Inside

Inside pairs a deliberately bleak 2D world with a surprisingly demanding technical backend, and this Intel Core i5-12600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER configuration handles it with authority. The measured frame rates are exceptionally high across the board, indicating that this 2016 puzzle platformer is thoroughly trivialized by modern hardware. The data shows a system that never dips below 118 FPS even at maximum settings in 4K, making it a definitive high-refresh-rate experience at any resolution. The primary challenge for the user is not achieving playability, but rather deciding whether to prioritize raw speed or visual fidelity, as the headroom available is substantial.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is significant but not crippling, revealing a system that remains GPU-bound at higher resolutions while having ample CPU headroom. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 256.6 FPS. Moving to 1440p Ultra reduces this to 182.5 FPS, a 28.9% decrease, and 4K Ultra further drops it to 118.4 FPS, a 53.9% decrease from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is typical for a game that is not heavily threaded, showing that the rendering load increases substantially with pixel count.

The most telling data point for identifying the bottleneck is the Low settings comparison. At 1080p Low, the system produces 357.6 FPS, while at 4K Low it still manages 247.9 FPS. The gap between these two is 30.7%, which is smaller than the gap seen at Ultra settings (53.9%). This indicates that at lower settings, the CPU begins to play a more significant role, capping the maximum frame rate. The 4K Low result of 247.9 FPS versus the 1080p Low result of 357.6 FPS suggests that even at 4K, the GPU is not fully saturated when the graphical load is light, leaving performance on the table due to CPU limitations or game engine constraints.

For a 60 Hz display, every resolution and settings combination in the measured data provides a comfortable margin. For a 144 Hz display, only the 4K Ultra setting (118.4 FPS) falls short of a perfect match, while all other configurations exceed 144 FPS. The data suggests that 4K High (121.1 FPS) is nearly identical to 4K Ultra (118.4 FPS) in cost, while 4K Medium (197 FPS) offers a massive 66.3% performance increase over Ultra, making it the optimal choice for high-refresh-rate 4K gaming.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its architecture is Alder Lake, built on Intel's 10 nm process. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 23,444 points in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,309 points in single-core, placing it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. This strong single-thread performance is crucial for a game like Inside, which typically relies on a few primary threads for physics and game logic.

The CPU's benchmark scores relative to its rivals show it is a well-balanced part. It is essentially tied with the Intel Core i9-10900K, showing a 0% deltaPct, and is only 0.1% behind the Intel Core i5-12600K. This indicates that the unlocked multiplier on the 12600KF provides nearly identical performance to its K-series sibling out of the box, with the difference being negligible in real-world scenarios. The processor also edges out the Intel Core i7-13700H by 0.4%, demonstrating that desktop Alder Lake silicon remains competitive against newer mobile parts.

In the context of Inside's measured FPS, the CPU's role is to ensure that frame times remain consistent, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the limiting factor. The fact that the 1080p Low setting achieves 357.6 FPS shows the processor is capable of feeding the GPU at extremely high rates. However, the data also indicates that the game engine has a ceiling, as the jump from 1440p Low (320 FPS) to 1080p Low (357.6 FPS) is only 11.8%, despite a 56% reduction in pixel count. This suggests that the CPU or engine thread scheduling becomes a limiting factor beyond 320 FPS, preventing the system from scaling linearly with resolution reductions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across four presets. At 4K, the Ultra preset yields 118.4 FPS, while High yields 121.1 FPS, a negligible 2.3% difference. This makes High the superior choice for 4K owners, as it provides nearly the same visual quality with a slight frame rate advantage. The Medium preset at 4K jumps to 197 FPS, a 66.3% improvement over Ultra, making it the clear winner for anyone with a 144 Hz or higher refresh rate monitor at this resolution.

At 1440p, the decision is less clear-cut. The Ultra preset delivers 182.5 FPS, which is already beyond the refresh rate of most 1440p monitors. However, the Medium preset offers 299.5 FPS, a 64.1% increase. For competitive play or use with a 240 Hz display, Medium is the recommended choice, as the visual difference in a dark, atmospheric game like Inside is often less noticeable than the smoothness gain. The Low preset at 1440p (320 FPS) offers only a 6.8% improvement over Medium, making it a poor trade-off for the graphical degradation.

