Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that remains remarkably light on modern hardware, and the measured data for the Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB confirms this is a combination that utterly obliterates the game's demands. The benchmark results show a system that never dips below the triple-digit frame rate territory at any standard resolution, making it a prime example of GPU-bound scalability where the graphics card is the sole limiting factor even at 4K. The data indicates that this pairing is not just playable but excessively powerful for the title, delivering frame rates that far exceed the refresh rate capabilities of most displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The measured performance of this Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB combination places it at rank 600 out of 1671 tested combos in the database for Inside. This places the pairing firmly in the top 36% of all systems tested, a strong showing that reflects the high absolute frame rates achieved. However, the ranking is more evidence of the sheer volume of hardware tested than a reflection of the combo's relative weakness; the scores are so high that the system is effectively in a tier where further CPU or GPU investment yields no tangible benefit for this specific title.

Benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this scenario. The Intel Core i5-12600KF sits at the 84th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27827. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-10900K, scores 27829, a delta of 0%, showing the i5-12600KF trades blows with a previous generation flagship. The data shows the i5-12600KF is also effectively tied with its own K-suffix sibling, the Intel Core i5-12600K, which scores 27851, a delta of -0.1%. This indicates that within this game's engine, the processor's 10 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at any setting, as the frame rate scaling is almost entirely dependent on the graphics card's workload.

The GPU's ranking is more curious. The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB sits at the 17th percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2913. This low percentile is heavily skewed by the specific benchmark used (3DMark Steel Nomad), where it is matched exactly by the older NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M (score 2913, delta 0%) and beats the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB by a mere 0.2%. This data point is an outlier for a modern card, but for Inside, the actual measured FPS tells the real story. The GPU's performance in this game is exceptional, suggesting that the low percentile is not indicative of its capability in this specific, lightweight title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB plays the dominant role in determining the frame rates for Inside. The card operates with a base clock of 2310 MHz and a boost clock of 2535 MHz, and its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications, while modest by modern standards, are far beyond what a 2016 puzzle platformer requires. The data shows that the GPU's architecture, with 4352 shading units and 136 tensor cores, is more than capable of handling the game's simple 2D side-scrolling visuals and lighting effects.

The most telling evidence of the GPU's role is the scaling between settings. For instance, at 1080p, the jump from Low to Ultra settings only reduces the average FPS from 359.2 to 181.9. This massive headroom indicates that the game's visual presets are not heavily taxing the GPU's compute or memory subsystems. The card's 22.06 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is effectively idling in this title. The limiting component is never the CPU; the data shows that the i5-12600KF can produce frames faster than the GPU can render them at lower settings, with the 1080p Low result of 359.2 FPS being the ceiling for this pairing. The GPU's VRAM capacity of 8 GB is also a non-issue, as the game's textures and assets are unlikely to exceed even a fraction of that allocation at any resolution.

Settings Recommendations

According to the measured rows, the optimal experience is found at the High preset. This setting offers the best balance between visual fidelity and raw performance, delivering an average FPS of 191.2 at 1080p, 138.5 at 1440p, and 86.6 at 4K. The Ultra preset provides only a marginal visual improvement over High but costs a significant amount of performance, dropping the 4K average to 82.3 FPS and the 1440p average to 135 FPS. The data suggests that the visual leap from High to Ultra is not worth the frame rate sacrifice, especially when High already produces buttery-smooth motion.

The Low and Medium presets are unnecessarily restrictive for this hardware. While they yield extraordinarily high frame rates (359.2 and 310.1 FPS at 1080p, respectively), they do so by diminishing the game's atmospheric lighting and shadow quality, which are crucial for a puzzle platformer's mood. The High preset is the sweet spot, as it maintains a frame rate comfortably above 60 FPS at 4K and above 120 FPS at 1440p, ensuring a responsive and visually pleasing experience. For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, the Medium preset at 310.1 FPS is also viable, but High is the recommended default for its superior image quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system produces an average of 359.2 FPS on Low, 310.1 FPS on Medium, 191.2 FPS on High, and 181.9 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium is 49.1 FPS, while the drop from High to Ultra is a relatively minor 9.3 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset adds a small but measurable load.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 278 FPS on Low, 220.1 FPS on Medium, 138.5 FPS on High, and 135 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a performance hit of roughly 22-28% across all settings, which is a typical reduction for a resolution increase of 1.78x the pixel count. The data shows the system is still massively overperforming, with even the most demanding Ultra preset at 1440p exceeding 135 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the averages drop to 175 FPS on Low, 140.1 FPS on Medium, 86.6 FPS on High, and 82.3 FPS on Ultra. The 4K results are the most telling. The High preset at 4K produces 86.6 FPS, which is still well above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay, while the Ultra preset manages 82.3 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium at 4K is 34.9 FPS, while the delta between High and Ultra is only 4.3 FPS, confirming that the Ultra preset is the least efficient use of GPU resources in this game.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the GPU as the limiting component, though the CPU remains far from a bottleneck. At the High preset, the average FPS falls from 191.2 at 1080p to 138.5 at 1440p, a 27.6% reduction, and then to 86.6 at 4K, a 37.5% reduction from 1440p. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU that is being pushed harder as pixel count increases, but the absolute numbers show that the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB is never overwhelmed.

The data shows that the i5-12600KF is not a constraint at any resolution. The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is directly proportional to the increase in pixel count, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rates would flatten out or show a less dramatic drop when moving to higher resolutions. Instead, the 1080p Low preset achieves 359.2 FPS, while 4K Low achieves 175 FPS, a 51% reduction that aligns with the 4x pixel count increase. This indicates that the CPU can generate frames faster than the GPU can render them, and the only way to increase performance further would be to lower the resolution or settings, which is already at an absurdly high level. The system is, for all intents and purposes, overkill for Inside.