Inside

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a performance profile in Inside that is heavily dictated by resolution and settings, with a clear ceiling emerging at the highest presets. The data indicates a system that is exceptionally capable at 1080p, but which requires careful settings management to maintain fluidity at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a significant performance gradient, with the most dramatic shifts occurring at the highest quality settings. At the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 240 FPS at 1920x1080 to 172 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 68 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average falls further to 108 FPS, representing a 55% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This steep scaling at Low settings suggests that while the CPU and GPU combo is powerful, the sheer pixel count at 4K still imposes a substantial workload.

The Medium preset demonstrates a similar but slightly less extreme pattern. The average frame rate goes from 192 FPS at 1080p to 138 FPS at 1440p, and then down to 87 FPS at 4K. The measured minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 74, which is still comfortably playable, but the gap between average and minimum indicates some frame pacing variance under load. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 117 FPS with a maximum of 159 FPS, showing a tighter and more consistent frame delivery.

The High preset tells a more revealing story about the system's limitations. At 1080p, the average is a strong 120 FPS, which drops to 86 FPS at 1440p. However, at 4K High, the average plummets to 54 FPS. This is a critical threshold, as it falls below the 60 FPS mark that many consider the baseline for smooth gameplay. The scaling from 1440p to 4K here is a 37% performance loss, which is steeper than the 28% loss seen when moving from 1080p to 1440p. This suggests that at High settings, the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as resolution increases.

The Ultra preset shows the most constrained performance. It starts at 114 FPS at 1080p, drops to 82 FPS at 1440p, and finally reaches just 52 FPS at 4K. The gap between High and Ultra at 4K is minimal (54 vs 52 FPS), indicating that the Ultra preset's additional graphical demands offer little headroom at this resolution. The data strongly suggests that the Arc B570's 10 GB of memory and 160-bit bus are being saturated at 4K with higher quality settings, causing the frame rate to plateau and eventually dip below playable thresholds.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1080p displays, the High preset is the sweet spot, delivering 120 FPS average. This is more than sufficient for the game's puzzle-platformer mechanics, which do not require extreme refresh rates. The Ultra preset, at 114 FPS, offers a marginal improvement in visual fidelity for a negligible performance cost, making it a viable option for users with 120Hz or higher monitors.

At 1440p, the Medium preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance. The 138 FPS average is excellent, and the minimum of 117 FPS ensures that even in complex scenes, the frame rate remains well above the 60 FPS threshold. The High preset at 86 FPS is also playable, but the drop to 82 FPS on Ultra shows diminishing returns. For a game like Inside, which features a dark, atmospheric art style, the visual difference between Medium and High might not justify the 38% performance hit.

The 4K resolution presents a challenge. The only preset that achieves a consistently playable frame rate is Low, with an average of 108 FPS. Medium, at 87 FPS, is also viable, though the minimum of 74 FPS means there will be occasional dips. High and Ultra at 54 and 52 FPS respectively are technically playable but will feel less smooth, especially during fast-paced sequences. Given the game's deliberate pacing, 4K Medium is the recommended setting, as it offers a significant visual upgrade over Low while maintaining an average frame rate that is close to 90 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. In the context of Inside, a game with modest CPU demands, this processor is not the bottleneck. The benchmark data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 240 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine limit. The CPU's performance in synthetic tests, such as the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23391, indicates a high level of multi-threaded capability.

The game's genre as a Puzzle Platformer suggests that the primary workload is on the GPU for rendering the 2.5D environments and lighting effects. The CPU's role is to manage game logic, physics, and object interactions, which are not typically demanding in this genre. The data supports this, as the frame rates at 1080p are exceptionally high, suggesting that the CPU is not limiting performance at this resolution. The fact that the frame rate drops significantly more when moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings (86 to 54 FPS) than when moving from 1080p to 1440p (120 to 86 FPS) indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache are more than sufficient for the game's data requirements. Its 79th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27799, places it in the upper tier of processors. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-10900K, is only 0.3% faster in average score, showing that the i5-12600KF is a formidable performer in this class. The CPU's high single-thread performance, evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 2157, is critical for maintaining consistent frame times, which the data shows it does well at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and Intel Arc B570 holds a combo rank of 2301 out of 2887 combos. This places it in the lower third of all tested systems for Inside. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the high frame rates observed at 1080p, but it reflects the system's performance across all resolutions and settings, particularly its struggles at 4K.

The rank suggests that while the CPU is strong, the GPU is holding the combo back in more demanding scenarios. The Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 places it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, which is respectable but not elite. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% faster) and the Intel Arc A750 (0.1% slower). This indicates that the B570 is a mid-range GPU that performs admirably at 1080p and 1440p but lacks the raw power for consistent 4K high-refresh-rate gaming.

The combo's rank is likely influenced by the performance cliffs observed at 4K High and Ultra settings. The 52 FPS average at 4K Ultra is a significant outlier compared to the otherwise strong performance at lower resolutions. This suggests that the system is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver excellent frame rates. The low rank is a cautionary note for users who plan to use this combo with a 4K display, as the experience will be suboptimal without significant settings compromises.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture and features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. Its base and boost clocks are both 2500 MHz. In Inside, the GPU's role is paramount, as the game's visual style relies heavily on rendering, lighting, and shadow effects. The data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck for this combo at higher resolutions.

The GPU's memory configuration is a key factor. The 10 GB capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K with High or Ultra settings, the memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s becomes a limiting factor. The steep drop from 86 FPS at 1440p High to 54 FPS at 4K High highlights this constraint. The 160-bit bus width is narrower than many high-end GPUs, which limits the amount of data that can be transferred per clock cycle. This is reflected in the 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate, which are solid for mid-range performance but not sufficient for the most demanding 4K workloads.

The GPU's benchmark scores also provide context. Its Passmark G3D score of 14195 is the primary metric that places it in the 65th percentile. The DirectX 12 score of 72 and Vulkan score of 96844 (Geekbench) indicate good API support. However, the game's performance at 4K suggests that the GPU is not fully optimized for this resolution, or that its memory subsystem is the limiting factor. The fact that the frame rate at 4K Ultra (52 FPS) is nearly identical to 4K High (54 FPS) suggests that the GPU is maxed out, and additional graphical features have minimal impact on performance because the hardware is already saturated.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates exceptional performance across all settings. The Low preset delivers an average of 240 FPS, which represents the absolute ceiling of performance for this combo. Medium averages 192 FPS, with a minimum of 163 and maximum of 221 FPS. High averages 120 FPS, and Ultra averages 114 FPS. The data shows that at 1080p, the system is never constrained, and even the most demanding Ultra preset provides a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most standard monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's limitations. Low averages 172 FPS, a 28% drop from 1080p. Medium averages 138 FPS, with a minimum of 117 and maximum of 159 FPS, which is still excellent for high-refresh-rate gaming. High averages 86 FPS, and Ultra averages 82 FPS. The gap between Medium and High (52 FPS) is more significant than the gap between High and Ultra (4 FPS), indicating that the High preset introduces a substantial workload increase that the GPU struggles to handle efficiently at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the system's weaknesses are fully exposed. Low averages 108 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 37% drop from 1440p. Medium averages 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 FPS, which is the only 4K preset with a recorded minimum. High averages 54 FPS, and Ultra averages 52 FPS. The data clearly shows that 4K is the breaking point for this combo, with High and Ultra settings falling below the 60 FPS threshold. The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low (240 to 108 FPS) is a 55% reduction, while at Ultra (114 to 52 FPS) it is a 54% reduction, indicating that the GPU is consistently the limiting factor across presets as resolution increases.