Inside

# Inside on Intel Core i5-13400F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti delivers a remarkably playable experience in Inside, a 2016 Puzzle Platformer that clearly favors GPU throughput over CPU muscle. Measured frame rates range from a low of 46.6 FPS at 4K Ultra to a high of 216.6 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that this combo has enough headroom for high-refresh monitors at lower resolutions but will struggle to maintain smooth 4K performance at the highest settings. The data reveals a system where the GTX 1660 Ti, with its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, is the primary bottleneck at 4K, while the 10-core, 16-thread i5-13400F with a 4.60 GHz boost clock appears more than sufficient for this title's demands.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern: as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, average frame rates drop substantially across all settings. At High settings, the system delivers 109.5 FPS at 1080p, which falls to 79.9 FPS at 1440p (a 27% reduction) and further to 50.1 FPS at 4K (a 54% reduction from 1080p). This scaling behavior strongly suggests the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K while the frame rate barely halves — typical of a GPU-bound scenario where memory bandwidth and shading units are stretched.

The Low preset tells an even more telling story. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 216.6 FPS, which drops to 157 FPS at 1440p and 100.4 FPS at 4K. The fact that 4K Low still manages over 100 FPS indicates that the GTX 1660 Ti's 1536 shading units and 96 texture mapping units are capable of handling this game's modest graphical demands when settings are reduced. However, the Ultra preset reveals the steepest scaling curve: from 103 FPS at 1080p to 73.5 FPS at 1440p (a 29% drop) and 46.6 FPS at 4K (a 55% drop). This pattern implies that Ultra settings introduce effects that disproportionately tax the GPU's 48 ROPs and 6 GB memory capacity at higher resolutions.

What the data doesn't show is any significant CPU limitation at any resolution. The i5-13400F, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, maintains consistent frame delivery even at 1080p where CPU overhead typically becomes more apparent. The frame rate scaling from 1440p to 4K is nearly linear across all presets, suggesting the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors. For players targeting 60 FPS, 1440p with High settings (79.9 FPS) or 4K with Medium settings (79.7 FPS) both provide comfortable margins, while 4K Ultra at 46.6 FPS falls short of smoothness targets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, built on the Turing architecture with a 12 nm process, plays the dominant role in determining Inside's performance across the measured configurations. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which appears sufficient for this game at 1080p and 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K Ultra where the 46.6 FPS result suggests memory pressure or fill-rate constraints. The GPU's base clock of 1500 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz are modest by modern standards, yet the benchmark results show it handling 1080p Ultra at 103 FPS — a score that places it well within playable territory.

The GTX 1660 Ti's 55th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13925, positions it as a mid-range part. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 570X (0.4% ahead) and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (0.8% behind), indicating that this GPU sits in a tightly contested performance bracket. In Inside specifically, the measured FPS figures suggest the game is not overly demanding on GPU resources — even the 4K High result of 50.1 FPS shows the card can handle 4K if settings are moderated. The 120 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU indicate this is an efficient part, and the 1x 8-pin power connector requirement is minimal.

Looking at the GPU's compute capabilities, the FP32 performance of 5.437 TFLOPS and texture rate of 169.9 GTexel/s provide context for the frame rates observed. The game's 2D puzzle-platformer nature means it likely doesn't stress ray tracing or tensor cores (which this GPU lacks entirely), relying instead on traditional rasterization and pixel throughput. The 84.96 GPixel/s pixel rate is particularly relevant for Inside's atmospheric lighting and shadow effects, which appear to scale with resolution and preset. The fact that Low settings at 4K (100.4 FPS) more than double the Ultra 4K result (46.6 FPS) indicates that the game's higher presets introduce effects that heavily tax the GPU's fill rate and memory subsystem.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset at 172.5 FPS offers the best balance between visual quality and performance, providing a 60% improvement over High (109.5 FPS) while still maintaining substantial visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 103 FPS is also viable for 1080p, but the jump from High to Ultra yields only a marginal quality gain for a 6% performance loss, making it less attractive.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 124.4 FPS is clearly the sweet spot, delivering smooth gameplay well above 60 FPS while retaining good visual detail. High at 79.9 FPS is also playable, but the 36% performance gap between High and Medium suggests that Medium offers better value in terms of smoothness per visual increment. The Ultra preset at 73.5 FPS is borderline — playable for most, but the 41% drop from Medium may not justify the visual improvements for a puzzle platformer.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset at 79.7 FPS is the recommended choice, providing the only 4K option that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. High at 50.1 FPS and Ultra at 46.6 FPS both fall short of smooth gameplay standards, while Low at 100.4 FPS sacrifices too much visual quality to be worthwhile on a 4K display. Players with 4K monitors should prioritize Medium settings to maintain framerate, as the data shows this preset is the only one that balances performance and appearance effectively.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a wide spread across presets: Low delivers 216.6 FPS, Medium achieves 172.5 FPS, High reaches 109.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 103 FPS. The gap between Medium and High (63 FPS) is notably larger than between High and Ultra (6.5 FPS), suggesting that High and Ultra presets share similar GPU workloads in this game. The 1080p results demonstrate that this combo can easily drive high-refresh monitors at lower settings, with even Ultra maintaining triple-digit frame rates.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly: Low produces 157 FPS, Medium delivers 124.4 FPS, High hits 79.9 FPS, and Ultra reaches 73.5 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is most pronounced at Low settings (28% reduction) and least at Ultra (29% reduction), indicating consistent GPU-bound behavior. Notably, 1440p Medium (124.4 FPS) outperforms 1080p High (109.5 FPS), suggesting that resolution scaling affects performance differently than preset scaling.

