Inside

The Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER combination delivers a highly capable experience in Inside, a game that proves far more scalable than its minimalist aesthetic suggests. The measured data shows this pairing landing at rank 1484 out of 1671 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database, yet the actual frame rates tell a story of smooth, responsive gameplay across most settings. This is a classic case where a modest rank does not reflect the practical quality of the experience, as the game’s modest demands allow the hardware to stretch much further than its percentile positioning implies.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1484 out of 1671 tested combinations places it in the 11th percentile of all pairings tested for Inside. This low ranking might initially suggest poor performance, but the actual measured FPS data reveals a different reality. The CPU, with an average benchmark score of 19221, sits at the 77th percentile against all processors, indicating it is a strong performer in general workloads. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8700K, scores 19210 with a delta of 0.1%, making the 12400F effectively identical in raw compute power to that older flagship. The GPU, meanwhile, has an average benchmark score of 14286 and sits at the 55th percentile, with its closest rival being the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 at 14314, a delta of -0.2% that places the 1660 SUPER on par with that integrated solution in synthetic tests.

The disparity between the low combo rank and the solid individual component scores suggests that the bottleneck in Inside is not the hardware's raw capability but rather the game’s specific engine demands. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 214.9 FPS, which is a staggering figure that indicates the CPU is not holding the GPU back at lower resolutions. The rank of 1484 is likely skewed by the fact that Inside is a light title where even the most powerful systems produce identical, frame-capped results, diluting the differentiation between high-end and mid-range hardware. In practical terms, this combo outperforms its rank suggests, delivering frame rates that rival much higher-tier configurations in this specific game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU116 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The GPU’s base clock is 1530 MHz with a boost clock of 1785 MHz, and its memory runs at an effective 14 Gbps. With 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs, the card delivers a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s, alongside a FP32 performance of 5.027 TFLOPS.

In the context of Inside, the GPU’s role becomes clear when examining the measured FPS across different settings. At 4K Ultra, the card produces 48.1 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a game that benefits from high frame consistency. However, dropping to 4K High yields 46.7 FPS, nearly identical to Ultra, suggesting that the game’s Ultra preset adds minimal visual overhead over High. The most telling data point is the jump from 4K Low (98.1 FPS) to 4K Medium (77 FPS), a 21.5% drop that indicates the Medium preset introduces a significant shader or lighting load. The GPU’s 6 GB VRAM buffer appears sufficient for this title, as no memory-related stutters can be inferred from the data, and the 192-bit bus provides enough bandwidth to handle the game’s texture streaming at all tested resolutions.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo capable of running Inside at 60 FPS in 4K?*

A: Yes, but only if settings are reduced. The measured data shows 46.7 FPS at 4K High and 48.1 FPS at 4K Ultra, both below 60 FPS. However, dropping to 4K Medium produces 77 FPS, and 4K Low reaches 98.1 FPS, so a stable 60 FPS is achievable with Medium settings or lower.

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

A: The Intel Core i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19221, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-8700K’s score of 19210. It also outperforms the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS by 0.7%, as that chip scores 19364, and trails the AMD EPYC 7773X by 1.3%, which scores 18979.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p Low and 1080p Ultra?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 214.9 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it drops to 103.7 FPS. This represents a 51.7% reduction in performance, showing that the Ultra preset roughly halves the frame rate compared to the lowest settings.

Q: Does the GTX 1660 SUPER bottleneck the i5-12400F in this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher settings. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 214.9 FPS, which is likely CPU-bound. However, at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 103.7 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 48.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s rendering capacity is the primary constraint at higher visual fidelity.

Q: How does the GPU’s average benchmark score compare to its closest rival?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 14286, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11’s score of 14314. It also trails the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics by 0.2% (14315) and the AMD Radeon Vega 11 by 0.5% (14352).

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The maximum average FPS recorded in the measured data is 214.9 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only setting combination that exceeds 200 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Inside spans three resolutions and four quality presets, offering a complete picture of the combo’s capabilities. At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptional across the board. Low settings produce 214.9 FPS, Medium delivers 171.8 FPS, High reaches 105.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to 103.7 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is minimal (1.8 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset’s additional features are not particularly demanding on the GPU.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain highly playable. Low settings achieve 157.5 FPS, Medium produces 126.4 FPS, High delivers 76.4 FPS, and Ultra reaches 77.1 FPS. Interestingly, the Ultra preset (77.1 FPS) slightly outperforms High (76.4 FPS), a 0.9% difference that falls within measurement variance and indicates that the two presets impose nearly identical GPU loads at this resolution. The transition from 1080p to 1440p shows a 26.7% drop in Low settings (from 214.9 to 157.5 FPS), while Ultra only drops by 25.7% (from 103.7 to 77.1 FPS), demonstrating that higher resolutions scale more gracefully on the GPU-bound presets.

At 3840x2160, the combo still delivers playable frame rates for a puzzle platformer. Low settings produce 98.1 FPS, which is smooth for 4K gaming. Medium settings drop to 77 FPS, while High and Ultra both hover around the 47-48 FPS mark, with High at 46.7 FPS and Ultra at 48.1 FPS. The performance cliff between Medium (77 FPS) and High (46.7 FPS) is a 39.4% drop, indicating that the High preset introduces a significant rendering cost, likely from advanced lighting or shadow effects that are not present in Medium.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data reveals how the limiting component shifts as pixel count increases. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS across all settings drops by 26.5% (from 148.9 to 109.4 FPS), while the jump from 1440p to 4K results in a further 41.5% reduction (from 109.4 to 64.0 FPS). This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as the resolution climbs, particularly at higher settings.

Examining individual presets, the most dramatic scaling occurs at Low settings. The combo produces 214.9 FPS at 1080p, 157.5 FPS at 1440p (a 26.7% drop), and 98.1 FPS at 4K (a 37.7% drop from 1440p). This steep decline suggests that even at Low settings, the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are being taxed heavily at 4K. Conversely, at Ultra settings, the scaling is more moderate: 103.7 FPS at 1080p, 77.1 FPS at 1440p (a 25.7% drop), and 48.1 FPS at 4K (a 37.6% drop from 1440p). The similarity in percentage drops between Low and Ultra across resolutions implies that the game’s engine maintains a consistent GPU workload per pixel, regardless of the settings preset.

The data indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p Low, where the frame rate of 214.9 FPS exceeds what the GTX 1660 SUPER can sustain at higher resolutions. However, once the resolution increases to 1440p, the GPU begins to bottleneck, and at 4K, the GPU is clearly the dominant constraint. The i5-12400F’s strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its Geekbench single-core score of 2221 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2332, ensures that it never holds the GPU back in this title. The result is a combo that delivers a smooth 60+ FPS experience at 1440p across all settings, and a playable 4K experience at Medium or lower, making it a versatile pairing for this specific game.