Inside

The Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Inside, a 2016 Puzzle Platformer. The measured data shows that this pairing is vastly overqualified for the game's demands, with performance scaling predictably across resolutions and settings. The analysis below breaks down the CPU and GPU roles, optimal settings, and how this specific combo ranks against the broader test pool.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, featuring an 18 MB shared L3 cache. Its synthetic benchmark scores are solid for a desktop part, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16518 and a single-core score of 2332, alongside a Geekbench single-core score of 2221. This places the CPU in the 77th percentile of all processors tested.

For a game like Inside, which is a 2D puzzle platformer with a minimalist art style, the computational load is generally light. The data suggests the i5-12400F is not a bottleneck at any tested setting. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo hits 317.1 FPS, a figure that is far beyond the refresh rate of most displays. Even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate only drops to 92.9 FPS, indicating that the CPU is providing more than enough headroom. The benchmark results imply that the 12 threads are rarely saturated; the game's physics and logic are likely handled by only a few cores. The processor's high single-thread performance, evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 909, is more relevant here than its multi-threading capability for this specific title. The CPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals is notable: it is statistically tied with the Intel Core i7-8700K, scoring 0.1% higher, and only 1.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7773X, a server-class chip. This confirms that the i5-12400F's gaming performance is robust, though its 65W TDP suggests efficiency is a priority, but that is a motherboard consideration, not a game-performance factor here.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of how settings impact performance. At 1080p, the jump from Low (317.1 FPS) to Medium (292.3 FPS) is a modest 24.8 FPS drop, while moving to High (222.9 FPS) and Ultra (207.3 FPS) introduces more significant reductions. The data shows that the Ultra preset, while visually demanding, still maintains an average of 207.3 FPS at 1080p, which is far above the smooth playability threshold.

At 1440p, the trend continues: Medium (252.2 FPS) and High (158.9 FPS) are both excellent, but Ultra (152.3 FPS) is only slightly slower than High. At 4K, the differences become more pronounced. High settings yield 100.3 FPS, while Ultra drops to 92.9 FPS. Given that the game has no competitive multiplayer component, the best experience is arguably the Ultra preset at 1080p or 1440p, as it provides the highest visual fidelity while still delivering over 150 FPS. For those prioritizing frame rate stability on a high-refresh-rate 4K display, the High preset at 100.3 FPS is the most balanced choice. The Low preset is unnecessary; the performance headroom is so vast that there is no scenario where a user would need to forgo visual quality to achieve playable frame rates.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

Analyzing the scaling across resolutions reveals a classic GPU-bound curve. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 222.9 FPS at 1080p to 158.9 FPS at 1440p (a 28.7% decrease) and then to 100.3 FPS at 4K (a 36.9% decrease from 1440p). This pattern shows that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. The CPU's performance is relatively constant, so the frame rate decline is directly correlated with the increasing pixel count and shading workload placed on the RTX 3080.

At Low settings, the curve is steeper. The frame rate falls from 317.1 FPS at 1080p to 284.7 FPS at 1440p and then to 200.6 FPS at 4K. The 4K-to-1080p ratio here is 0.63, whereas at High settings it is 0.45. This indicates that at Low settings, the GPU is still doing significant work, but the gap between resolutions narrows because the shading load is lighter. The data suggests that at 1080p Low, the system is likely approaching a CPU or engine-level cap, as the difference between 1080p and 1440p is only 32.4 FPS. The RTX 3080, with its 760.3 GB/s memory bandwidth, is not the bottleneck at these lower resolutions; rather, the game's frame pacing or the CPU's single-threaded draw call processing is limiting the maximum output. This is a typical sign of a lightweight title where the GPU has excess capacity.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 317.1 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

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

A: The Intel Core i5-12400F scores an average benchmark of 19221, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210) and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i5-1335U (19167).

Q: Is the RTX 3080's performance closer to any rival GPU in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080's average benchmark score is 35787. It is 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860) and 0.9% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (36101).

Q: At which resolution and settings does the combo struggle to maintain 100 FPS?

A: The only measured configuration that falls below 100 FPS is at 3840x2160 (4K) with Ultra settings, where the average frame rate is 92.9 FPS.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between High and Ultra settings at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings yield 158.9 FPS, while Ultra settings yield 152.3 FPS, a difference of 6.6 FPS in favor of High.

Q: Does the CPU have a high single-thread score relevant for gaming?

A: Yes, the CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score is 2332, and its Geekbench single-core score is 2221, indicating strong single-thread performance that is beneficial for game logic.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. It features 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1710 MHz, with memory running at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective). It has 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 29.77 TFLOPS, placing it in the 80th percentile of all GPUs.

In Inside, the GPU's massive compute power is the key driver of the high frame rates. The game's simple 2D visuals do not heavily tax the shader units or the ray tracing cores (68 RT cores present), but the raw fill rate ensures that even at 4K, the frame rate remains well above 90 FPS. The 10 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for a game of this era; the data shows no signs of memory capacity issues at any setting or resolution. The GPU's benchmark scores, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4407 and a Passmark G3D score of 25086, reflect its high-tier status. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro Duo, scores just 0.2% higher, while the RTX 3080 is 1% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile. This indicates that the RTX 3080 is a top-tier performer that is effectively underutilized in this title, as the frame rates are more likely capped by the game engine's internal limits rather than the GPU's hardware capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across all configurations. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are as follows: Low 317.1 FPS, Medium 292.3 FPS, High 222.9 FPS, and Ultra 207.3 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 34.6% reduction in performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 284.7 FPS, Medium 252.2 FPS, High 158.9 FPS, and Ultra 152.3 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is most severe at High settings (a 64 FPS decrease), while Low settings lose only 32.4 FPS. At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 200.6 FPS, Medium 157.5 FPS, High 100.3 FPS, and Ultra 92.9 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured point below 100 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the gap between High and Ultra settings narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference is 15.6 FPS; at 1440p, it is 6.6 FPS; and at 4K, it is 7.4 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects (likely ambient occlusion or shadows) become relatively cheaper to compute at higher resolutions where the pixel filling rate is the dominant factor. Conversely, the Low-to-Medium gap is consistently large, indicating that Medium introduces a significant visual upgrade for a moderate performance cost.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 479th out of 1671 tested combinations in Inside. This places it in the 71.3rd percentile of all combos, meaning it outperforms roughly 71% of the tested systems. Given the game's age and low system requirements, this ranking is surprisingly mid-pack. The data implies that many other tested combos, likely featuring higher-end CPUs or newer GPUs, achieve even higher frame rates, possibly pushing beyond the 317 FPS ceiling observed here.

The rank suggests that while this combo is excellent, it is not at the very top of the leaderboard. The i5-12400F's CPU percentile of 77 and the RTX 3080's GPU percentile of 80 are both high, but the combo rank of 479 out of 1671 indicates that the game's performance is not solely dependent on raw hardware power. The frame rates are already so high that the ranking may be influenced by other factors, such as memory clock speeds or motherboard configuration, which are not captured in this data set. For a user, the takeaway is that this system is firmly in the top tier for Inside, delivering a buttery-smooth experience at any resolution, with the only exception being a slight dip below 100 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is still perfectly playable.