Inside

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT delivers a highly capable experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer where frame pacing matters more than raw compute. The CPU’s architecture provides a solid foundation for this title. With 10 cores, 16 threads, and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, the processor is far more powerful than what this 2016 title demands. The Raptor Lake architecture, built on a 10 nm process, ensures that the game’s logic and physics calculations are handled without bottlenecking the GPU. The CPU’s benchmark data supports this: it achieves a Passmark single-thread score of 3723 and a multithread score of 25783, placing it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs.

The GPU, meanwhile, is the older component in this pairing. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, based on the RDNA 1.0 architecture and a 7 nm process, offers 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus. Its FP32 performance of 9.754 TFLOPS is substantial, but the data indicates that in Inside, the GPU is the primary limiter at higher settings. The RX 5700 XT sits in the 68th percentile of all GPUs. In this game, the CPU’s headroom is clear: it is well above the threshold needed to feed the GPU, meaning the measured frame rates are dictated almost entirely by the graphics card’s rasterization throughput, especially as resolution and quality settings increase.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear progression of performance across the four available presets. At 1080p, the Ultra preset produces an average of 134.9 FPS, while High yields 141 FPS. The Medium preset jumps to 222.4 FPS, and Low reaches 280.2 FPS. The differences between High and Ultra are marginal in this title, but the jump to Medium is dramatic. Specifically, moving from High to Medium at 1080p improves the average frame rate by 81.4 FPS, a 57.7% increase. The step from Medium to Low adds another 57.8 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra and High presets are heavily taxing the GPU with effects that have diminishing visual returns in a game with Inside’s minimalist art style.

The best experience per the measured rows is the Medium preset. At 1440p, Medium delivers 159.6 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most standard monitors. At 1080p, Medium’s 222.4 FPS provides enormous headroom for high-refresh-rate displays. The data indicates that Ultra and High, while playable, are not optimal because they sacrifice a significant portion of performance for negligible fidelity gains. For a puzzle platformer that relies on smooth, atmospheric motion, the Medium preset offers the best balance, ensuring the frame rate never dips into uncomfortable territory. The Low preset, while fastest, is unnecessary given the performance available at Medium.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data reveals an interesting characteristic of this combination. At 4K (3840x2160), the Ultra preset averages 58.8 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target. Dropping to High at 4K yields 64 FPS. However, the Medium preset at 4K provides 100.7 FPS, a massive improvement over High. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is not linear and shows where the GPU becomes the bottleneck. At 1080p High, the system achieves 141 FPS. At 1440p High, that falls to 99.1 FPS, a 29.7% drop. At 4K High, it falls to 64 FPS, a 54.6% drop from 1440p.

This pattern confirms that the RX 5700 XT is the limiting component. The CPU’s performance is essentially static across these resolutions; the frame rate drop is entirely attributable to the GPU’s pixel-pushing capabilities. The 4K Ultra result of 58.8 FPS is particularly telling, as it shows the GPU struggling to maintain playability at the highest settings. Conversely, the 1080p Low result of 280.2 FPS demonstrates the absolute ceiling of this pairing when the GPU is less burdened. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, users should stick to Medium or High presets to stay comfortably above 100 FPS or above 60 FPS, respectively. The scaling behavior indicates a typical mid-range GPU scenario: strong at 1080p and 1440p, but requiring settings compromises at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of the benchmark database, this specific pairing ranks 1235 out of 1671 tested combinations. This places it in the lower-middle tier of all CPU-GPU combos tested for Inside. The rank is somewhat surprising given the high frame rates measured, but it reflects the fact that many other tested configurations include much more powerful GPUs that push frame rates even higher. The combo’s percentile is approximately 26.1% from the bottom, meaning only about a quarter of tested combos are slower.

The CPU and GPU individually have stronger relative standings than their combined rank suggests. The i5-14400F is in the 88th percentile among CPUs, and the RX 5700 XT is in the 68th percentile among GPUs. The disparity between the component percentiles and the combo rank highlights that the GPU is holding the pair back in this specific title. When compared to its nearest rivals, the CPU’s average benchmark score of 32508 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513, a 0% delta) and slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446, a 0.2% delta). The GPU’s average score of 24731 is similarly close to the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (24763, a -0.1% delta).

This data points to a balanced pairing in terms of component class, but the combo rank indicates that in Inside, the frame rates are not competitive with the top-tier combos that feature newer, higher-end graphics cards. The rank of 1235 suggests that while this system provides a smooth experience, it is far from the performance ceiling. For the vast majority of gamers, the measured frame rates are more than adequate, but the rank reflects the presence of many faster configurations in the database.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p Ultra settings?

A: The average frame rate at 1080p with Ultra settings is 134.9 FPS.

Q: How does the 4K performance compare to 1440p at High settings?

A: At 4K High, the average is 64 FPS, while at 1440p High, it is 99.1 FPS. This represents a 35.1 FPS drop when moving from 1440p to 4K.

Q: Is this CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the limiting factor. The frame rate drops significantly with resolution increases, while the CPU’s single-thread score of 3723 in Passmark is more than sufficient for this title.

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

A: The Medium preset at 1440p yields 159.6 FPS, which is the highest frame rate that still maintains high visual quality without the performance cost of High (99.1 FPS) or Ultra (94.9 FPS).

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 1235 out of 1671 tested combinations for Inside, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database.

Q: What is the maximum frame rate achievable with this hardware?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 280.2 FPS, achieved at 1080p with the Low preset.