Inside

The Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination shows a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution climbs in Inside. At 1920x1080, the data shows the CPU is the primary limiting factor, evidenced by the small performance delta between Low and High settings (319.3 FPS vs 217.7 FPS). The scaling from Medium to Ultra at 1080p is similarly modest, with 292.9 FPS dropping to 209.1 FPS. This pattern suggests the processor is near its ceiling even at lower graphical loads. Moving to 2560x1440, the GPU begins to assert itself more, as the spread between Low (285 FPS) and Ultra (146.4 FPS) widens considerably, indicating that the RX 9070 is taking on more of the rendering burden. At 3840x2160, the GPU is decisively the limiting component; the drop from Low (193.4 FPS) to Ultra (90.9 FPS) is dramatic, and even High settings (97.3 FPS) fall below the 100 FPS mark. The data indicates that 4K Ultra (90.9 FPS) nearly halves the 1080p Ultra result (209.1 FPS), a scaling factor that points to the graphics card’s memory bandwidth and compute capacity being fully saturated at the highest resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS for 2560x1440 at High settings is 155.3 FPS. This represents a substantial drop from the 1080p High result of 217.7 FPS, showing that resolution scaling has a noticeable impact even at mid-range settings.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 501st out of 1671 tested combos in this game. This places it in the upper-middle tier of the database, indicating a balanced pairing that performs well but is not at the extreme top end.

Q: Does the GPU hold up better at 4K Low or 1440p Ultra?

A: The data shows 4K Low (193.4 FPS) is significantly faster than 1440p Ultra (146.4 FPS). This suggests that the GPU’s raw throughput is less of a constraint than the shader complexity and texture filtering associated with Ultra settings, which have a disproportionate impact on frame rate.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: Benchmark results indicate the CPU is the limiting factor at 1920x1080. The frame rate ceiling appears to be around 319.3 FPS (Low settings), and even dropping to Low from High only yields a 101.6 FPS increase, implying the processor cannot push much higher regardless of graphical load.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Medium settings produce 156.1 FPS, while Ultra drops to 90.9 FPS. This 65.2 FPS gap is the largest relative penalty among the tested resolutions, confirming that Ultra settings pressure the GPU’s 16 GB frame buffer and compute units heavily.

Q: How does the CPU’s single-thread performance relate to the 1080p results?

