Inside

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 delivers exceptional performance in Inside, a 2D puzzle platformer where frame rates are extraordinarily high across all settings. The combination ranks in the 60th percentile of tested configurations, and the data shows that its primary limitation is the CPU’s single-thread capability at lower resolutions, while the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K. This analysis provides a detailed breakdown of how the system scales across resolutions, settings, and its component-level behavior.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable pattern: performance degrades as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly depending on the graphics preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 353 FPS at 1920x1080 to 254 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 99 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 160 FPS. This represents a 54.7% decrease from 1080p to 4K, indicating that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is still being pushed harder as pixel count increases, though the absolute numbers remain staggeringly high.

At Medium settings, the scaling is steeper in relative terms. The average frame rate goes from 282 FPS at 1080p to 203 FPS at 1440p, then to 128 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 154 FPS, or 54.6%—a nearly identical percentage to Low. This suggests that the Medium preset introduces a fixed amount of additional GPU work, but the resolution scaling remains consistent. The minimum FPS at Medium provides additional insight: 240 FPS at 1080p, 173 FPS at 1440p, and 108 FPS at 4K, showing that frame pacing remains stable even when the average drops.

High settings show a more pronounced resolution penalty. At 1080p, the average is 177 FPS; at 1440p, it drops to 127 FPS; and at 4K, it falls to 80 FPS. The 1080p-to-4K reduction is 97 FPS, or 54.8%, which is nearly identical to the Low and Medium presets. This consistency is notable: it implies that the GPU is the limiting factor across all presets, and the CPU overhead is not a constraining element until frame rates exceed roughly 350 FPS. The Ultra preset follows a similar pattern, with averages of 168 FPS at 1080p, 121 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 4K, a 54.8% reduction from the lowest to highest resolution.

The data indicates that the limiting component shifts based on resolution. At 1080p with Low settings, the 353 FPS average is likely near the CPU’s single-thread limit, as the Radeon RX 7700 is capable of far higher output in a 2D title. However, at 4K Ultra, the 76 FPS average is firmly GPU-bound, given that the pixel fill rate demand quadruples from 1080p. The consistent 54-55% drop across all presets when scaling from 1080p to 4K suggests that the GPU’s memory bandwidth (624.1 GB/s) and pixel rate (236.1 GPixel/s) are the primary constraints at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s boost clock of 5.30 GHz keeps it ahead of the GPU’s demands at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest recorded average is 353 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration that exceeds 350 FPS, and it is nearly 30% higher than the next-best result of 282 FPS at Medium 1080p.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 76 FPS. This is the lowest measured result for the combo, but it remains playable. The 4K Ultra result is 4 FPS lower than the 4K High average of 80 FPS, showing a relatively small penalty for the highest preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the 353 FPS average suggests the CPU is the limiting factor, as the GPU is underutilized at such high frame rates. The Intel Core i5-14600KF has a boost clock of 5.30 GHz and a single-core Cinebench R23 score of 4594, which supports high single-thread performance. However, the GPU’s 25.18 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is more than sufficient for a 2D platformer at this resolution.

Q: What is the difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 203 FPS, while High averages 127 FPS. This is a 76 FPS difference, or 37.4%. The minimum FPS at Medium is 173, while High has no reported minimum, but the average gap indicates that High settings impose a significantly heavier GPU load.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1161 out of 2887 tested combos for Inside, placing it just above the median. This ranking reflects its strong overall performance, though it is not in the top tier, likely due to the GPU’s 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs versus the CPU’s 90th percentile.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the minimum FPS values are 240 at 1080p, 173 at 1440p, and 108 at 4K, with corresponding maximums of 325, 234, and 147. The spread between min and max is 85 FPS at 1080p, 61 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K, indicating tighter frame pacing at higher resolutions due to GPU-bound rendering.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1161 out of 2887 tested combos places it in the 59.8th percentile, meaning it outperforms approximately 60% of all configurations tested in Inside. This is a solid mid-tier result, but it is notable that the CPU and GPU have disparate standings: the Intel Core i5-14600KF ranks in the 90th percentile among all CPUs, while the AMD Radeon RX 7700 ranks in the 58th percentile among all GPUs. The combination’s overall rank is pulled down by the GPU, which is the weaker link in this pairing.

In terms of raw performance, the CPU’s average benchmark score is 49394, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 and 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, but 0.8% lower than the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 15852, which is 0.1% lower than the AMD Radeon R9 370X and 1.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, but 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W5500. These deltas indicate that the CPU is highly competitive with its direct rivals, while the GPU sits in a tight pack, making its performance more variable relative to peers.

