates, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU overhead is more significant. The combo’s ranking of 425 out of 1,671 is respectable, placing it above 74.6% of all tested configurations, but it is not in the top tier for this game, which is dominated by newer, higher-clocked processors paired with the RTX 5090.