Inside

The Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination delivers exceptional performance in Inside, a 2D puzzle platformer that is far less demanding than the typical AAA title. The measured data shows this pairing is capable of obliterating even the most stringent refresh rate targets, with average frame rates never dropping below 113.4 FPS at 4K Ultra settings. The benchmark results indicate a system where the GPU is the primary scaling factor as resolution increases, while the CPU provides a robust foundation that never becomes a bottleneck. This analysis explores how the components interact across the measured settings and resolutions, and what the data implies about the system's overall capability.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear picture of where the performance limit lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 341.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 305.1 FPS, a reduction of 36.0 FPS or roughly 10.6%. However, the jump to 4K Low is far more dramatic, with the average falling to 245.4 FPS. This represents a 59.7 FPS drop from 1440p, or 19.6%, indicating that the GPU is becoming the significant limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. For High settings, the frame rates are 263.4 FPS at 1080p, 191.4 FPS at 1440p, and 123.2 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 27.3%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 35.6%. This escalating decline strongly suggests that while the RTX 4070 Ti is immensely powerful, the game's rendering load scales superlinearly with resolution. The data implies that at 1080p, the system has significant headroom, but at 4K, the GPU's fillrate and memory bandwidth are being taxed more heavily.

Interestingly, the gap between Low and Ultra settings narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (341.1 FPS) and Ultra (257.4 FPS) is 83.7 FPS. At 4K, the gap shrinks to 132.0 FPS (245.4 vs 113.4). This indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU is so saturated that the additional work from higher settings has a proportionally smaller impact. The data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at 4K, but at 1080p, the CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads may still be sufficient to keep up with the GPU's output.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows offer a clear path for optimizing the experience. For players targeting 144Hz or 165Hz displays, the Medium preset at 1440p delivers an average of 283.4 FPS, which is more than sufficient. However, the jump from Medium to High at 1440p results in a substantial 92.0 FPS reduction (283.4 to 191.4 FPS). This suggests that the High preset introduces a significant graphical load that may not be worth the visual gain if frame rate is the priority. The data indicates that Medium offers the best balance, providing a 47.9% higher frame rate than High while still delivering a step up from Low.

At 4K, the Medium preset's 195.6 FPS is an excellent target for high-refresh gaming, but the Ultra preset's 113.4 FPS is still comfortably above 60 FPS. For the smoothest possible experience, the Low preset at 4K yields 245.4 FPS, which is a 54.2% improvement over High. The data suggests that for competitive play or maximum fluidity, Low is the optimal choice at any resolution, but for a visually richer experience, Medium provides the best compromise. The High preset appears to be a middle ground that sacrifices significant performance for marginal visual improvements, making it the least efficient choice in the measured data.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the star of this configuration, and its specifications explain the high frame rates. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, the card offers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for a game like Inside that is not memory-intensive. The GPU's 7680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs provide massive raw compute power. The boost clock of 2610 MHz, combined with the Ada Lovelace architecture's efficiency, allows the card to sustain high clocks under load. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the card maintains 113.4 FPS, indicating that its 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than enough.

The GPU's memory clock of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) is a key factor in the 4K scaling behavior. While the bandwidth is high, the 192-bit bus is narrower than some higher-tier cards, which may explain the steeper frame rate drops at 4K. The benchmark results show the GPU scores 31624 in Passmark G3D, placing it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs. This aligns with its measured performance in Inside, where it excels. The card's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface ensures no bandwidth bottleneck from the CPU side. The data implies that the RTX 4070 Ti is the primary driver of performance in this game, with the CPU rarely interfering.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a comprehensive view of performance across all twelve measured combinations. At 1080p, the frame rates are exceptionally high across the board: 341.1 FPS (Low), 312.4 FPS (Medium), 263.4 FPS (High), and 257.4 FPS (Ultra). This represents a spread of 83.7 FPS between the lowest and highest settings, showing that even at Ultra, the system is far from being taxed. The 1080p results suggest that the CPU and GPU are both capable of handling this resolution with ease, and the frame rate is likely limited by the game engine's own simulation rate.

At 1440p, the numbers remain impressive: 305.1 FPS (Low), 283.4 FPS (Medium), 191.4 FPS (High), and 183.4 FPS (Ultra). The gap between Low and Medium is only 21.7 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is a significant 92.0 FPS. This suggests that the High preset may introduce effects like advanced shadows or post-processing that are disproportionately expensive. At 4K, the results are 245.4 FPS (Low), 195.6 FPS (Medium), 123.2 FPS (High), and 113.4 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Ultra result is the only one below 120 FPS, but it remains highly playable. The data shows a consistent pattern: Low and Medium settings scale predictably, while High and Ultra introduce larger performance hits, particularly at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 1671 tested combinations for Inside, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ranks 194th. This places it in the top 11.6% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing given the game's age and the wide variety of hardware tested. The rank suggests that while this combo is not the absolute fastest, it outperforms the vast majority of systems. The CPU's 88th percentile ranking versus all CPUs and the GPU's 85th percentile ranking versus all GPUs both contribute to this high combo rank.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-12800H with a delta of 0%, the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 with a delta of 0.2%, and the AMD Ryzen 7 250 with a delta of -0.2%. These rivals are all within 0.2% of the i5-14400F's average benchmark score, indicating that the CPU is well-matched with its peers. The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile with a delta of -0.6%, the Intel Arc A730M with a delta of -1.5%, and the AMD Radeon Pro 580 with a delta of 1.6%. The data shows that the RTX 4070 Ti is competitive with these other high-end options, though its end-of-life production status is worth noting.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average frame rate at 1080p is 341.1 FPS, achieved with the Low settings preset.

Q: Is this system capable of 4K gaming at high refresh rates?

A: Yes. At 4K with High settings, the combo achieves 123.2 FPS, and at Medium it reaches 195.6 FPS, both well above 60 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1440p to 4K on High settings?

A: The average frame rate drops from 191.4 FPS at 1440p to 123.2 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 68.2 FPS or 35.6%.

*Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations for Inside?*

A: It ranks 194th out of 1671 total tested combinations, placing it in the top 11.6%.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more at 1080p Low?

A: The data shows 341.1 FPS at 1080p Low, which is extremely high. Given the CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads, it is likely that the GPU is still the primary limiter, but the CPU is not a bottleneck.

Q: What is the average frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: The difference is 132.0 FPS, with Low achieving 245.4 FPS and Ultra achieving 113.4 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F provides the computational foundation for this system. With 10 cores and 16 threads, it offers a solid mix of single-thread and multi-thread performance. The base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz allow it to handle the game's logic and physics calculations efficiently. The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core ensure that data is readily available for the processing cores. The 65 W TDP is modest, but the data shows this does not hinder performance in Inside.

Benchmark results show the CPU scores 21914 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3093 in single-core, placing it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 32508 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-12800H, with a delta of 0%. This indicates that the i5-14400F is a highly capable processor. In the context of Inside, which is not a CPU-intensive game, the 10 cores are more than sufficient. The data implies that the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with enough data to maintain those high frame rates, and it does so without creating a bottleneck, as evidenced by the consistently high FPS across all resolutions and settings. The CPU's support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory and dual-channel architecture provides flexibility, though the game's performance suggests memory bandwidth is not a limiting factor.