Inside

# Inside — Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers a thoroughly playable experience across all resolution tiers in Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016. The measured frame rates show this combination is never constrained by the CPU at 1080p, with the GPU becoming the primary scaling factor as resolution climbs. At 4K Ultra, the combo still maintains an average above 60 FPS, which is a strong result for a game of this era. The data reveals a system that comfortably handles the game’s demands, with headroom at lower settings that points to the GPU as the limiting component rather than the six-core processor.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable pattern dominated by GPU load. At 1080p Low, the combo produces an average of 281.2 FPS, which drops to 201 FPS at 1440p Low and further to 127.3 FPS at 4K Low. That represents a 54.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K at the lowest settings, indicating the GPU is doing the heavy lifting even when graphical demands are minimal. The CPU, with its six cores and 12 threads, is not the bottleneck at these frame rates; the RTX 3060 Ti is the component that scales with resolution.

Looking at High settings, the pattern becomes more pronounced. At 1080p High, the average is 142.5 FPS, falling to 98.4 FPS at 1440p High and 64.7 FPS at 4K High. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 54.6%, nearly identical to the Low preset’s scaling. This consistency suggests the game’s rendering pipeline is uniformly taxing the GPU across settings, with no sudden CPU-related cliff at higher resolutions. The RTX 3060 Ti’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256-bit bus are sufficient to handle the bandwidth demands at 4K, as the scores remain above the 60 FPS threshold for all but the Ultra preset.

Ultra settings show the steepest absolute decline. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 135.8 FPS, while 1440p Ultra yields 96.5 FPS and 4K Ultra drops to 59.3 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is just below the 60 FPS target, which indicates that the combination of high resolution and maximum settings pushes the GPU to its limit. The data shows that the limiting component is the GPU: the CPU’s performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935 and PassMark single-thread score of 3456, is more than adequate for this puzzle platformer, which does not rely on heavy physics or complex AI simulations.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 142.5 FPS. This is well above the refresh rate of most standard monitors, indicating a smooth experience without any need for frame rate capping or adaptive sync.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K resolution?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Low, the average is 127.3 FPS, and at 4K High it drops to 64.7 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 59.3 FPS, which is marginally below the 60 FPS threshold for ideal smoothness.

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

A: The i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850. It is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-9700, 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-11600K, 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-8700, and 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX. These deltas are negligible in real-world gaming.

Q: What is the GPU’s percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti sits in the 69th percentile, meaning it outperforms 69% of all GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score is 25120, which is 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6700M and 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6600.

Q: Is the frame rate consistent across settings at a given resolution?

A: The data shows a clear stepwise progression. At 1440p, the averages are 201 FPS on Low, 159.7 FPS on Medium, 98.4 FPS on High, and 96.5 FPS on Ultra. The gap between High and Ultra is small, suggesting diminishing returns from the highest preset.

Q: Does the game utilize the CPU’s multi-threading capabilities?

A: The game’s frame rates do not indicate a CPU bottleneck. The i5-12400’s 3DMark max-threads score of 5890 and Cinebench R20 multicore score of 6692 suggest ample headroom for this title, which is not heavily threaded.

GPU Role

The RTX 3060 Ti is the decisive component in this configuration. Its boost clock of 1665 MHz and base clock of 1410 MHz, combined with 4864 shading units and 80 ROPs, provide the raw throughput needed for Inside’s stylized visuals. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the textures and effects at 4K resolution. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 20349 places it in the 69th percentile, and its average benchmark score of 25120 is within 0.7% of its nearest rivals, including the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP.

The measured frame rates confirm that the GPU is the limiting factor as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the system produces 281.2 FPS, but this drops to 127.3 FPS at 4K Low — a reduction of 153.9 FPS. The GPU’s pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 253.1 GTexel/s are taxed more heavily at higher resolutions, which explains the scaling pattern. The RTX 3060 Ti’s 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than enough for this game, which was released before the GPU’s launch in 2020. The GPU’s end-of-life production status does not affect its capability in this title.