At 3840x2160, the results compress significantly: Low yields 100.4 FPS, Medium produces 79.7 FPS, High drops to 50.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 46.6 FPS. The 4K results show a dramatic inflection point between Medium and High, where performance drops by 37%, indicating that High and Ultra presets introduce effects that the GTX 1660 Ti's memory subsystem cannot sustain at 4K. The 6 GB VRAM capacity likely becomes a constraint at this resolution with higher presets, as the game's textures and effects consume more memory bandwidth.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combinations for Inside, this pairing of Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti ranks 1465 out of 1671 total combos, placing it in the 12th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking is notably lower than what the raw FPS numbers might suggest, indicating that many other GPU/CPU combinations deliver higher frame rates in this title. The ranking reflects the GTX 1660 Ti's mid-range position (55th percentile among all GPUs) and the i5-13400F's strong but not top-tier standing (82nd percentile among all CPUs).

The combo's rank suggests that while this system is perfectly playable for Inside — with 1080p Ultra at 103 FPS and 1440p Medium at 124.4 FPS — it doesn't compete with higher-end configurations that can push 4K Ultra at 60+ FPS. The 1671 tested combos include systems with more powerful GPUs and CPUs, and the data shows that Inside is a title where GPU performance directly translates to higher rankings. The i5-13400F's CPU benchmarks, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21279 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2301, indicate it is not the limiting factor in this ranking; the GPU's 12871 Passmark G3D score is more representative of the combo's overall position.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, plays a supporting role in Inside's performance, as the measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking at any resolution or preset. The CPU's 2.50 GHz base clock and 4.60 GHz boost clock provide ample single-thread performance for this game's logic and physics, while its 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core ensure efficient data handling. The 3DMark single-thread score of 960 and 16-thread score of 7314 suggest strong multi-threading capabilities, though Inside likely utilizes only a fraction of the available threads.

The CPU's 82nd percentile ranking among all tested CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25236, places it close to rivals like the Intel Core i7-13620H (0.1% ahead) and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (0.5% behind). These benchmarks confirm the i5-13400F is a capable processor, but the frame rate data in Inside shows that CPU performance has minimal impact on outcomes — the FPS differences between presets are far larger than any variation attributable to CPU speed. The 65 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility indicate this is an efficient, mainstream part that pairs well with mid-range GPUs like the GTX 1660 Ti.

For Inside, the CPU's role appears to be ensuring consistent frame delivery rather than maximizing peak FPS. The fact that 1080p Low achieves 216.6 FPS — a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors — suggests the CPU can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them at lower resolutions. However, the 46.6 FPS at 4K Ultra indicates that GPU limitations, not CPU capabilities, are what prevent higher frame rates at demanding settings. Players with this combo should focus on GPU settings to improve performance, as the CPU has ample headroom for this title.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Inside?*

A: Based on measured FPS, 2560x1440 with Medium settings (124.4 FPS) offers the best balance of visual quality and smoothness. For 4K, Medium settings at 79.7 FPS are the only preset that consistently exceeds 60 FPS.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K Ultra in Inside?*

A: No, the measured 4K Ultra result is 46.6 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The GTX 1660 Ti's 6 GB memory and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for this preset at 4K.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 Ti compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 13925 puts it 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon RX 570X and 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile. It ranks in the 55th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: Is the i5-13400F a bottleneck for this game?

A: No, the data shows no CPU bottleneck at any resolution. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21279 and 82nd percentile ranking indicate it has ample headroom for this puzzle platformer.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 109.5 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS standard and suitable for 100 Hz monitors.

*Q: Does the combo rank well among all tested systems for Inside?*

A: This combo ranks 1465 out of 1671 tested combinations, placing it in the lower 12th percentile. While the FPS numbers are playable, many other systems with more powerful GPUs achieve higher frame rates in this title.