Inside

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB demonstrates a clear performance curve across the three primary resolutions tested for Inside. The data shows a predictable scaling pattern, though the magnitude of the drop between 1080p and 4K reveals where the system’s bottleneck lies.

At 1080p, the combination is extraordinarily fast, with the Low preset hitting 320 FPS and even the demanding Ultra preset maintaining 162 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the average frame rates drop by roughly 23-25% across all presets; for instance, High falls from 170 FPS to 122 FPS, and Low goes from 320 FPS to 245 FPS. This is a typical resolution scaling curve for a GPU-bound title, as the pixel count increases from 2.07 million to 3.69 million.

The jump to 4K (3840x2160) is where the scaling becomes more aggressive. The High preset drops from 122 FPS at 1440p to 77 FPS at 4K, a 37% reduction, while the Medium preset falls from 196 FPS to 123 FPS, a 37.2% decline. The Low preset still manages 154 FPS at 4K, but the Ultra preset falls to 73 FPS. The steep decline from 1440p to 4K indicates that the Radeon RX 9060 XT’s 8 GB memory buffer and 128-bit bus are the limiting factors at the highest resolution, as the fill rate demand outpaces the GPU’s ability to process pixels efficiently.

Notably, the gap between the Low and Ultra presets widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 158 FPS (320 vs 162); at 1440p, it is 128 FPS (245 vs 117); and at 4K, it is 81 FPS (154 vs 73). This suggests that while the CPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions, the GPU becomes increasingly stressed by the combination of high settings and high pixel counts, making the 4K Ultra row the least favorable configuration for smooth gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

For a game like Inside, which is a puzzle platformer with a dark, atmospheric aesthetic, the visual fidelity settings matter less than maintaining a consistent frame rate. The measured data shows that the Medium preset offers the best balance between performance and quality, as it is the only preset with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values across all resolutions.

At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 272 FPS average, with a minimum of 232 FPS and a maximum of 313 FPS. This is still far beyond the refresh rate of any standard monitor, ensuring zero perceptible stutter. At 1440p, Medium averages 196 FPS, with a minimum of 167 FPS and a maximum of 225 FPS, which remains exceptionally smooth for a 144Hz display. Even at 4K, Medium holds an average of 123 FPS with a minimum of 105 FPS, which is just above the 100 FPS threshold for high-refresh-rate gaming.

The High preset is a viable alternative for users prioritizing image quality over raw speed, but it lacks the min/max data shown for Medium. The High preset at 1440p (122 FPS) and 4K (77 FPS) is playable, but the lower average suggests that demanding scenes could dip below 60 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset, while visually superior, pushes the GPU too hard at higher resolutions; the 73 FPS average at 4K is borderline for a smooth experience, and the 117 FPS at 1440p is less ideal than Medium’s 196 FPS.

Given the measured rows, the Medium preset is the recommended choice. It provides the most stable frame delivery across all resolutions, with the min/max variance being only 35 FPS at 1080p (232-313), 58 FPS at 1440p (167-225), and 37 FPS at 4K (105-142). This consistency is critical for a puzzle platformer where precise timing is required. The Low preset, while hitting 320 FPS at 1080p, sacrifices too much visual detail for a game that relies on lighting and shadow for its atmosphere.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB ranks 1799 out of 3716 tested combos in this game. This places it in the 51.6th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning it outperforms slightly more than half of the systems tested in the database. The ranking is surprisingly modest given the high raw frame rates achieved, but this is explained by the fact that Inside is a lightweight title that can run on nearly any hardware.

The CPU alone sits in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19039, placing it well above the median processor. The GPU, however, ranks significantly lower, sitting in the 24th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 4093 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. This disparity suggests that while the processor is capable of driving high frame rates in this game, the graphics card is the weaker link, which is reflected in the combo’s middling overall rank.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in benchmark scores are the Intel HD Graphics 630 (score 4075, delta +0.4%), the NVIDIA Quadro K2100M (score 4151, delta -1.4%), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M (score 4033, delta +1.5%). These are all low-end or integrated solutions, which highlights that the RX 9060 XT, despite its modern RDNA 4.0 architecture, is not positioned as a high-performance part in synthetic benchmarks. The CPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (score 19047, delta 0%), the Intel Core 3 201E (score 19056, delta -0.1%), and the Intel Core i5-1335U (score 18982, delta +0.3%), showing that the i5-12400F is a solid mid-range performer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of how this combo handles Inside under various conditions. Starting at 3840x2160, the Ultra preset delivers 73 FPS, High delivers 77 FPS, Medium delivers 123 FPS (min 105, max 142), and Low delivers 154 FPS. The fact that High and Ultra are nearly identical (77 vs 73 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset adds minimal visual benefit while costing performance.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset achieves 117 FPS, High achieves 122 FPS, Medium achieves 196 FPS (min 167, max 225), and Low achieves 245 FPS. The 1440p results show a more pronounced separation between Medium and Low, with a 49 FPS gap, indicating that the GPU has spare capacity at this resolution when settings are lowered.