The memory subsystem plays a role in the 4K results. With 8 GB of VRAM, the card does not experience capacity-related stutters in Inside, as the game’s assets are modest by modern standards. The 14 Gbps effective memory speed ensures that bandwidth is not a constraint, even at the highest resolution tested. The data shows that the GPU’s performance is consistent with its synthetic scores: it ranks near the AMD Radeon RX 6600, which has a slightly higher average score of 25235, but the difference of 0.5% is imperceptible in gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i5-12400 and RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1152 out of 1671 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, which is expected given the age of the game and the relative performance of the components. The rank reflects that many other combinations, likely with higher-end GPUs or newer CPUs, achieve higher frame rates. However, the rank must be interpreted with the game’s low system requirements in mind: Inside is not a demanding title, so even mid-range hardware can produce high scores.

The CPU’s percentile ranking of 77 among all processors indicates that the i5-12400 is a strong performer, but it is not the primary driver of the combo’s rank. The GPU’s 69th percentile ranking is closer to the combo’s overall position. Compared to the CPU’s nearest rivals, the i5-12400’s average score of 19850 is nearly identical to the i7-9700’s 19831, a delta of 0.1%. This means that swapping the CPU for a rival would not meaningfully change the frame rates in Inside, as the game is not CPU-bound.

The combo’s rank of 1152 out of 1671 suggests that there are many configurations with higher frame rates, but the measured data shows that this combo still exceeds 60 FPS at 4K High and 135.8 FPS at 1080p Ultra. The rank is a relative measure; in absolute terms, the experience is smooth across all settings and resolutions tested. The data does not include minimum or maximum frame rates, so stutter analysis is not possible, but the averages indicate a stable experience.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear picture of the optimal settings for different priorities. For players targeting 60 FPS at 4K, the High preset is the best choice, yielding 64.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 59.3 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target, so High is the recommended compromise between visual quality and performance. At 1440p, the High preset produces 98.4 FPS, while Ultra produces 96.5 FPS — the difference is only 1.9 FPS, making Ultra the better choice for those who prioritize visual fidelity at this resolution.

At 1080p, all settings produce frame rates well above 120 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 135.8 FPS, which is sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 226.6 FPS, and Low produces 281.2 FPS, but the visual trade-offs are likely unnecessary given the headroom. For a balanced experience, the High preset at 1080p with 142.5 FPS offers a strong combination of quality and performance. The data suggests that the Ultra preset is not significantly more demanding than High, as the 1440p scores show only a 1.9 FPS difference, so players with capable displays should consider Ultra.

The scaling from Medium to High is more pronounced than from High to Ultra. At 4K, Medium produces 101.8 FPS, High drops to 64.7 FPS, and Ultra further drops to 59.3 FPS. This indicates that the High preset introduces a significant graphical feature that taxes the GPU, while Ultra adds minimal extra load. Therefore, the High preset is the sweet spot for 4K, while Ultra is viable at 1440p and 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low produces 281.2 FPS, Medium produces 226.6 FPS, High produces 142.5 FPS, and Ultra produces 135.8 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 145.4 FPS, showing the full range of GPU scaling. At 2560x1440, the averages are 201 FPS on Low, 159.7 FPS on Medium, 98.4 FPS on High, and 96.5 FPS on Ultra. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to 1.9 FPS, indicating diminishing returns from the highest preset. At 3840x2160, the averages are 127.3 FPS on Low, 101.8 FPS on Medium, 64.7 FPS on High, and 59.3 FPS on Ultra. The drop from High to Ultra is 5.4 FPS, which is the smallest absolute difference across any resolution for those two settings.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the GPU’s performance scales almost linearly with resolution for a given setting. At Low, the 1080p-to-4K drop is 153.9 FPS; at Medium, it is 124.8 FPS; at High, it is 77.8 FPS; and at Ultra, it is 76.5 FPS. This suggests that the higher settings include effects that are less resolution-dependent, such as post-processing, which keeps the frame rate differences more uniform. The RTX 3060 Ti’s 8 GB of VRAM is not a limiting factor, as even the 4K Ultra configuration does not show signs of memory-related dips in the averages. The benchmark results indicate that this combo is well-suited for Inside at any resolution, with the only exception being 4K Ultra where the average falls just below the 60 FPS marker.