Inside

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the Intel Arc B580 delivers a performance profile in Inside that is heavily dictated by the graphics settings selected, with the CPU proving more than capable of feeding the GPU at lower presets. The data indicates a classic scenario where the Arc B580 becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution and visual fidelity increase, while at 1080p Low, the frame rates suggest the workload shifts significantly toward the processor’s capabilities. This combination ranks in the lower-mid tier of the database’s tested configurations, a position that undersells its actual capability in this specific title given the high frame rates achieved.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear shift in system bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 267.5 FPS, which drops to 194.8 FPS at 1440p and further to 124.8 FPS at 4K. This represents a 53.3% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that while the GPU is being stressed, the CPU is still managing to keep up with the demand.

However, the scaling pattern changes dramatically when moving to higher quality presets. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 128.4 FPS at 1080p to 92.5 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 57.8 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 55%, which is steeper than the Low preset drop. This suggests that the Arc B580’s rendering workload scales more aggressively with resolution when the scene complexity is higher, making the GPU the limiting component at 4K Ultra.

The transition from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows the GPU’s headroom. At 1080p, the gap between Low (267.5 FPS) and Ultra (128.4 FPS) is a 52% reduction, while at 4K, the same settings shift yields a 53.7% decrease from 124.8 FPS to 57.8 FPS. The consistency of these percentages across resolutions implies that the Arc B580’s compute and memory resources are being utilized proportionally, with no sudden cliff indicating a CPU limitation at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580’s specifications directly explain its behavior in Inside. With 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, the card provides 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the game’s visual data at 4K. The GPU’s base and boost clock are both listed at 2670 MHz, a modest frequency that keeps power draw at 190 W. The 2560 shading units and 80 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s, which are the key metrics for this game’s 2D sprite-based rendering.

The 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 performance places the Arc B580 in a position where it can handle the game’s effects at 1080p and 1440p with ease, but the 4K Ultra setting of 57.8 FPS shows the card approaching its computational limits. The 20 ray tracing cores are present but largely irrelevant for this title, as Inside does not utilize ray-traced effects. The memory clock of 2375 MHz, translating to 19 Gbps effective, is adequate for the bandwidth demands, and the 12 GB capacity prevents any VRAM overflow at 4K, as evidenced by the playable frame rates.

The GPU’s percentile ranking of 66 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23021, aligns with its measured performance here. The nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, shows a delta of -0.7% in average score, indicating the Arc B580 is on par with that card in synthetic tests. This parity translates to similar real-world results in Inside, where the B580’s frame rates are respectable but not class-leading.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and Intel Arc B580 achieves a rank of 1294 out of 1671 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the 22.6th percentile of all configurations. This ranking is surprisingly low given the absolute frame rates measured, which suggests that many other combos in the database consist of higher-end GPUs paired with similarly capable CPUs.

The CPU itself ranks in the 84th percentile against all processors, with an average benchmark score of 27827. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-10900K, has an identical average score of 27829 with a delta of 0%, indicating that the i5-12600KF offers performance matching a previous-generation flagship. The GPU’s rank of 66th percentile is more modest, and when combined, the overall system rank reflects the GPU’s mid-tier status rather than the CPU’s strength.

In the context of Inside, the combo’s rank is misleading, as the game is not particularly demanding. The 4K High average of 62.3 FPS is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and even 4K Ultra at 57.8 FPS is nearly playable. The low rank is likely due to the database containing many combos with RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XTX-class GPUs, which would push frame rates to 200+ at 1080p, but the absolute performance here is solid for a mid-range setup.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its peak performance. Low settings yield an average of 267.5 FPS, which drops to 213.2 FPS at Medium and 133.7 FPS at High. The Ultra preset produces 128.4 FPS, a 4% decrease from High. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p is a 52% reduction, showing that the GPU’s shading units are the limiting factor at higher presets, while the CPU’s 10 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high. Low settings average 194.8 FPS, Medium achieves 153.1 FPS, and High delivers 98 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p produces 92.5 FPS, which is a 5.6% drop from High. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is 28%, indicating that the GPU is scaling with pixel count as expected. The 1440p Low result of 194.8 FPS is still above 144 Hz, making this resolution viable for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 3840x2160, the system starts to show its limits. Low settings average 124.8 FPS, which is still playable. Medium produces 95.1 FPS, and High drops to 62.3 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 57.8 FPS, which dips below the 60 FPS target. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Ultra is a 37.5% reduction, which is steeper than the 1080p to 1440p drop, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint at this resolution. The 4K High result of 62.3 FPS is acceptable, but users seeking a locked 60 FPS experience at 4K would need to use High rather than Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF’s specifications are more than adequate for Inside. With 10 cores (likely a mix of performance and efficiency cores given the Alder Lake architecture) and 16 threads, the processor provides ample parallel processing power. The base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz ensure fast single-threaded performance, which is crucial for the game’s physics and logic updates. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache reduces memory latency, and the dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support provides sufficient bandwidth.

The CPU’s benchmark results reinforce its capability. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23444 and single-core score of 3309 indicate strong performance in both threaded and single-threaded workloads. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 7956 and the 2-thread score of 1995 show that the processor scales well with thread count, which is relevant for Inside’s use of multiple threads for rendering and simulation.

At 1080p Low, the 267.5 FPS result suggests that the CPU is able to feed the GPU with enough draw calls to sustain such high frame rates. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1016 and PassMark single-thread score of 3925 indicate that the processor’s single-core performance is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the Arc B580 at lower resolutions. However, at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 57.8 FPS, which is clearly GPU-limited, as the CPU’s performance does not degrade with resolution.

The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12600K, has a delta of -0.1% in average score, meaning the 12600KF is essentially identical in performance. The Core i7-13700H shows a delta of 0.4%, indicating that mobile processors can match this desktop CPU, but the 125W TDP of the 12600KF provides sustained performance without thermal throttling. In Inside, the CPU is never the limiting factor, as even the most demanding 4K Ultra scenario falls short of the processor’s capabilities.