Inside

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB delivers a performance profile in Inside that is heavily dictated by graphical settings rather than resolution. The data shows a clear pattern: the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher quality presets, while the CPU’s capabilities are only fully exposed at lower settings. This analysis walks through the measured FPS rows to determine where the bottleneck lies and what users can expect from this combination.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is modest when the preset is set to High, but the scaling curve steepens dramatically at lower settings. At High, the average frame rate moves from 195 FPS at 1920x1080 to 140.8 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 87 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 55.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is a typical rasterization load for a game like Inside where pixel count dominates. The 4K High result of 87 FPS is still playable, but it shows the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB is working near its limit for this title at that resolution.

The Low preset tells a different story. At 1920x1080, the combo hits 318.9 FPS, dropping to 278.9 FPS at 1440p and 172.6 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K drop here is 45.9%, which is smaller than the High preset’s drop. This indicates that at Low settings, the frame rate is no longer purely GPU-bound; the CPU begins to contribute more significantly at lower resolutions. The 318.9 FPS at 1080p Low is likely near the ceiling for this processor in this game, as the i5-12400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads handle the scene logic while the GPU waits for the next frame.

Medium and Ultra presets follow the expected hierarchy. At 1080p, Medium produces 295.6 FPS and Ultra produces 183.8 FPS. At 4K, Medium falls to 138.9 FPS and Ultra to 81 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that dips below 85 FPS, suggesting that the 8 GB VRAM buffer and the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s are sufficient for most settings but become strained when every quality option is maxed out. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, High is the practical ceiling, while 1080p and 1440p users have more headroom to experiment with Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores indicate strong single-thread performance: a 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2332. This matters for Inside because the game’s puzzle-platformer mechanics rely on consistent frame pacing rather than massive multi-threaded workloads. The multi-threaded scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16518, show that the CPU can handle background tasks without starving the game thread.

In the measured results, the CPU’s influence is most visible at 1080p with Low settings, where the average FPS reaches 318.9. Compare that to the 4K Low result of 172.6 FPS, which is a 45.9% drop. If the GPU were the only limiting factor, the drop would be closer to the pixel count difference, but the smaller drop at Low settings implies that the CPU is holding the frame rate back less at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the CPU is likely near its limit for this game, given that the 3DMark 16-thread score is 5895 and the max-thread score is 5912—meaning the processor is fully utilized across all cores.

The CPU’s 18 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 or DDR5) provide adequate bandwidth for this title. The data shows that the i5-12400F never becomes a severe bottleneck in Inside, as even the lowest FPS recorded (81 FPS at 4K Ultra) is above typical playability thresholds. The processor’s 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19221, places it in the upper mid-range, and its nearest rivals (Intel Core i7-8700K at 19210 and AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS at 19364) show that it trades blows with older and newer parts respectively, with deltaPct values of 0.1% and -0.7%.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a boost clock of 2535 MHz and 4352 shading units. Its memory configuration—8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth—is sufficient for Inside at most settings, but the data shows that the 8 GB capacity becomes a factor at 4K Ultra. The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 yields 81 FPS, which is the lowest average across all measured rows. This is not a catastrophic failure, but it indicates that the GPU’s texture storage and bandwidth are being pushed to their limits.

The GPU’s benchmark data includes a single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2913, which places it in the 17th percentile among all GPUs. However, this low percentile is misleading for Inside because the game is not graphically demanding by modern standards. The GPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB (score 2907, deltaPct 0.2%) and the GTX 860M (score 2959, deltaPct -1.5%), which shows that the 8 GB variant performs nearly identically to its 16 GB sibling in synthetic tests—but the measured FPS in Inside shows that the 8 GB capacity does not hinder performance until Ultra settings at high resolutions.

