Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that, on paper, should not stress modern hardware. Yet, the measured FPS data for the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination reveals a fascinating scaling pattern that defies the typical GPU-bound expectations for older titles. The benchmark results indicate a system that is so overwhelmingly powerful for this game that the traditional performance bottlenecks are inverted, creating an unusual environment where the CPU's thread scheduling and the GPU's raw throughput interact in unexpected ways. The data suggests that this is not a case of simply "maxing everything out," but rather a study in how high-end components behave when they are barely challenged by the workload.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking observation from the measured FPS data is the dramatic and non-linear scaling across resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 391 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 350 FPS, a decrease of 41 FPS. However, the jump to 4K Low results in a much more severe drop to 264 FPS, a loss of 86 FPS from the 1440p result. This pattern is consistent across all settings, but the magnitude of the drop between 1440p and 4K is consistently larger than the drop between 1080p and 1440p. For instance, at High settings, the frame rate goes from 292 FPS at 1080p to 210 FPS at 1440p (a loss of 82 FPS), and then to 132 FPS at 4K (a loss of 78 FPS). This suggests that the GPU is finally starting to become a limiting factor at 4K, whereas at lower resolutions, the system is likely constrained by something else.

The fact that the 4K to 1080p FPS ratio is roughly 2.5x at Low settings (391 vs 264) indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER is still not being fully utilized even at 4K. A fully GPU-bound scenario would typically show a much steeper drop-off as pixel count quadruples. The data implies that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU's single-thread performance is the primary limiter, preventing the GPU from reaching its true potential. This is supported by the relatively small FPS difference between 1080p and 1440p at Medium settings, where the gap is only 38 FPS (361 vs 323), suggesting the GPU has enough headroom to handle the extra pixels without a proportional performance penalty. The 4K results, particularly the drop from 211 FPS at Medium to 132 FPS at High, show the GPU workload increasing, but the overall frame rates remain exceptionally high, indicating that even this demanding resolution is handled with ease by this hardware combination.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo achieves in Inside?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 391, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the absolute peak of the measured data, indicating the system’s ceiling is far above standard display refresh rates.

Q: How does the performance at 4K Ultra compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 126, while at 1080p Ultra, it is 278. This means the 4K resolution, which has four times the pixels, delivers less than half the frame rate, highlighting a significant performance cost that is nonetheless still playable.

Q: Is there a significant difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: The data shows a 10 FPS difference, with High averaging 210 FPS and Ultra averaging 200 FPS. This is a surprisingly small gap, suggesting that the Ultra preset’s additional effects are not particularly taxing on the RTX 4080 SUPER at this resolution.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded in the entire dataset?

A: The lowest average FPS is 126, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is still a very high frame rate, confirming that the hardware is never seriously challenged by Inside, even at its most demanding settings.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination provides the highest minimum FPS?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p provides the highest recorded minimum FPS of 307. This suggests that for consistent frame pacing, this combination offers a very stable experience, with the average at 361 FPS.

Q: Does the performance scaling suggest a CPU or GPU bottleneck?

A: The data suggests a CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions. The relatively small FPS gains from 1440p to 1080p at Low settings (350 to 391) show that the GPU is not the limiting factor, as it could handle more frames. The larger drops when moving to 4K indicate the GPU workload is finally increasing, but the overall high frame rates show the CPU is still a major contributor to the frame time.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, is a formidable processor. Its performance in synthetic benchmarks, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 and a single-core score of 2064, places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. The data shows that in Inside, this processing power is more than sufficient. The core clock speeds, with a base of 3.50 GHz and a boost of 5.30 GHz, are critical for the game’s single-threaded logic, which is often the bottleneck in older titles. The fact that the FPS does not scale linearly with resolution at 1080p and 1440p strongly implies that the CPU is hitting its frame generation limit.