A: The processor’s single-thread score in 3DMark is 910, and its passmark single-thread score is 3456. Given that Inside is a puzzle platformer with modest thread requirements, these scores suggest adequate headroom for the 1080p frame rates observed, but the data shows a plateau exists around 300 FPS, hinting at a core clock limit.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 brings 6 cores and 12 threads, a configuration that proves sufficient for Inside’s logical simulation. The base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz are relevant to the game’s frame pacing; at 1080p, the measured FPS values (319.3 at Low, 217.7 at High) suggest the processor is working near its boost ceiling. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1692 and 4-thread score of 3012 are indicative of strong light-thread performance, which aligns with the game’s puzzle-platformer nature where physics and entity updates are not massively parallel. The L3 cache of 18 MB shared across the 6 cores helps maintain consistent frame delivery, as evidenced by the relatively close scores between High (217.7) and Ultra (209.1) at 1080p—a difference of only 8.6 FPS. In Cinebench R23, the multicore score of 15935 and single-core score of 2249 place this CPU at the 77th percentile among all processors, which explains why it does not bottleneck the GPU at higher resolutions where the graphics card becomes the focus. The data shows that at 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes; the frame rate differences between settings (193.4 Low vs 156.1 Medium) are driven by the GPU, not the processor. The passmark multithread score of 18747 and physics score of 1105 further support the notion that this chip has ample headroom for a title like Inside, which rarely stresses all 12 threads simultaneously. The processor’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-9700, has an average benchmark score of 19831, just 0.1% higher, indicating that the i5-12400’s performance envelope is well-matched to mid-range gaming workloads. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz is the key differentiator in this game, as the measured 1080p frame rates hover near the 300 FPS mark, which is typically the domain of high single-thread throughput.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 501 out of 1671 tested configurations places this pairing in the 70th percentile of all systems in the database. This is a respectable position, though not elite, reflecting a balance between a mid-range CPU and a high-end GPU. The central processor’s average benchmark score of 19850 places it at the 77th percentile among CPUs, while the GPU’s average score of 34780 places it at the 79th percentile among GPUs. The alignment of these two percentiles suggests a harmonious pairing, but the game’s results show that the CPU is the weaker link at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the combo’s performance is limited by the i5-12400, as evidenced by the 319.3 FPS ceiling at Low settings. In contrast, at 4K, the GPU’s capabilities are more fully utilized, with the combo achieving 90.9 FPS at Ultra, which is a strong showing for a resolution that pushes the RX 9070’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. The rank of 501 is likely influenced by the fact that many higher-ranked combos feature more powerful CPUs like the Intel Core i7-8700, which has an average score of 19894 (0.2% higher than the i5-12400), or the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX with an average score of 19928 (0.4% higher). These rivals demonstrate that the i5-12400 is competitive with older high-end chips but lacks the multi-threaded headroom of workstation-class processors. The data shows that for Inside, the combo’s rank is primarily determined by the 1080p results, where the CPU bottleneck caps performance; if the game were more GPU-intensive, this ranking would likely improve. The measured FPS at 1440p High (155.3 FPS) and 4K High (97.3 FPS) are solid, but the 1080p Ultra score of 209.1 FPS is below what a faster CPU might achieve, suggesting the rank could be higher with a different processor.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070, built on the Navi 48 chip with RDNA 4.0 architecture, is clearly the dominant component in this pairing at higher resolutions. The GPU’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s, which is critical for the 4K Ultra result of 90.9 FPS. The boost clock of 2520 MHz and game clock of 2070 MHz are the drivers behind the 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, which explains the large frame rate jumps when moving from Low to Medium settings. At 1080p, the GPU is underutilized; the difference between Low (319.3 FPS) and Medium (292.9 FPS) is just 26.4 FPS, suggesting the graphics card has headroom that the CPU cannot feed. However, at 1440p, the GPU starts to show its strength, with Medium (251.5 FPS) and High (155.3 FPS) demonstrating that the 128 ROPs and 224 TMUs are working efficiently. The 4K results are the most telling: the drop from Low (193.4 FPS) to Ultra (90.9 FPS) is a 53% reduction, which is typical for a GPU that is fully saturated. The pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s are the specifications that govern these extreme resolutions. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 79th place among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34780, places it just below the NVIDIA A2 (34866, -0.2% delta) and above the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (34677, 0.3% delta). This data indicates that the RX 9070 is a high-tier card that can handle Inside at 4K ultra settings, but the 90.9 FPS result is not sufficient for high-refresh-rate 4K displays. The 20.1 Gbps effective memory speed is a notable factor in the 4K Low result of 193.4 FPS, as the high bandwidth prevents memory from becoming a bottleneck even at lower graphical settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are consistently high, starting with Low settings at 319.3 FPS. Medium settings yield 292.9 FPS, High drops to 217.7 FPS, and Ultra settles at 209.1 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 110.2 FPS, which is substantial, but the fact that High and Ultra are only 8.6 FPS apart suggests diminishing returns beyond High. The 1440p results show a more pronounced scaling: Low produces 285 FPS, Medium 251.5 FPS, High 155.3 FPS, and Ultra 146.4 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is just 8.9 FPS, mirroring the 1080p pattern, but the gap between Medium and High is a significant 96.2 FPS, indicating that High settings introduce a heavy load on the GPU. At 4K, the results are as follows: Low 193.4 FPS, Medium 156.1 FPS, High 97.3 FPS, and Ultra 90.9 FPS. The most striking observation is the steep drop from Medium to High, which is a 58.8 FPS reduction, more than double the drop from Low to Medium (37.3 FPS). This suggests that High settings enable effects that are disproportionately expensive at 4K resolution. The Ultra setting at 4K (90.9 FPS) is only 6.4 FPS lower than High (97.3 FPS), implying that the game’s Ultra preset adds little over High at this resolution, possibly due to the GPU hitting a compute limit. When comparing across resolutions for the same settings, the data shows that 1080p Ultra (209.1 FPS) is 43% faster than 1440p Ultra (146.4 FPS), and 1440p Ultra is 61% faster than 4K Ultra (90.9 FPS). These scaling factors are consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, where the RX 9070’s 16 GB memory and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth are the primary determinants of performance. The measured FPS data is definitive: the combo delivers playable frame rates at all settings and resolutions, with the caveat that 4K Ultra is just above the 90 FPS threshold, while 1080p Low exceeds 300 FPS for competitive or high-refresh-rate play.