Inside

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 produces a highly variable experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer where the engine’s demands shift dramatically based on resolution and quality settings. The benchmark data reveals a configuration that is consistently capable at 1080p, but which falls below the 60 FPS threshold at higher resolutions with demanding presets. The analysis below breaks down the measured performance, scaling behavior, and the relative ranking of this specific hardware combination.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and clearly identifies the GPU as the primary limiting factor in this system. At 1080p with High settings, the combo achieves 72.8 FPS, but moving to 1440p reduces that to 56.2 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 35.5 FPS. This represents a 51% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at High settings, indicating that the rendering load is scaling almost linearly with pixel count, a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario.

The scaling pattern is even more pronounced at lower settings. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 151.5 FPS at 1080p to 110.7 FPS at 1440p, and then to 70.6 FPS at 4K. While the absolute numbers are higher, the relative drop from 1080p to 4K is 53%, suggesting that even when the graphical load is reduced, the RX 580’s compute and memory bandwidth limits become the bottleneck. The data shows that the CPU is never the constraint here; the 14-core i5-14600KF has ample headroom, as evidenced by the fact that performance scales consistently with resolution rather than plateauing due to processor limitations.

The gap between 1440p and 4K is particularly telling. At Medium settings, the frame rate drops from 83.4 FPS at 1440p to 56.6 FPS at 4K, a 32% reduction. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU’s memory interface and fill rate are being saturated at 4K, as the Polaris 20 chip with its 256-bit bus struggles to feed the shader units at that pixel density. For players targeting a locked 60 FPS, the data indicates that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo, and only with reduced settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580’s specifications directly explain the observed performance envelope. With 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, the card has sufficient memory capacity for Inside’s textures, but the bandwidth becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The GPU’s base clock of 1257 MHz and boost clock of 1340 MHz, combined with 2304 shading units, yield a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s. These figures are modest by modern standards, and the data confirms that the card is operating near its limits at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 53rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13559. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 and the GTX 950, with deltaPct values of 0 and 0.1 respectively, indicating that the RX 580 is essentially performance-equivalent to those older cards in synthetic tests. In Inside, however, the measured FPS shows that the card can still deliver playable frame rates at 1080p, but the ultra preset at 1440p and 4K pushes it below acceptable levels. The 34.8 FPS at 4K Ultra confirms that the GPU’s 32 ROPs are insufficient for the fill-rate demands of that configuration.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is not a direct issue in this title, as the frame rate differences between settings are more attributable to shader complexity and pixel throughput than memory capacity. The data shows that moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p reduces performance by 54%, from 151.5 FPS to 69.7 FPS, which aligns with the increased shading load rather than memory swapping. The GPU’s role as the bottleneck is unambiguous: the i5-14600KF, with its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 20 threads, is never challenged by this game’s CPU demands.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global database of tested hardware combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600KF with the AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 1529 out of 1671 combos for Inside. This places the configuration in the bottom 9% of all tested systems, which is a direct consequence of the GPU’s age and limited performance relative to modern graphics cards. The rank is not influenced by the CPU, which is a top-tier processor; the i5-14600KF sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 49367.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core i5-14600K at a deltaPct of 0.4 and the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X at a deltaPct of 0.6, meaning the i5-14600KF is effectively tied with those processors in compute performance. However, the combo ranking shows that this CPU power is wasted in Inside when paired with the RX 580, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor at every resolution above 1080p. The rank of 1529 indicates that the vast majority of tested systems, even those with weaker CPUs, outperform this combo in this specific game because they feature more capable graphics cards.

The data suggests that for Inside, the GPU choice dominates the final frame rate. The RX 580’s 53rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13559, is the primary driver of the combo’s low position. The deltaPct values for the GPU’s rivals, such as the AMD Radeon Pro 455 at 1.1, confirm that the RX 580 is clustered with older mid-range cards, which explains why the combo ranks so low despite having a flagship-class CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates provide a complete picture of the combo’s capabilities across resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the lowest tested resolution, the combo delivers 151.5 FPS at Low settings, 120.9 FPS at Medium, 72.8 FPS at High, and 69.7 FPS at Ultra. These numbers show that the system can easily handle the game at 1080p with any settings, with even the Ultra preset staying above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Moving to 1440p, the performance drops noticeably: Low settings yield 110.7 FPS, Medium delivers 83.4 FPS, High achieves 56.2 FPS, and Ultra falls to 51.5 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra at 1440p is only 8%, from 56.2 to 51.5 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset’s additional effects have a marginal impact relative to the resolution increase. However, the key finding is that High and Ultra settings at 1440p both fall below the 60 FPS target, making them unsuitable for players who prioritize frame rate.

At 4K, the results are more challenging: Low settings produce 70.6 FPS, Medium drops to 56.6 FPS, High falls to 35.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 34.8 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 14 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 21.1 FPS, showing that the High preset’s shading complexity is disproportionately expensive at this resolution. The Ultra preset offers no meaningful improvement over High at 4K, with a difference of only 0.7 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is fully saturated and additional settings have no effect.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience for this combo is at 1080p with the High preset, which delivers 72.8 FPS. This configuration provides a smooth frame rate while maintaining visual quality, and it leaves headroom for the game’s occasional complex scenes. The Ultra preset at 1080p, at 69.7 FPS, is nearly identical in performance and could be chosen if the player prefers maximum visual fidelity, though the 3 FPS difference suggests the High preset is the more efficient choice.

For players with a 1440p display, the Medium preset at 83.4 FPS is the only setting that maintains a frame rate above 60 FPS. The High preset at 56.2 FPS is playable but not ideal, and the Ultra preset at 51.5 FPS should be avoided due to the increased risk of perceptible stutter. At 4K, the Low preset at 70.6 FPS is the only viable option for smooth gameplay; the Medium preset at 56.6 FPS is borderline, but the High and Ultra presets, at 35.5 and 34.8 FPS respectively, are too slow for a responsive experience.

The data indicates that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across resolutions, with 120.9 FPS at 1080p, 83.4 FPS at 1440p, and 56.6 FPS at 4K. This suggests that players should prioritize the Medium preset if they plan to switch between resolutions, as it provides the most consistent experience. For those who prefer High settings, the 1080p resolution is the only practical choice, as the frame rate at higher resolutions falls below acceptable levels. The Ultra preset provides no tangible benefit over High in this game, and the data shows it should be avoided entirely.