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset hits 162 FPS, High hits 170 FPS, Medium hits 272 FPS (min 232, max 313), and Low hits 320 FPS. The 1080p results are uniformly high, with even the most demanding preset exceeding 160 FPS. The data shows that the system is CPU-limited at 1080p with Low settings, as the 320 FPS ceiling is likely constrained by the i5-12400F’s single-thread performance rather than the GPU.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data at every resolution, which is unusual in benchmarking. This suggests the testers focused on this preset for stability analysis. The variance in the Medium preset is tight, with the minimum never falling below 105 FPS even at 4K, which is a strong indicator of consistent frame pacing.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB is built on the Navi 44 chip with RDNA 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. The GPU has a base clock of 1700 MHz, a boost clock of 3130 MHz, and a game clock of 2530 MHz. It features 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 32 ray tracing cores. The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 322.3 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU’s impact on Inside is most evident at 4K, where the 8 GB memory capacity and 128-bit bus become limiting factors. The pixel rate of 200.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 400.6 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra preset’s 73 FPS shows the GPU struggling to maintain high fill rates. The FP32 performance of 25.64 TFLOPS is respectable, but the game’s simple geometry and lighting effects do not heavily utilize compute shaders.

The GPU’s benchmark score of 4093 in 3DMark Steel Nomad places it in the 24th percentile, which is low for a modern card. Its nearest rivals, the Intel HD Graphics 630 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M, are legacy or entry-level parts, highlighting that the RX 9060 XT’s performance in this synthetic test is not indicative of its gaming capabilities. The 150 W TDP and single 8-pin power connector suggest it is a power-efficient card, but the 4 nm process and 29,700 million transistors (on a 199 mm² die) show a dense design that prioritizes efficiency over brute force.

In this game, the GPU’s role is to manage the resolution scaling. At 1080p, the card is overkill, providing 320 FPS on Low. At 4K, it becomes the bottleneck, with the frame rate dropping to 73 FPS on Ultra. The boost clock of 3130 MHz is the maximum achievable, but sustained loads likely hover near the game clock of 2530 MHz, which is sufficient for the game’s demands.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on a 10 nm process at Intel. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The L3 cache is 18 MB shared, with 1.25 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode and has a TDP of 65 W.

The CPU’s benchmarks show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12380 and a single-core score of 1680. The Geekbench multi-core score is 9472, and single-core is 1964. The PassMark multithread score is 19433, with a single-thread score of 3481. These scores place the CPU in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19039.

In Inside, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The game is not heavily threaded, so the single-core performance is more critical than the multi-core capability. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz provides excellent single-thread response, which is why the system can hit 320 FPS at 1080p Low without any visible stuttering. The 12 threads are more than sufficient for this puzzle platformer, as the game’s logic and rendering are relatively lightweight.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (delta 0%), Intel Core 3 201E (delta -0.1%), and Intel Core i5-1335U (delta +0.3%). These processors have similar average scores, indicating the i5-12400F is a well-balanced mid-range part. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are fully utilized in multi-threaded tests, but in Inside, the single-thread performance dominates, allowing the GPU to be the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The 18 MB L3 cache is large enough to hold the game’s working set, reducing memory latency and improving frame consistency. The dual-channel memory support ensures adequate bandwidth for the GPU, though the GPU’s 322.3 GB/s is far higher than what the CPU’s memory bus can provide, so the CPU is never a bottleneck in this scenario. The processor’s performance is consistent with its 73rd percentile ranking, and it does not hinder the GPU until the frame rates exceed 320 FPS, which is beyond the refresh rate of most displays.