Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that remains remarkably light on modern hardware, and benchmark results for the Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT confirm this. The data shows a combination that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher settings, yet capable of exploiting the CPU’s strong single-thread performance at lower presets. Across all tested resolutions, the system never dips below a playable 58.2 frames per second, even at the most demanding Ultra preset in 4K. The measured frames per second (FPS) reveal a clear hierarchy: the CPU is never the bottleneck, while the GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM and RDNA 2 architecture dictate performance scaling as resolution and visual fidelity increase.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about system balance. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 280.1 FPS at 1920x1080 to 127.7 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 54.4% reduction. This steep decline is typical of a GPU-bound scenario where pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor. The trend continues at Medium settings, where 1080p delivers 223.2 FPS, but 4K drops to 100.6 FPS—a 54.9% reduction. High settings show a similar pattern: 138.4 FPS at 1080p falls to 62 FPS at 4K, a 55.2% decrease. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 130.5 FPS at 1080p dropping to 58.2 FPS at 4K, a 55.4% reduction.

The consistency of the percentage drop across all settings—hovering around 55%—indicates that resolution scaling is purely a function of the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth. The Radeon RX 6600 XT’s 256.0 GB/s bandwidth and 165.7 GPixel/s pixel rate are the primary constraints. The i5-14400F, with its boost clock of 4.70 GHz and 20 MB of shared L3 cache, easily feeds the GPU at every resolution. The fact that 4K Ultra still holds above 58 FPS suggests the game’s art style—largely flat-shaded 2D silhouettes over 3D backgrounds—does not stress the hardware as heavily as modern 3D titles. The limiting component is unambiguously the GPU, as evidenced by the fact that lowering settings from Ultra to Low at 4K nearly doubles the frame rate from 58.2 to 127.7 FPS.

FAQ

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

A: Yes, the data shows an average of 58.2 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is just above the 60 FPS threshold, but it is playable. If you want a smoother experience, dropping to High settings at the same resolution yields 62 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for a high refresh rate monitor?

A: At 1920x1080, even the Ultra preset achieves 130.5 FPS, while Low settings reach 280.1 FPS. For a 144 Hz or 240 Hz display, 1080p is the only resolution that fully saturates the refresh rate, as 1440p Ultra drops to 93.8 FPS and 4K High falls to 62 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-14400F a bottleneck for the RX 6600 XT in this game?

A: No. The benchmark results indicate the system is GPU-bound at all tested settings. The CPU’s single-core Cinebench R23 score of 3093 and multi-core score of 21914 are more than sufficient for a puzzle platformer, as the FPS scales directly with GPU load.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 138.4 to 99.6, a 28% reduction. At Ultra, it drops from 130.5 to 93.8, a 28.1% reduction. This is consistent and indicates a linear relationship between pixel count and rendering load.

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

A: The gap is substantial. Low settings average 200.9 FPS, while Ultra averages 93.8 FPS. This represents a 53.3% performance penalty for maximum visual fidelity, which is a significant trade-off given that the game’s art style is minimalist.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM limit performance at 4K?

A: The data does not show a VRAM capacity bottleneck. The 4K Ultra result of 58.2 FPS suggests the GPU is compute-bound rather than memory-limited, as the game’s textures are relatively small. The 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for the tested scenarios.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the definitive performance driver in this pairing. The GPU’s boost clock of 2589 MHz and game clock of 2359 MHz provide the raw compute necessary to push pixel counts at 4K. With 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs, the card handles the game’s 2D sprite rendering and post-processing effects efficiently. The 32 ray accelerators on the RDNA 2 architecture are largely irrelevant for this title, as Inside does not implement ray-traced lighting. Instead, the card’s 10.60 TFLOPS FP32 performance is what determines the frame rate at higher presets.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus delivers 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is adequate for the game’s needs, as evidenced by the fact that 4K Ultra does not experience a catastrophic frame drop below 50 FPS. The card’s pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s aligns with the measured results; at 4K (8.3 million pixels), 165.7 GPixel/s theoretically supports over 60 FPS, and the measured 58.2 FPS at Ultra is close to that theoretical ceiling. The GPU’s 71st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27985, places it in the upper-midrange, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, scores nearly identically (27956, deltaPct 0.1). This parity explains why the RX 6600 XT handles a 2016 title with ease, as it is a modern card with strong legacy driver support.

Settings Recommendations

For a balanced experience, the High preset is the sweet spot. At 1920x1080, it delivers 138.4 FPS, which is smooth for any display. At 2560x1440, High averages 99.6 FPS, comfortably above 60 FPS. Even at 3840x2160, High achieves 62 FPS, making it the only preset that maintains a consistent 60 FPS across all resolutions. The Ultra preset, while visually similar due to the game’s flat-shaded style, costs an average of 6% to 8% performance compared to High at each resolution (130.5 vs. 138.4 at 1080p; 93.8 vs. 99.6 at 1440p; 58.2 vs. 62 at 4K). Given that the visual difference between High and Ultra is minimal in this game, High is the recommended choice.

For players targeting 4K, the Low preset is a viable option, delivering 127.7 FPS, but this sacrifices ambient occlusion and shadow quality. The Medium preset offers a middle ground at 100.6 FPS in 4K, which is ideal for those who want higher detail without the frame rate penalty of High. The data indicates that the difference between Low and Medium is more pronounced (127.7 to 100.6 FPS) than between High and Ultra (62 to 58.2 FPS), suggesting diminishing returns at the top end. Therefore, the best experience per measured row is High for 1080p and 1440p, and Medium for 4K if you prefer higher detail, or High if you prioritize a steady 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system is massively over-provisioned. Low settings produce an average of 280.1 FPS, which is nearly double the Medium result of 223.2 FPS. High settings drop to 138.4 FPS, while Ultra yields 130.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 25.4%, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 5.7%. This indicates that the GPU is the limiter even at 1080p, as the CPU’s single-core performance is more than enough to handle the game’s physics and logic at these frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the scaling is consistent. Low averages 200.9 FPS, Medium 160.2 FPS, High 99.6 FPS, and Ultra 93.8 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 20.2%, while the drop from High to Ultra is 5.8%. Comparing 1440p to 1080p, the frame rate reduction is roughly 28% at High settings (138.4 to 99.6 FPS) and 28.1% at Ultra (130.5 to 93.8 FPS). This linear scaling confirms that the GPU’s fill rate is the primary constraint, as the pixel count increases by 77.8% from 1080p to 1440p, yet the FPS reduction is smaller due to the game’s low complexity.

At 3840x2160, the system remains playable but begins to show its limits. Low settings average 127.7 FPS, which is still very smooth. Medium drops to 100.6 FPS, High to 62 FPS, and Ultra to 58.2 FPS. The transition from 1440p to 4K represents a 37.5% reduction in FPS at High settings (99.6 to 62) and a 37.9% reduction at Ultra (93.8 to 58.2). The 4K Ultra result of 58.2 FPS is the lowest measured value, but it remains above the 50 FPS threshold for acceptable gameplay. The system’s rank of 1237 out of 1671 combos in this game reflects that while it is not a top-tier configuration, it is firmly in the upper half of tested systems, and the measured data shows no CPU-related stutter or frame pacing issues.