The measured FPS data reinforces this ranking. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 168 FPS, which is more than double the 4K Ultra result of 76 FPS. This 2.2x scaling factor from 1080p to 4K is consistent with the GPU’s 256-bit memory bus and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, which provides ample bandwidth for a 2D title but still hits limits at 4K. The rank suggests that while the combo is not a top-100 performer, it offers a balanced experience where the CPU never holds back the GPU except at extreme frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience in Inside, the data strongly recommends Medium settings at 2560x1440 as the sweet spot. This configuration delivers an average of 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay without any perceptible stutter. The 203 FPS average is 76 FPS higher than High settings at the same resolution, and the minimum of 173 FPS is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of most gaming monitors. At 1080p, Medium settings provide 282 FPS average with a 240 FPS minimum, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate displays, but the 1440p Medium result offers a better balance of visual fidelity and performance.

High settings are recommended for users prioritizing visual quality over raw frame rate, particularly at 1440p where the 127 FPS average remains highly playable. At 4K, High settings produce 80 FPS average, which is just above the 76 FPS Ultra result, making High the better choice for 4K gaming if users want a small performance buffer. Low settings are only advisable for competitive or high-refresh-rate scenarios, as the 353 FPS at 1080p is the only configuration that exceeds 350 FPS, but the visual trade-offs are substantial for a puzzle platformer where art style matters.

Ultra settings are not recommended for 4K, as the 76 FPS average falls below the 80 FPS High result, and the visual difference between High and Ultra in a 2D title is typically minimal. The data shows that Ultra at 1440p (121 FPS) and 1080p (168 FPS) are both playable, but the 1440p Medium result of 203 FPS provides a 67.8% higher average than 1440p Ultra, making Medium the most efficient preset in terms of performance per setting. For users with 60 Hz displays, 4K High at 80 FPS is sufficient, while 1440p High at 127 FPS is the best choice for 120 Hz panels.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear hierarchy across presets. Low settings produce an average of 353 FPS, the highest of any configuration. Medium settings reduce this to 282 FPS, with a minimum of 240 FPS and a maximum of 325 FPS, indicating a 85 FPS variance. High settings average 177 FPS, while Ultra settings average 168 FPS, a difference of only 9 FPS between High and Ultra. The 1080p results demonstrate that the CPU is the primary limiter at Low settings, as the GPU has headroom to render more frames than the CPU can feed.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. Low settings average 254 FPS, a 28% drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings average 203 FPS, with a minimum of 173 FPS and a maximum of 234 FPS, a variance of 61 FPS. High settings average 127 FPS, and Ultra settings average 121 FPS, a mere 6 FPS gap. The 1440p results indicate that the GPU is now more involved, but the CPU’s 14 cores and 20 threads are still sufficient to maintain high frame rates, as evidenced by the 254 FPS Low result.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low settings average 160 FPS, which is 36.9% lower than 1080p Low. Medium settings average 128 FPS, with a minimum of 108 FPS and a maximum of 147 FPS, a variance of 39 FPS. High settings average 80 FPS, and Ultra settings average 76 FPS, a difference of only 4 FPS. The 4K results show that the RX 7700’s pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s are taxed heavily, but the game remains playable even at the highest settings, with a minimum of 108 FPS on Medium.

Comparing across resolutions, the 1080p to 1440p scaling shows a 28% reduction in FPS for Low, 28% for Medium, 28.2% for High, and 28% for Ultra. The 1440p to 4K scaling shows a 37% reduction for Low, 36.9% for Medium, 37% for High, and 37.2% for Ultra. This consistency confirms that the rendering workload scales linearly with pixel count, and the GPU’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is not a limiting factor, as the game’s texture demands are modest.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core. In synthetic benchmarks, its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 32544, and its single-core score is 4594, indicating strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. The Geekbench multicore score is 17085, with a single-core score of 2445.

In Inside, the CPU’s role is primarily to maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions. The 353 FPS average at 1080p Low is a direct result of the CPU’s 5.30 GHz boost clock and high single-core performance, as the game’s logic and physics are likely single-threaded. The Passmark single-thread score of 4273 supports this, as it is a measure of the CPU’s ability to handle a single instruction stream efficiently. The 14 cores and 20 threads are largely underutilized in this game, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rate does not drop significantly between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (353 vs 254 FPS), which would not happen if the CPU were the sole bottleneck at both resolutions.

The CPU’s 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs means it outperforms 90% of processors, and its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, has an average benchmark score of 49228, which is only 0.3% lower than the i5-14600KF’s 49394. This suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in most gaming scenarios, and its 125 W TDP allows for sustained boost clocks without thermal throttling in a capable air cooler. The data shows that the CPU’s performance is more than sufficient for Inside, as even at 4K Ultra, the 76 FPS average is GPU-limited, meaning the CPU is never the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

The combination of a 90th-percentile CPU with a 58th-percentile GPU results in a CPU-bound system at 1080p Low, but a GPU-bound system at 4K. The measured FPS data confirms this, as the 1080p Low result of 353 FPS is likely near the maximum the CPU can produce, while the 4K Ultra result of 76 FPS is dictated by the GPU’s rendering capabilities. This balance means that users with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors will see the CPU’s full potential, while 4K users will experience a more GPU-limited experience, but both scenarios offer excellent playability in Inside.