Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer that scales surprisingly hard with resolution and settings, and the data for the Intel Core i5-12600KF with the AMD Radeon RX 570 shows a configuration that is clearly GPU-limited at higher presets but capable of excellent frame rates when tuned properly. The measured results indicate that this pairing is best suited for high-refresh 1080p play or 1440p with settings reduced, while 4K is only viable on the Low preset.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, which points directly at the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 70.5 at 1080p to 49 at 1440p, then down to 29.1 at 4K. That represents a 59% reduction in average frame rate from 1080p to 4K, a massive penalty that reflects the RX 570’s limited 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 5.095 TFLOPS of compute being overwhelmed by the pixel count.

The scaling pattern becomes more revealing when looking at the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 64.1 FPS, which drops to 48.2 at 1440p and 32 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is barely playable, and the gap between 1440p and 4K at Ultra is 16.2 FPS, nearly identical to the High preset’s 19.9 FPS drop. This consistency suggests the GPU’s shading units and ROPs are saturated regardless of the specific preset, and the resolution is the dominant factor.

Low settings tell a different story. At 1080p Low, the system hits 136.1 FPS, and even at 1440p Low it maintains 98.7 FPS. The 4K Low result of 60.1 FPS is exactly at the threshold for smooth gameplay, showing that the RX 570 can handle 4K only when the graphical load is minimized. The fact that 4K Low nearly doubles the 4K High frame rate (60.1 vs 29.1) indicates that the game’s higher presets introduce effects that disproportionately tax the GPU’s fillrate and texture units.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K?

A: Yes, but only on the Low preset, where it averages 60.1 FPS. At Medium, the average drops to 50.9 FPS, and at High it falls to 29.1 FPS, which is not smooth.

Q: What is the best resolution for a 144Hz monitor?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 136.1 FPS, which is close to a 144Hz refresh rate. Medium settings at 1080p yield 107.5 FPS, while High drops to 70.5 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost going from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 70.5 to 49, a loss of 21.5 FPS. At Low settings, the drop is from 136.1 to 98.7, a loss of 37.4 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU in this game?

A: No. The i5-12600KF has a single-thread 3dmark score of 1016 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3309, which is far more than Inside requires. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU, as seen in the resolution scaling.

Q: Which preset offers the highest frame rate at 1440p?

A: Low settings at 1440p produce 98.7 FPS, which is the highest result at that resolution. Medium reaches 78.4 FPS, while High and Ultra settle at 49 and 48.2 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to modern GPUs in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 30158, placing it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109, 0.2% slower) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097, 0.2% slower). This is surprising given the age gap.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a 14 nm Polaris 20 chip with 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. Its clock speeds are modest by modern standards—a base of 1168 MHz and a boost of 1244 MHz—but the 256-bit memory bus with 4 GB of GDDR5 running at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) delivers 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This bandwidth is the key constraint in Inside at higher resolutions, as the pixel fillrate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s are simply insufficient for 4K Ultra.

The measured data shows the GPU’s limits clearly. At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 64.1 FPS, which is respectable, but the jump to 1440p Ultra drops it to 48.2 FPS, and 4K Ultra falls to 32 FPS. The RX 570’s percentile rank of 74 among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 30158 put it in the mid-range tier, but its nearest rivals are surprisingly modern—the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT both sit within 0.2% of its score. This suggests that for a game like Inside, which is not particularly demanding on modern hardware, the RX 570 can still hold its own at lower resolutions.

The GPU’s 4 GB VRAM capacity is not explicitly tested in the frame rate data, but the consistent performance drops at 4K suggest that memory capacity is not the primary issue—the fillrate and bandwidth are. The fact that 4K Low (60.1 FPS) nearly matches 1080p High (70.5 FPS) indicates that the GPU has enough raw power for the geometry and physics of Inside, but the higher presets introduce post-processing and shadow effects that destroy its throughput.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the system shows a clear tiered performance structure. Low settings produce an average of 136.1 FPS, which is the highest result across all configurations. Medium drops to 107.5 FPS, High falls to 70.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 64.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 28.6 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 6.4 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset adds minimal visual benefit relative to its cost.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates compress significantly. Low settings still deliver a playable 98.7 FPS, but Medium drops to 78.4 FPS, High to 49 FPS, and Ultra to 48.2 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is just 0.8 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset is essentially identical to High in performance terms at this resolution. The 1440p Low result is notable because it exceeds the 1080p High result by 28.2 FPS, showing that resolution is less important than preset for this GPU.

At 4K, the system struggles except on Low. The Low preset averages 60.1 FPS, which is technically playable, but Medium drops to 50.9 FPS, High falls to 29.1 FPS, and Ultra reaches just 32 FPS. Interestingly, the 4K Ultra result (32 FPS) is higher than 4K High (29.1 FPS), which is an anomaly in the data—possibly due to different optimization paths in the game engine. Regardless, neither High nor Ultra at 4K is smooth enough for a puzzle platformer that requires precise timing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, built on a 10 nm process. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost of 4.90 GHz, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 7956 in 3dmark with 16 threads and 1016 in single-thread, while Cinebench R23 results show 23444 multi-core and 3309 single-core. These numbers place it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27827.

The nearest rivals to the i5-12600KF are revealing. The Intel Core i9-10900K matches it with a delta of 0%, while the i5-12600K is only 0.1% slower, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is 0.2% slower. The Intel Core i7-13700H is 0.4% faster. This indicates that the 12600KF is a well-balanced mid-range chip that does not bottleneck the RX 570 in Inside, a game that is not CPU-intensive.

The game’s performance data confirms this. The frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K are entirely consistent with GPU limitations, and there is no scenario where the CPU’s 16 threads or 20 MB of L3 cache become a factor. Inside is a puzzle platformer with simple geometry and physics, so the CPU’s high single-thread performance (3925 in Passmark single-thread) is more than adequate. The data suggests that even a weaker CPU could achieve similar frame rates, as the RX 570 is the sole limiting component in this pairing.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p gaming, the Medium preset at 107.5 FPS offers the best balance of visual quality and smoothness, as it sits well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a substantial improvement over Low without the steep cost of High or Ultra. If a 144Hz display is in use, Low settings at 136.1 FPS are the only way to approach that refresh rate, but the visual compromise may not be worth the extra 28.6 FPS over Medium.

At 1440p, Low settings at 98.7 FPS are the clear recommendation, as Medium drops to 78.4 FPS and High falls to 49 FPS. The 78.4 FPS Medium result is still playable, but the 20.3 FPS difference between Low and Medium suggests that Low is the safer choice for maintaining a consistent frame rate. High and Ultra at 1440p are effectively identical (49 vs 48.2 FPS) and should be avoided.

For 4K, the only viable option is Low settings at 60.1 FPS. Medium at 50.9 FPS is borderline, but the drop to 29.1 FPS at High makes that preset unplayable. The Ultra preset’s 32 FPS is also too low for comfortable gameplay. In summary, the data shows that the RX 570’s sweet spot is 1080p Medium or 1440p Low, and 4K should only be attempted with the lowest preset to achieve a stable 60 FPS.