For 1080p users, the system is so overpowered that settings become a matter of preference. The Ultra preset provides 256.6 FPS, which is sufficient for even the fastest 240 Hz panels. The Medium preset increases this to 331.8 FPS, a 29.3% improvement, but the visual downgrade may not be worth it for a game that relies heavily on its atmospheric lighting and shadows. The data suggests that High (272.5 FPS) is the sweet spot for 1080p, offering a 6.2% performance bump over Ultra with minimal visual compromise.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes. The measured average frame rate at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 118.4 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay and is even close to 120 Hz refresh rates, though it does not fully saturate a 144 Hz display.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: The data shows that at 2560x1440, the High preset averages 195.9 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 182.5 FPS. This represents a 7.3% performance advantage for High, which is a modest gain given the likely visual improvements from Ultra.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12600KF a bottleneck for the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in this game?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 357.6 FPS, which is likely near the game engine's limit. The CPU's single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3,309 score in Cinebench R23, is sufficient to prevent a significant bottleneck, though the scaling from 1440p Low (320 FPS) to 1080p Low suggests a platform-level ceiling around 360 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU scores 31,811 in Passmark G3D and 22,3091 in Geekbench OpenCL. It is 0.7% behind the NVIDIA CMP 50HX, but 1.6% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A2000 and 2.0% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile. This places it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 240 Hz 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers 299.5 FPS, which is the highest frame rate that still maintains a significant visual upgrade over Low. Low settings only increase this to 320 FPS, a 6.8% gain, which is unlikely to be worth the loss of visual fidelity.

Q: Does the 4K High preset offer a better experience than 4K Medium?

A: It depends on the refresh rate. 4K High provides 121.1 FPS, which is ideal for a 120 Hz display. 4K Medium provides 197 FPS, which is better for a 144 Hz or higher display. The 62.9% performance gap between them is substantial, so the choice hinges on the monitor's capabilities.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is a formidable graphics card built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process. It features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s. Its boost clock is rated at 2610 MHz, and it houses 8,448 shading units. The card's synthetic performance is strong, evidenced by a 31,811 score in Passmark G3D and a 22,3091 score in Geekbench OpenCL, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs.

In the context of Inside, the GPU's role is primarily to handle the game's rendering effects, which include dynamic lighting, shadows, and post-processing. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the primary scaling factor when moving from Medium to Ultra settings. For example, at 4K, the jump from Medium (197 FPS) to Ultra (118.4 FPS) represents a 39.9% performance cost, indicating that the Ultra preset likely enables more demanding effects like volumetric lighting or higher-quality ambient occlusion.

The card's 16 GB VRAM is far more than sufficient for a game from 2016, and it is unlikely that memory capacity will ever be a limiting factor in this title. The high memory bandwidth (672.3 GB/s) ensures that texture streaming is not an issue, even at 4K. The GPU's raw compute power, rated at 44.10 TFLOPS for FP32, allows it to brute-force the game's rendering, making it a simple task for this high-end part. The data confirms that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is never the bottleneck at 1080p, but becomes the primary limiter at 4K Ultra, where it produces 118.4 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average frame rates is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the system produces 357.6 FPS on Low, 331.8 FPS on Medium, 272.5 FPS on High, and 256.6 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 28.2% total performance drop, with the largest single step being from Medium to High (a 17.9% decrease).

At 2560x1440, the results are 320 FPS on Low, 299.5 FPS on Medium, 195.9 FPS on High, and 182.5 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Medium to High is particularly steep at 34.6%, suggesting that the High preset introduces a significant graphical feature that taxes the GPU heavily.

At 3840x2160, the system delivers 247.9 FPS on Low, 197 FPS on Medium, 121.1 FPS on High, and 118.4 FPS on Ultra. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is minimal (2.2%), but the gap between Medium and High is a substantial 38.5%. The Low preset at 4K is still 26.9% faster than Medium, indicating that the game scales well even at this high resolution.

The absolute peak performance in the data is found at 1080p Low (357.6 FPS), while the lowest is at 4K Ultra (118.4 FPS). This wide range of 239.2 FPS between the most and least demanding configurations gives users exceptional flexibility. For a locked 60 FPS experience, even the most demanding 4K Ultra setting has a 97.4% margin above the target, ensuring no frame drops in the vast majority of scenarios. The data confirms that this hardware combination is overkill for Inside, providing a flawless experience regardless of the chosen settings.