At 1080p High, the GPU produces 195 FPS, which is more than enough for a smooth experience. The gap between High and Ultra at 1080p is 11.2 FPS (195 vs 183.8), while at 4K the gap is 6 FPS (87 vs 81). This narrowing gap suggests that the GPU is becoming the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the CPU has more time to prepare frames. The GPU’s pixel rate of 121.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 344.8 GTexel/s are well-matched to the game’s 2D side-scrolling visuals, which rely more on pixel fill than complex geometry.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB ranks 646th out of 1671 combos for Inside. This places it in the 61st percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms the majority of configurations but is not at the top tier. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU’s strong single-thread performance and the GPU’s mid-range rasterization capabilities.

The combo’s ranking is influenced by the fact that Inside is a lightweight title that does not require the latest hardware to achieve high frame rates. The CPU’s percentile of 77 among all CPUs suggests that the processor is not holding the combo back, while the GPU’s 17th percentile indicates that the graphics card is the weaker link in this pairing. However, the measured results show that the combo still delivers playable frame rates at all resolutions and settings, with the only sub-90 FPS result being 81 FPS at 4K Ultra.

Compared to other combos in the database, this system sits in the upper-middle range. The rank of 646 out of 1671 means that many high-end configurations with more powerful GPUs (like the RTX 4090 or RX 7900 XTX) will outperform it, but it also means that the combo beats a significant number of systems with older GPUs or less capable CPUs. For a game released in 2016, this pairing is more than adequate, and the data confirms that it can handle the game’s maximum settings at 1080p and 1440p without breaking a sweat.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience balance depends on the target resolution. For 1080p users, the Medium preset at 295.6 FPS offers a massive frame rate advantage over High (195 FPS) with likely minimal visual difference in a game with simple textures and lighting. The Ultra preset at 1080p (183.8 FPS) is still well above any refresh rate cap, so users with 144 Hz monitors can safely use Ultra without noticing a difference. The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU and GPU combination is so overqualified that settings choice has little practical impact on playability.

For 1440p, the High preset at 140.8 FPS is the sweet spot. It provides a smooth experience on 144 Hz displays, while Ultra at 133.8 FPS is only slightly lower. The Medium preset at 222.3 FPS is overkill for most monitors and offers diminishing returns. The Low preset at 278.9 FPS is unnecessary unless the user is chasing maximum frame rates for competitive play, which is unlikely in a puzzle platformer.

At 4K, the High preset at 87 FPS is the recommended choice. It maintains a frame rate above 85 FPS, which is sufficient for most displays, while Ultra at 81 FPS dips slightly lower and may be noticeable on high-refresh-rate panels. The Medium preset at 138.9 FPS is actually the best-performing high-quality option at 4K, offering a 59.7% improvement over High while likely looking nearly identical in this game. The Low preset at 172.6 FPS is viable but sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a game that relies on atmospheric lighting and shadows. Overall, the data indicates that Medium at 4K provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, while High at 1080p and 1440p is the safest default.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are: Low 318.9 FPS, Medium 295.6 FPS, High 195 FPS, and Ultra 183.8 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 23.3 FPS, which is small, but the drop from Medium to High is a significant 100.6 FPS, suggesting that the High preset enables features that heavily tax the GPU. The gap between High and Ultra is only 11.2 FPS, meaning that the Ultra preset adds minimal visual improvements over High for this title.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 278.9 FPS, Medium 222.3 FPS, High 140.8 FPS, and Ultra 133.8 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is 59.7% higher than High, which is a larger relative difference than at 1080p. This indicates that the High preset’s additional effects (likely ambient occlusion or shadow quality) become more expensive at higher resolutions. The Ultra preset is only 7 FPS lower than High, showing that the Ultra preset’s incremental cost is minimal.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 172.6 FPS, Medium 138.9 FPS, High 87 FPS, and Ultra 81 FPS. The Low preset at 4K is still above 170 FPS, which is impressive for a 4K resolution, but the High and Ultra presets drop below 90 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 4K is 51.9 FPS, which is the largest absolute difference between any two adjacent settings at any resolution. This suggests that the High preset at 4K activates a rendering path that is disproportionately expensive on the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB, likely related to texture filtering or draw distance. The Ultra preset at 4K (81 FPS) is only 6 FPS lower than High, confirming that the bottleneck is the GPU’s memory bandwidth rather than raw shader performance.