Inside

The Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination delivers an exceptional experience in Inside, a title that is clearly not demanding on modern hardware. The data shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER, which sits at the 88th percentile of all GPUs, is rarely the limiting factor here. Instead, the frame rates across all resolutions and settings are so high that they often approach or exceed the refresh rates of most displays, making the game’s performance a non-issue for the vast majority of users.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic pattern where the CPU becomes an increasingly significant constraint at lower resolutions, while the GPU workload ramps up substantially at 4K. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 314.6 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at Low settings, the average only drops to 282 FPS, a reduction of roughly 10%. However, jumping to 3840x2160 at Low settings yields 244.1 FPS, showing a more pronounced 13.4% drop from the 1440p figure. This indicates that while the GPU is being tasked harder at 4K, the frame rates remain incredibly high, suggesting the CPU is still keeping pace comfortably.

The story changes when we look at the High and Ultra presets. At 1080p High, the average is 246.1 FPS. At 1440p High, it rises to 213.1 FPS, a 13.4% decrease. But at 4K High, the average plummets to 131 FPS, a staggering 38.5% drop from the 1440p result. This steep decline is a clear indicator that at 4K with higher graphical fidelity, the GPU is finally being pushed to its limits, and the sheer pixel count combined with the effects load significantly impacts the rendering pipeline.

The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K further emphasizes the GPU-bound nature of high-resolution play. The difference between 4K Low (244.1 FPS) and 4K Ultra (124.5 FPS) is a 49% reduction in performance. This nearly halved frame rate demonstrates that the RTX 4080 SUPER has a substantial amount of headroom at lower settings, but the Ultra preset, with its likely increased draw distances and particle effects, can still bring this top-tier GPU to its knees. In contrast, the scaling from 1080p Low (314.6 FPS) to 1080p Ultra (241.8 FPS) is a much smaller 23% drop, reinforcing that the CPU is the primary bottleneck at 1080p, preventing the GPU from fully flexing its muscles even at higher settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a monster of a graphics card, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. Its specifications are formidable: 10240 shading units, 80 RT cores, and a massive 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. With a boost clock of 2550 MHz, the card can deliver a peak FP32 performance of 52.22 TFLOPS, which more than explains its ability to shatter frame rate expectations in this game. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 53610 places it at the 88th percentile of all GPUs, and it edges out the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT by 0.2% in average score, showing it is a top-tier performer even among its closest rivals.

In Inside, the GPU’s role is most evident in the 4K results. The 38.5% drop from 1440p High to 4K High is the most direct evidence of the GPU becoming the limiting component. The card’s immense compute power is what allows it to maintain a 131 FPS average at 4K High, a figure that would be impossible for most other cards. The 16 GB VRAM buffer is also a critical asset, ensuring that even at 4K resolution with High or Ultra textures, memory capacity is not a bottleneck, allowing the card to focus purely on rendering. The data suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER is overkill for 1080p and 1440p in this specific game, but its power is fully utilized when tackling the demanding 4K Ultra preset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake family, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. It features a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with 18 MB of shared L3 cache. While it is a capable gaming CPU, its benchmark scores indicate it is not in the same league as the GPU. Its average benchmark score of 19850 places it at the 77th percentile of all CPUs, and it is virtually tied with the Intel Core i7-9700 (0.1% faster) and the Intel Core i7-8700 (0.2% slower). This shows that while the CPU is solid, it is not a top-tier part like the RTX 4080 SUPER.

The CPU’s influence is most apparent at 1080p, where the frame rates are highest. The data shows that the gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p is only 23%, while the gap between 1080p Low and 4K Low is 22.4%. This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiter, as the GPU has enough headroom to render frames faster than the CPU can feed it. The 314.6 FPS at 1080p Low is likely near the CPU’s maximum throughput for this game, and increasing the resolution to 1440p only drops this to 282 FPS, a small 10% change, because the CPU is still doing most of the heavy lifting. It is only at 4K, where the GPU’s workload becomes so immense, that the CPU is finally relieved from being the primary bottleneck, and the GPU’s performance takes over as the dominant factor. The i5-12400’s 6 cores and 12 threads are more than sufficient for this puzzle platformer, ensuring no frame-pacing issues or stutters.

FAQ

Q: Why is the frame rate at 1080p Low so much higher than at 4K High?

A: The data shows a 314.6 FPS average at 1080p Low versus a 131 FPS average at 4K High. This difference is due to the CPU being the primary bottleneck at 1080p, limiting the maximum frame rate, while at 4K High, the GPU’s rendering workload becomes the limiting factor, reducing the frame rate by 58%.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER overkill for this game?

A: The benchmark results indicate that at 1080p and 1440p, the GPU is often not the limiting component, as frame rates are extremely high. For example, at 1440p High, the average is 213.1 FPS, and at 1080p High, it is 246.1 FPS. This suggests that a less powerful GPU could achieve similar results, but the RTX 4080 SUPER ensures maximum performance at 4K Ultra, where it achieves 124.5 FPS.

Q: How does the i5-12400 compare to its closest rivals in terms of overall CPU performance?

A: The i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850. It is nearly identical in performance to the Intel Core i7-9700, which has a score of 19831 (0.1% faster), and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX, which has a score of 19928 (0.4% slower). This shows the i5-12400 is a solid mid-range performer.

Q: Does the game become more GPU-bound at higher settings?

A: Yes, the data strongly suggests this. At 4K, the performance drop from Low (244.1 FPS) to Ultra (124.5 FPS) is 49%, indicating the GPU is working much harder. In contrast, at 1080p, the drop from Low to Ultra is only 23%, showing the CPU is the primary limiting factor.

Q: What is the difference in performance between the RTX 4080 SUPER and the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, while the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT has a score of 53489. This means the RTX 4080 SUPER is 0.2% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT in this benchmark, making them essentially equivalent in overall GPU compute performance.

Q: Can this system maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, the combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER achieves an average of 124.5 FPS at 4K Ultra settings. This is well above the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay and indicates an excellent experience even at the highest graphical preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact average frame rates measured for the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination across all tested resolutions and settings.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

| :--------- | :------- | :---------- |

| 3840x2160 | High | 131.0 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 244.1 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 210.2 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 124.5 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 213.1 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 282.0 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 264.3 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 198.1 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 246.1 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 314.6 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 295.0 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 241.8 |

The data shows a clear trend: at 1080p and 1440p, the frame rates are consistently above 198 FPS, even at Ultra settings, meaning the game will run flawlessly on high refresh rate monitors. Moving to 4K introduces a significant step down in performance, particularly at High and Ultra settings, but the average frame rates still remain above 124 FPS, which is an excellent result. The performance difference between Low and Ultra at each resolution highlights the GPU’s workload scaling, with the 4K resolution showing the most significant impact from the Ultra preset.