Inside

# Inside — Intel Core i5-14600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

The Intel Core i5-14600KF pairs with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 to deliver an exceptionally high-performance configuration for Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer that is far more demanding at high refresh rates than its minimalist art style suggests. This combo ranks 19th out of 1,671 tested combinations, placing it in the top 1.1% of all systems benchmarked. The data shows a platform capable of pushing even a 4K Ultra preset past 144 FPS, with lower settings exceeding 389 FPS at 1080p. This is a system where the CPU's strong single-thread performance and the GPU's massive bandwidth combine to remove nearly all conceivable bottlenecks in this title.

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 operates at a base clock of 3.50 GHz and boosts up to 5.30 GHz, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core. In Inside, a game that relies heavily on physics interactions and real-time lighting calculations for its puzzle mechanics, the high boost clock is the dominant factor. The benchmark results show the CPU's single-core strength in Cinebench R23, where it scores 4,643 points, and its multi-core capability at 32,889 points in the same test. The Passmark single-thread score of 4,273 and multithread score of 38,697 further confirm a processor that excels at both lightly-threaded game logic and any background tasks.

The CPU's percentile ranking against all processors is 93, meaning it outperforms 93% of CPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score of 49,367 places it in a tight cluster with its nearest rivals. The Intel Core i5-14600K scores 49,166, a mere 0.4% lower, while the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X scores 49,062, which is 0.6% behind. The AMD EPYC 4345P sits 0.5% ahead at 49,595, and the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H trails by 1.4% at 48,698. For Inside, this level of CPU performance is far beyond what the game's thread scheduler requires; the measured FPS deltas between settings suggest the processor is never the limiting component, even at 1080p Low where frame rates approach 390 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the flagship Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU, built on TSMC's 5 nm process with 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. It features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). With 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units, the RTX 5090 provides 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,411 and Passmark G3D score of 39,650 place it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306.

The nearest GPU rivals show narrow margins: the RTX 5090 D scores 84,241 (0.1% lower), the RTX 5050 Mobile scores 84,171 (0.2% lower), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 scores 83,209 (1.3% lower). The NVIDIA CMP 40HX actually scores higher at 85,637, a 1.6% delta. In Inside, the GPU's raw throughput is most evident at 4K Ultra, where the 144.3 FPS average demonstrates that even this extreme setting combination cannot saturate the card's capabilities. The 32 GB VRAM is effectively irrelevant for this title, as Inside's textures and geometry fit comfortably within even a fraction of that capacity, but the memory bandwidth contributes to the consistent frame pacing observed in the data.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across resolutions reveals a clear picture of where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 389.8 FPS, while at 4K Low it drops to 299.2 FPS — a 23.3% reduction. This relatively modest decline indicates that at Low settings, the system is partially CPU-limited even at 4K, since the GPU has ample headroom. Moving to High settings, the drop from 301 FPS at 1080p to 242.3 FPS at 1440p (19.5% decrease) and then to 151.2 FPS at 4K (49.8% decrease from 1080p) shows a more pronounced GPU influence. The Ultra preset amplifies this trend: 297.6 FPS at 1080p falls to 233 FPS at 1440p (21.7% lower) and then to 144.3 FPS at 4K (51.5% lower than 1080p).

The scaling pattern from 1440p to 4K is particularly telling. At High settings, the 1440p result of 242.3 FPS drops to 151.2 FPS at 4K, a 37.6% reduction. At Ultra, the 233 FPS at 1440p falls to 144.3 FPS at 4K, a 38.1% reduction. These drops are larger than the pure pixel-count increase would suggest (4K has 2.25x the pixels of 1440p), indicating that memory bandwidth and fill rate become more significant factors at higher resolutions. The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens with resolution: at 1080p, the difference is 92.2 FPS (389.8 vs 297.6), but at 4K, it reaches 154.9 FPS (299.2 vs 144.3). This confirms that the GPU is the primary scaling constraint at higher resolutions, while the CPU maintains sufficient headroom throughout.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a rank of 19 out of 1,671 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the top 1.1% of all systems. This ranking reflects the synergy between a high-boost CPU and a top-tier GPU that together eliminate most performance ceilings in this game. The CPU's 93rd percentile standing and the GPU's 94th percentile standing are both high, but the combined rank suggests that the pairing is particularly effective for this title's workload profile.

The narrow margins among the CPU's nearest rivals (all within 1.4% of each other) indicate that processor choice has minimal impact on this combo's rank, as the GPU dominates the performance envelope at higher settings. Conversely, the GPU's nearest rivals are also tightly clustered (within 1.6%), meaning that the differences in this ranking are likely driven by the specific combination's ability to sustain high frame rates across all settings. The data shows that this combo maintains above 144 FPS even at the most demanding 4K Ultra preset, a threshold that many other high-end systems fail to reach. The rank of 19 suggests that only a handful of combinations with even more extreme CPU-GPU pairings or more favorable memory configurations outperform it in Inside.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 389.8 FPS, Medium reaches 360.4 FPS, High achieves 301 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 297.6 FPS. The relatively small gap between High and Ultra (3.4 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects are largely handled by GPU resources that remain abundant at this resolution. The difference between Low and Ultra is 92.2 FPS, or 23.7% of the Low result, indicating that even at 1080p, settings scaling has a measurable but not dramatic impact.

At 2560x1440, the results show a step down in performance. Low settings deliver 349.3 FPS, Medium hits 322.7 FPS, High reaches 242.3 FPS, and Ultra produces 233 FPS. The High-to-Ultra gap narrows to 9.3 FPS, while the Low-to-Ultra difference expands to 116.3 FPS (33.3% of Low). The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs between 10.4% (Low: 389.8 to 349.3) and 21.7% (Ultra: 297.6 to 233), with the larger percentage drops at higher settings confirming the GPU's growing role.

At 3840x2160, the absolute frame rates remain high but show the most significant scaling penalties. Low settings achieve 299.2 FPS, Medium drops to 243.6 FPS, High reaches 151.2 FPS, and Ultra falls to 144.3 FPS. The Low-to-Medium gap of 55.6 FPS is substantial, and the Medium-to-High drop of 92.4 FPS is even larger, indicating that the High preset introduces effects that heavily tax the GPU at 4K. The High-to-Ultra difference is only 6.9 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns from the Ultra preset at this resolution. From 1440p to 4K, the performance loss ranges from 14.3% (Low: 349.3 to 299.2) to 38.1% (Ultra: 233 to 144.3), with the data showing that the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor at 4K Ultra, even for this powerful combination.