Inside

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is an extreme combination for a puzzle platformer, and the measured frame rates confirm that this system is operating far beyond the demands of Inside. The data shows a performance curve that is dictated almost entirely by the graphics card, with the CPU providing a ceiling that is never approached at any resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a predictable pattern of scaling, though the sheer magnitude of the frame rates ensures that no resolution presents a challenge to this hardware. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo delivers 301 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average drops to 234 FPS, a reduction of 67 FPS. At 3840x2160 High, the average falls further to 147 FPS. This represents a 51% drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings, indicating that the GPU is beginning to feel the load of the higher pixel count, but the result is still exceptionally smooth.

The scaling pattern is more dramatic when comparing the Low settings across all three resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system pushes 391 FPS. At 1440p Low, it reaches 350 FPS, and at 4K Low, it still manages 293 FPS. The delta between 1080p and 4K at Low settings is 98 FPS, a 25% reduction. This smaller percentage drop compared to High settings suggests that at Low settings, the system is partially bottlenecked by other factors, likely the CPU or engine-level frame pacing, allowing the GPU to remain less saturated. The fact that 4K Low (293 FPS) is only slightly slower than 1080p High (301 FPS) underscores that the GPU is not the limiting factor in either case; the game’s visual complexity is simply too light for this hardware.

The Medium settings at each resolution show the most interesting behavior. At 1080p Medium, the average is 361 FPS with a minimum of 307 FPS and a maximum of 415 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 323 FPS with a minimum of 275 FPS and a maximum of 372 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 235 FPS, with a minimum of 200 FPS and a maximum of 270 FPS. The 4K Medium result is significantly lower than the 1440p Medium result, a 88 FPS difference, showing that the jump to 4K imposes a heavy pixel fill-rate cost even on a GPU with a 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth. However, even the 4K Medium minimum of 200 FPS is far above the refresh rate of most displays, making the scaling academic rather than practical.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications make it clear why the frame rates are so high. The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This enormous bandwidth is crucial for handling the texture and geometry data at 4K resolution, and the data shows that it does so with ease. The GPU’s base clock is 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and its 16,384 shading units deliver a raw FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS. These figures, combined with 512 TMUs and 176 ROPs, allow the card to process the simple 2D side-scrolling visuals of Inside at rates that are typically reserved for lightweight eSports titles.

The VRAM capacity is effectively irrelevant for this game, as Inside’s graphical assets are modest by modern standards. The 24 GB buffer is so far from being saturated that it likely has no measurable impact on performance; the frame rates are instead limited by the engine’s ability to issue draw calls and the CPU’s responsiveness. The memory clock of 1313 MHz, which translates to 21 Gbps effective, contributes to the 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, but even a fraction of that bandwidth would be sufficient for this title. The benchmark results show that the GPU’s percentile rank among all GPUs is 88, putting it in the top tier of hardware, but its nearest rivals in the database are less powerful cards like the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, which scores 61,896 on average versus the RTX 4090’s 60,347. This suggests that the RTX 4090 is operating at a level where its raw compute advantage is not fully utilized in this specific workload.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 91 out of 3,716 combos for Inside. This places it in the 97.5th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms the vast majority of configurations. The rank is likely held back not by the GPU, which is near the top of the spectrum, but by the CPU, which, while powerful, is not the absolute fastest available. The i5-14600K has a percentile rank of 90 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48,618, placing it just below the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48,698, deltaPct -0.2) and above the AMD EPYC 4345P (48,470, deltaPct 0.3).

