Inside

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti combination delivers a striking performance curve in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer from 2016. The measured frame rates reveal a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet transitions to a more balanced profile as the resolution drops. At 4K with Ultra settings, the combo produces 67.3 FPS, which jumps to 73.7 FPS on High—a modest 9.5% improvement. The real leap occurs when moving to Medium (115.8 FPS) and Low (141.5 FPS) at the same resolution. This pattern indicates that the graphics card’s pixel throughput is the primary constraint at 4K, as reducing the workload from Ultra to Low yields a 110% increase in frame rate. The scaling from 4K to 1440p is equally telling: at High settings, performance rises from 73.7 to 112.7 FPS, a 53% gain, while at Ultra it climbs to 105.9 FPS from 67.3. The 1080p results further confirm this trend, where the High preset reaches 159.2 FPS and Low hits 224 FPS. Notably, the gap between 1440p and 1080p at High settings is 46.5 FPS (159.2 vs 112.7), which is larger than the 39 FPS difference between 4K and 1440p at the same preset. This suggests that as resolution drops, the CPU begins to play a more significant role, though the six-core i5-9400 with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz still manages to push frame rates well above 150 FPS at 1080p High.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial but not linear across settings. At Low, the transition from 1920x1080 (224 FPS) to 3840x2160 (141.5 FPS) represents a 36.8% reduction, while at Ultra the drop is more severe: 151.8 FPS at 1080p falls to 67.3 FPS at 4K, a 55.7% loss. This disparity highlights that the GTX 1080 Ti’s 11 GB of GDDR5X memory and 484.4 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game’s demands, but the raw shading power (3584 shading units) becomes the limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The Medium preset shows a more controlled decline: 203.8 FPS at 1080p, 183.6 at 1440p, and 115.8 at 4K. The 1440p to 4K drop at Medium is 67.8 FPS, which is larger than the 20.2 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p. This suggests that the GPU’s fillrate and texture rate (354.4 GTexel/s) are stretched thin at 4K, regardless of the preset. For a game with minimal geometry, the data indicates that the limiting component at 4K is the GPU’s pixel processing capability, as evidenced by the 139.2 GPixel/s pixel rate. At 1080p, however, the CPU’s six threads and 9 MB of shared L3 cache appear sufficient to feed the GPU, as the 224 FPS Low result is likely near the engine’s upper bound rather than a hardware ceiling.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of the i5-9400 and GTX 1080 Ti ranks 1085 out of 1671 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the 65th percentile of all configurations. The ranking reflects that while the GPU is a high-end part (61st percentile among all GPUs), the CPU is more mid-range (50th percentile among all CPUs). The i5-9400’s average benchmark score of 2305 is nearly identical to its closest rivals, including the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300, deltaPct 0.2) and the Intel Xeon E-2134 (2295, deltaPct 0.4). This means the CPU is not a differentiator in this game’s performance, as the delta between these processors is less than 0.5%. On the GPU side, the GTX 1080 Ti’s average score of 19402 is virtually tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (19405, deltaPct 0) and slightly behind the AMD Radeon Pro 560X (19426, deltaPct -0.1). However, the measured FPS in Inside tells a different story than synthetic averages: the combo’s rank suggests that the game’s low CPU overhead allows the GPU to shine, but the relatively low CPU percentile holds back the highest frame rates. For context, the TITAN Xp, a direct rival with a deltaPct of 1.1 (higher score), would likely produce better 4K results, but the i5-9400’s 2.90 GHz base clock and 4.10 GHz boost are adequate for this title’s physics and logic.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the dominant component in this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the measured results. With 11 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus, the card provides 484.4 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for Inside’s simple textures and effects. The base clock of 1481 MHz and boost clock of 1582 MHz are modest by modern standards, but the 3584 shading units and 88 ROPs deliver substantial fillrate. The pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s are the key metrics for this game, which is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer with limited polygon counts but potential for post-processing effects. The measured FPS shows that the GPU is fully utilized at 4K Ultra (67.3 FPS), where the 11.34 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is taxed. Interestingly, the card’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database—the GTX 780 (avgScore 19405) and Radeon Pro 560X (19426)—have similar average scores, but the GTX 1080 Ti’s 11 GB frame buffer prevents any memory-related stutters at 4K. The card’s 250 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with its performance class, and the 600 W suggested PSU is a reasonable pairing for the i5-9400’s 65 W TDP. The FP16 performance of 177.2 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio) is irrelevant for this game, but the DirectX 12 (12_1) support ensures compatibility with modern API paths, though Inside likely uses DX11 given its 2016 release date.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear hierarchy of presets, with the most balanced experience at 1440p High. At this resolution, the combo achieves 112.7 FPS, which is 74% higher than the 4K High result (73.7 FPS) and only 29% lower than the 1080p High figure (159.2 FPS). The jump from High to Ultra at 1440p costs 6.8 FPS (112.7 to 105.9), a negligible 6% penalty, whereas the jump from Medium to High at the same resolution is a 38.6% reduction (183.6 to 112.7). This suggests that High is the sweet spot, as Ultra provides marginal visual benefits for a small FPS loss. At 1080p, the Medium preset (203.8 FPS) offers a 28% improvement over High (159.2 FPS), but the difference between Medium and Low (224 FPS) is only 9%. For 4K users, the Medium preset (115.8 FPS) is the most viable option, as it provides a 72% improvement over Ultra (67.3 FPS) while maintaining a playable frame rate. The Low preset at 4K (141.5 FPS) is overkill for a puzzle platformer, where 60 FPS is already smooth. Therefore, the recommended settings are: 1080p Ultra (151.8 FPS) for maximum fidelity, 1440p High (112.7 FPS) for a balanced experience, and 4K Medium (115.8 FPS) for high-resolution play. The data shows that the GPU has enough headroom at 1080p to run Ultra without dropping below 150 FPS, making it the default choice for most users.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are: Low 141.5 FPS, Medium 115.8 FPS, High 73.7 FPS, and Ultra 67.3 FPS. The step from Medium to High at 4K is the largest single-settings penalty, a 42.1 FPS drop (36.4% reduction), while High to Ultra is only 6.4 FPS (8.7% reduction). This indicates that High and Ultra share similar rendering workloads, likely differentiated by shadow quality or ambient occlusion. At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 197.9 FPS, Medium 183.6 FPS, High 112.7 FPS, and Ultra 105.9 FPS. The Medium to High drop here is 70.9 FPS (38.6% reduction), which is proportionally similar to 4K but larger in absolute terms. The 1080p results are: Low 224 FPS, Medium 203.8 FPS, High 159.2 FPS, and Ultra 151.8 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 1080p is 44.6 FPS (21.9% reduction), smaller than at higher resolutions, suggesting the CPU begins to limit the upper frame rates. Across all resolutions, the Low-to-Medium transition is consistently minor (18.4% to 23.1% reduction), while High-to-Ultra is consistently small (6.8% to 8.7% reduction). The most demanding setting combination is 4K Ultra (67.3 FPS), while the least demanding is 1080p Low (224 FPS). For a puzzle platformer, all measured configurations exceed the 60 FPS threshold except 4K Ultra, which still averages above 60. The data confirms that this combo is overqualified for 1080p and 1440p, but adequately matched for 4K at Medium or High settings.