Inside

# Inside — Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080

The pairing of Intel's 12th-generation Core i5-12400 with NVIDIA's Blackwell-based RTX 5080 produces an extraordinary performance envelope in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer that clearly scales well beyond typical expectations for its genre. The benchmark data shows this combo achieving triple-digit frame rates even at 4K Ultra settings, with the average FPS ranging from 134 at the most demanding configuration to 320 at 1080p Low. This places the combination at rank 195 out of 1,671 tested combos, putting it in the top 11.7% of all systems tested for this title. The measured results reveal a system that is almost certainly overkill for the game's visual style, yet the raw performance numbers tell a compelling story about how both components interact under varying resolution and settings loads.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a system where the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as resolution climbs, while the CPU maintains sufficient headroom at lower resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 243.3 at 1920x1080 to 218.5 at 2560x1440—a modest 10.2% reduction—then falls more sharply to 139.8 at 3840x2160, representing a 42.5% decrease from the 1440p figure. This pattern indicates that the RTX 5080's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are being increasingly taxed as pixel count rises, while the i5-12400's six cores and 12 threads remain largely underutilized even at the lowest tested resolution.

The Low settings row amplifies this trend dramatically. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 320 FPS, which drops to 285.3 at 1440p (a 10.8% decline) and then to 242.9 at 4K (a 14.9% drop from 1440p). The relatively smaller percentage drops at Low settings compared to High settings suggest that the CPU is becoming more of a limiting factor at lower graphical loads—the i5-12400's boost clock of 4.40 GHz and its 3DMark single-thread score of 910 appear sufficient to push beyond 300 FPS, but the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low shows a larger absolute gap than the GPU-bound scenarios.

Ultra settings produce the most revealing scaling curve: 239.1 FPS at 1080p, 212.3 at 1440p (an 11.2% drop), and 134 at 4K (a 36.9% drop from 1440p). The steep 4K penalty at Ultra—a 105 FPS difference from 1080p—indicates that the RTX 5080's 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 112 ROPs are being pushed to their limits with maximum graphical effects, while the CPU overhead remains relatively constant. The data strongly suggests this game becomes GPU-bound at 4K Ultra, with the graphics card's pixel fill rate of 293.1 GPixel/s being the primary constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

Positioned at rank 195 out of 1,671 tested combinations, this i5-12400 + RTX 5080 pairing sits comfortably in the upper echelon of systems for Inside. The percentile placement reflects a configuration that outperforms approximately 88% of all tested combos, which is remarkable given that the game's 2016 release predates both components by several years. The ranking suggests that while the game is not particularly demanding by modern standards, the combination's raw throughput still boosts it above most rivals.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 19,850 places it within 0.1% of the Intel Core i7-9700 (19,831) and 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-8700 (19,894), while sitting 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX and 0.4% behind the Intel Core i5-11600K. These near-identical scores indicate that the i5-12400 offers performance parity with several older high-end processors, though its 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs shows it is not a top-tier part. The GPU's average benchmark score of 59,188 places it 1.6% ahead of the Intel Arc A570M (58,239) and 2.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A580 (57,756), while trailing the Intel Arc Pro A60 by 1.9% and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X by 2.6%. This competitive positioning suggests the RTX 5080 is a strong performer in its segment, with the measured game results exceeding what the synthetic averages might predict.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo maintain 4K 60 FPS in Inside?*

A: Yes, with substantial headroom. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 134, and at 4K High it reaches 139.8, both far above the 60 FPS threshold. Even at the most demanding settings, the system delivers more than double the required frame rate.

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

A: The i5-12400's average benchmark score of 19,850 is effectively tied with the Intel Core i7-9700 (19,831, 0.1% faster), the Intel Core i7-8700 (19,894, 0.2% slower), and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (19,928, 0.4% slower). It edges out the Intel Core i5-11600K (19,771) by 0.4%.

Q: Is the RTX 5080 significantly faster than its nearest GPU rivals?

A: In average benchmark scores, the RTX 5080 (59,188) leads the Intel Arc A580 (57,756) by 2.5% and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X (57,661) by 2.6%, but trails the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326) by 1.9% and the Intel Arc A570M (58,239) by 1.6%.

Q: What frame rate difference exists between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 320 at Low settings down to 239.1 at Ultra, representing an 80.9 FPS difference. Medium settings yield 294.9 FPS, while High produces 243.3 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance at any tested resolution?