The benchmark results indicate that the i5-14600K is capable of feeding the RTX 4080 SUPER with data quickly enough to achieve over 390 FPS at 1080p Low. However, the inability to reach even higher frame rates suggests a per-core limitation. The game likely relies on a single primary thread for game logic and physics, and the 5.30 GHz boost clock is the key enabler for the high frame rates seen. When compared to its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H, which has a negligible -0.2% difference in average benchmark score, the i5-14600K’s performance in this game is not unique, but its high clock speeds are what allow it to shine in a scenario where raw core counts matter less. The performance data implies that the CPU's role is to provide a high-frequency foundation, which it does admirably, ensuring that the GPU is never starved of instructions at standard resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this hardware combination depend on the user's priorities. For players with a 1080p or 1440p display with a high refresh rate, the High preset is the most balanced choice. At 1440p, High yields an average of 210 FPS, which is a 10 FPS improvement over Ultra. The visual difference between High and Ultra in a game like Inside, which has a stylized art style, is likely minimal, making High the more efficient option. At 1080p, High provides 292 FPS, while Ultra drops to 278 FPS. Again, the performance gain from choosing High over Ultra is more significant than the visual fidelity gain.

For 4K users, the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and quality. It delivers an average of 211 FPS with a minimum of 180 FPS, ensuring a smooth and consistent experience. Stepping up to High at 4K reduces the average to 132 FPS, which is still a high frame rate but a substantial 79 FPS drop from Medium. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 126 FPS, provides no meaningful advantage over High and should be avoided for the sake of frame rate stability. The data suggests that choosing the Medium preset at 4K is the most sensible recommendation, as it provides a high average FPS and a very high minimum FPS, indicating a stable frame pacing that is preferable to the slightly higher average but potentially more variable frame times of the High preset. Ultimately, the Low preset is unnecessary for this hardware, as even High and Ultra settings provide frame rates far beyond what is needed for a smooth experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination ranks 173rd out of 3716 tested combos for this game. This places it in the top 4.7% of all systems tested, which is a strong result, but not the absolute top. The data implies that while this is a very high-end configuration, there are other combinations that achieve even higher frame rates in Inside. The high rank is expected given the powerful components, but the fact that it is not ranked #1 suggests that other CPUs with even higher single-core performance or other GPUs with better optimization for this specific title can surpass it.

Given that the combo is ranked in the 95th percentile, it is clear that this system is exceptionally well-suited for Inside. The benchmark results show that it is overkill for the game, as it can easily maintain frame rates above 120 FPS at 4K with High settings. The rank of 173 out of 3716 indicates that the combination is near the top of the performance spectrum, but the data also suggests that the game is so lightweight that the difference between this combo and a significantly weaker one might be negligible in practice. The ranking validates the hardware's capability, but the real-world experience is likely dominated by the display's refresh rate rather than the system's performance ceiling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. The Low preset averages 391 FPS, the Medium preset averages 361 FPS with a minimum of 307 FPS and a maximum of 415 FPS, the High preset averages 292 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 278 FPS. The progression shows a clear but modest performance penalty for increased visual fidelity. At 2560x1440, the performance remains extremely high. The Low preset averages 350 FPS, the Medium preset averages 323 FPS with a minimum of 275 FPS and a maximum of 372 FPS, the High preset averages 210 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 200 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra is only 10 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not particularly demanding.

At 3840x2160, the GPU workload becomes more apparent. The Low preset averages 264 FPS, the Medium preset averages 211 FPS with a minimum of 180 FPS and a maximum of 243 FPS, the High preset averages 132 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 126 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum FPS of 180 is still very high, indicating a stable experience. The High and Ultra presets at 4K are close, with only a 6 FPS difference, suggesting that the game's Ultra preset is not significantly more demanding than High at this resolution. The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: the system is powerful enough to maintain frame rates far above typical display refresh rates, with the only significant performance penalty occurring when moving to 4K with higher quality settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is an exceptionally powerful GPU, with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and a 256-bit memory bus providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2550 MHz and 10240 shading units give it a massive compute capability, as evidenced by its 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. In Inside, the GPU's role is to render the game's atmospheric visuals. The data shows that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck at 1080p and 1440p, as the frame rates are likely limited by the CPU. However, at 4K, the GPU's workload increases significantly, as shown by the larger FPS drops.

The benchmark results indicate that the GPU has more than enough power to handle this game. Even at 4K Ultra, it maintains an average of 126 FPS, which is a high frame rate. The fact that the GPU's performance scales relatively well with resolution, with the 4K High preset (132 FPS) achieving almost half the frame rate of the 1080p High preset (292 FPS), suggests that the GPU is being utilized more effectively at higher resolutions. The RTX 4080 SUPER's performance in synthetic benchmarks, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 and a Passmark G3D score of 34245, places it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. This high level of performance ensures that the GPU is never a limiting factor in this game, even at the most demanding settings, leaving the CPU as the primary determinant of the final frame rate.