The combo’s rank of 91 suggests that there are 90 other combinations that achieve higher frame rates in this game. Those systems likely feature higher-end CPUs, such as the Intel Core i9 series or AMD Ryzen 9 parts, which can push the frame rate even higher at 1080p where the CPU becomes more relevant. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 391 FPS, but a top-tier CPU might push that closer to 400 FPS or beyond. The gap between this combo and the number one spot is likely small, but it exists because the i5-14600K, despite its 14 cores and 20 threads, cannot match the single-threaded performance of the fastest desktop processors when the GPU is this powerful. The GPU’s percentile of 88 is lower than the combo’s rank, indicating that the GPU is not the bottleneck; if it were, the combo would rank higher relative to the GPU’s peers.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience according to the measured rows, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 offers an ideal balance, delivering 323 FPS with a minimum of 275 FPS. This is smoother than the High preset at the same resolution (234 FPS) and only slightly less than the Low preset (350 FPS). The Medium preset at 1440p provides a 45% improvement over High while maintaining a minimum frame rate that is still 275 FPS, which is far above any display’s refresh rate. At 4K, the Medium preset yields 235 FPS, which is also excellent, but the 1440p Medium result is more consistent, as evidenced by the narrower gap between the average and minimum.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for competitive play, as it provides the lowest frame rates across all resolutions. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 296 FPS, which is 65 FPS lower than Medium at the same resolution. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 140 FPS, which is still playable but represents a significant performance hit for visual gains that are barely perceptible in a game with Inside’s stark art style. The High preset at 1080p (301 FPS) is only 5 FPS faster than Ultra, indicating that the difference between High and Ultra is minimal in terms of frame rate. For the highest possible frame rates, the Low preset at 1080p (391 FPS) is the best choice, but this sacrifices visual fidelity for a 30% improvement over High. Given that even the 4K High preset (147 FPS) exceeds the refresh rate of standard 144 Hz monitors, the Medium preset at 1440p is the sweet spot for a smooth, visually pleasing experience without compromising on stability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its highest frame rates. Low settings yield an average of 391 FPS. Medium settings reduce the average to 361 FPS, with a minimum of 307 FPS and a maximum of 415 FPS. High settings average 301 FPS. Ultra settings average 296 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 95 FPS, showing that the GPU is not stressed at this resolution and the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as the difference between High and Ultra is only 5 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. Low settings produce 350 FPS. Medium settings average 323 FPS, with a minimum of 275 FPS and a maximum of 372 FPS. High settings average 234 FPS. Ultra settings average 222 FPS. The drop from Low to High is 116 FPS, which is a larger absolute drop than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is starting to feel the pixel count increase. The Medium preset’s minimum of 275 FPS is still very high, suggesting that frame pacing is consistent.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits, though the results are still impressive. Low settings average 293 FPS. Medium settings average 235 FPS, with a minimum of 200 FPS and a maximum of 270 FPS. High settings average 147 FPS. Ultra settings average 140 FPS. The difference between Low and High at 4K is 146 FPS, which is the largest absolute drop across all resolutions. This confirms that at 4K, the GPU’s shading units and ROPs are the primary drivers of performance, and the 176 ROPs are being fully utilized to fill the 8.3 million pixels. The Medium preset’s minimum of 200 FPS is the lowest minimum recorded in the data, but it still provides a flawless experience on a 144 Hz monitor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide fast access to game data, and its 10 nm process node allows for high clock speeds. In Inside, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations, but given the game’s simplicity, the i5-14600K is more than sufficient. The benchmark results for the CPU show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24,491 and a single-core score of 2,064, indicating strong performance in both threaded and single-threaded workloads.

The data suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 391 FPS, but the scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p is only 95 FPS, which is a smaller percentage drop than at 4K. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU cannot process frames fast enough to keep the GPU fully occupied, even at Low settings. The fact that 1080p High (301 FPS) is only 5 FPS faster than 1080p Ultra (296 FPS) reinforces this, as the GPU is idle waiting for the CPU. However, the CPU’s performance is still exceptional, and its nearest rivals in the database, such as the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (avg score 48,995, deltaPct -0.8) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX (avg score 48,287, deltaPct 0.7), show that it is within 1% of its immediate competition. This means that swapping to a marginally faster CPU would only yield a few extra frames per second at best in this game. The CPU’s 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory make it a versatile choice, but for Inside, the GPU is clearly the star, with the CPU providing a solid, unremarkable foundation that never becomes a true bottleneck.