A: The data indicates CPU limitations may appear at 1080p Low, where 320 FPS is achieved. However, since the CPU's single-thread score of 910 and 3DMark 2-thread score of 1,692 suggest adequate headroom, the 4K Ultra result of 134 FPS is clearly GPU-bound rather than CPU-limited.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings spectrum delivers exceptional performance. Low settings produce an average of 320 FPS, Medium reaches 294.9 FPS, High achieves 243.3 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 239.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 80.9 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is a mere 4.2 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns from the highest preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same settings pattern holds but with reduced absolute numbers. Low settings average 285.3 FPS, Medium hits 260.6 FPS, High reaches 218.5 FPS, and Ultra delivers 212.3 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 10.8% drop at Low (320 to 285.3), a 11.7% drop at Medium (294.9 to 260.6), a 10.2% drop at High (243.3 to 218.5), and an 11.2% drop at Ultra (239.1 to 212.3). These consistent reductions across all settings suggest a uniform scaling factor as pixel count increases by 77%, rather than a sudden bottleneck.

At 3840x2160, the performance curve steepens considerably. Low settings yield 242.9 FPS (a 14.9% drop from 1440p), Medium produces 221.4 FPS (a 15.1% drop), High reaches 139.8 FPS (a 36% drop), and Ultra falls to 134 FPS (a 36.9% drop). The dramatic divergence between Low/Medium and High/Ultra at 4K highlights where the GPU's resources become saturated—the higher presets likely enable effects that disproportionately impact the RTX 5080's 112 ROPs and 336 TMUs.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 provides six physical cores and 12 threads operating at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This Alder Lake-S architecture on Intel's 10 nm process node delivers a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15,935 and single-core score of 2,249, with a Passmark multithread score of 18,747. For Inside, which is not a heavily threaded title, the CPU's 3DMark 2-thread score of 1,692 and single-thread score of 910 are more relevant indicators of gaming performance.

The data suggests the i5-12400 is more than sufficient for this game. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 320 FPS, which likely approaches the CPU's practical limit for frame generation—the 18 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support help maintain low latency, but the 65 W TDP and locked multiplier indicate this is a mainstream part rather than an enthusiast overclocking chip. The 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs and near-identical scores to the i7-9700 and i7-8700 confirm that this processor punches above its weight class for gaming workloads.

The CPU's Passmark data encryption score of 11,418 and data compression score of 226,908 are irrelevant to gaming, but the floating-point math score of 45,494 and integer math score of 58,366 reflect solid computational throughput. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5,873 versus max-thread score of 5,890 indicates minimal scaling beyond 16 threads, reinforcing that Inside likely utilizes only a few cores effectively.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows suggest that High settings provide the optimal balance between visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p High, the system delivers 243.3 FPS—nearly identical to the 239.1 FPS at Ultra, with only a 1.7% penalty for the highest preset. At 1440p High, 218.5 FPS exceeds what most displays can show, while 4K High at 139.8 FPS remains well above 120 FPS thresholds.

Ultra settings offer minimal additional performance cost at 1080p (4.2 FPS less than High) and 1440p (6.2 FPS less), but the 4K delta becomes more pronounced at 5.8 FPS. Given that the game's visual style is minimalist and atmospheric, the visual difference between High and Ultra likely does not justify any frame rate sacrifice—yet the data shows the sacrifice is negligible in most scenarios. Medium settings, meanwhile, provide a significant boost over High at 4K (221.4 FPS versus 139.8 FPS), suggesting that if absolute smoothness is prioritized, dropping from High to Medium at 4K yields a 58.3% improvement.

For players with 144 Hz displays, the 1080p and 1440p High settings exceed refresh rates comfortably. For 4K 120 Hz panels, High settings at 139.8 FPS clear the threshold, while Ultra at 134 FPS also remains sufficient. The only configuration that approaches any limitation is 4K Ultra, which still delivers 134 FPS—making this combo universally capable for Inside at any reasonable display configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, houses 10,752 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. Its boost clock of 2617 MHz enables 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 performance and a texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s. The 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which becomes critical at 4K resolutions where the measured frame rates show the GPU as the primary bottleneck.

The GPU's 89th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 59,188, places it above the Intel Arc A580 and AMD Radeon Pro W5500X but slightly below the Intel Arc Pro A60. In Inside, the 4K Ultra result of 134 FPS demonstrates the GPU's raw capability, while the 320 FPS at 1080p Low shows how the CPU limits performance in less demanding scenarios. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 8,637 and Passmark G3D score of 36,565 confirm strong synthetic performance, though the game's actual results exceed what these metrics might suggest.

The RTX 5080's 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores are irrelevant for this title, as Inside does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS. Instead, the GPU's traditional rasterization performance—driven by its pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and the 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth—governs the 4K scaling behavior. The steep 36% drop from 1440p High to 4K High indicates that memory bandwidth and ROP throughput become constrained at higher pixel counts, while the modest 4.2 FPS difference between High and Ultra at 1080p suggests that the GPU has ample spare capacity at lower resolutions.