Inside

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER delivers a highly playable experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer that is clearly not taxing on modern hardware. The combo ranks 3166 out of 3716 tested combinations, placing it in the lower half of the database, yet the measured frame rates tell a story of consistent performance that easily exceeds the demands of the game’s genre. While the hardware is not top-tier by synthetic benchmarks, the actual gameplay results show that this pairing is more than sufficient for smooth, responsive play across all tested resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 3166 out of 3716 places it in the 15th percentile of all tested CPU-GPU pairings for Inside. This low relative standing might seem alarming at first glance, but it is a direct consequence of the game’s age and low system requirements; many modern, high-end combos will naturally dominate the list. The data indicates that the i5-9400 and GTX 1660 SUPER are not a high-end pairing, but their performance in this specific title is what matters. The CPU sits at the 47th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs, suggesting a balanced mid-range duo that is being outpaced by more powerful components in the aggregate ranking.

Looking at the CPU’s nearest rivals, the i5-9400’s average benchmark score of 2254 is effectively a dead heat with the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, which scores 2259 (a 0.2% difference), and the Intel Core i7-10710U, which scores 2248 (a 0.3% difference). The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 is also close at 2246, just 0.4% behind. This positioning shows that the i5-9400 is a solid, if unspectacular, processor whose compute capabilities are in line with several other mid-range options from its era. For the GPU, the GTX 1660 SUPER’s average score of 12986 is similarly tight against its rivals, including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (0.4% faster) and the AMD Radeon RX 580 (also 0.4% faster). This clustering indicates that in raw compute, the GTX 1660 SUPER is a well-known quantity, and its performance in Inside will be representative of that class of hardware.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, which are the key figures for understanding its gaming performance. The CPU’s cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 256 KB of L2 per core, and a shared 9 MB of L3 cache. This setup is typical for a mid-range desktop part from its generation, and it provides adequate bandwidth for most gaming workloads.

For a game like Inside, which is a 2D puzzle platformer with relatively simple physics and logic, the CPU is unlikely to be a bottleneck. The game’s workload is not heavily threaded, and the i5-9400’s six physical cores are more than enough to handle the game’s simulation and scripting. The boost clock of 4.10 GHz is crucial for ensuring that single-threaded tasks are processed quickly, which is often the limiting factor in such titles. The CPU’s memory support for DDR4 in a dual-channel configuration, with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s, is also more than sufficient for the data throughput required by Inside. The benchmark results confirm this, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and a single-core score of 935, indicating a balanced processor that can handle both multi-threaded and single-threaded tasks competently.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the more critical component for this game’s visual output. It is based on the Turing architecture (TU116 chip) and manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. The GPU has a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz, which are the clocks that determine its raw processing speed. It is equipped with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is a key strength, as it allows the GPU to handle high-resolution textures and effects without choking on data transfer.

The GPU’s compute capabilities are defined by its 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units. This translates to a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s, with an FP32 performance of 5.027 TFLOPS. For Inside, which features a dark, atmospheric art style with volumetric lighting and subtle particle effects, the GTX 1660 SUPER’s raw power is more than adequate. The game does not require ray tracing or advanced AI features, so the absence of RT and Tensor cores is irrelevant here. The GPU’s 6 GB of VRAM is also not a limiting factor, as Inside’s texture sets are modest. The measured performance confirms this, with the GPU delivering playable frame rates even at 4K, which suggests that the game is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions and settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at how this combo performs across different resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combo delivers exceptional performance. On Low settings, it achieves an average of 216 FPS. This number drops significantly as settings are increased, but remains excellent: 173 FPS on Medium (with a minimum of 147 FPS and a maximum of 199 FPS), 108 FPS on High, and 103 FPS on Ultra. These figures indicate that at 1080p, the system is rarely stressed, and even Ultra settings provide a frame rate that is well above the refresh rate of most monitors.

Moving up to 2560x1440, the performance scales predictably. Low settings yield an average of 156 FPS, which is still incredibly smooth. Medium settings drop to 125 FPS (with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS), High settings produce 78 FPS, and Ultra settings result in 74 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p shows a clear performance hit, but the system remains very playable, with all settings except Ultra still exceeding 100 FPS. The 4K resolution (3840x2160) is where the limits of the GTX 1660 SUPER start to show. Low settings achieve 98 FPS, which is still good, but Medium drops to 78 FPS (with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS), High falls to 49 FPS, and Ultra dips to 47 FPS. While these figures are lower, they are still technically playable, though the experience at High and Ultra would not be as fluid as at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic pattern of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p Low, the system produces 216 FPS, but this drops to 156 FPS at 1440p Low and 98 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 28% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 55% drop from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is similar on Medium settings, where 173 FPS at 1080p falls to 125 FPS at 1440p (a 28% drop) and 78 FPS at 4K (a 55% drop). This consistent percentage drop across settings strongly suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases.

The CPU’s role is more evident at lower resolutions where the frame rates are extremely high. At 1080p Low, the 216 FPS figure indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough data to reach this level, but the GPU is still not the bottleneck at this point. However, as the resolution increases, the pixel fill rate demand on the GPU grows quadratically, and the GTX 1660 SUPER’s 85.68 GPixel/s pixel rate becomes the constraining factor. The fact that the FPS drops by roughly the same percentage on Low and Medium settings as resolution increases confirms that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting. The CPU’s 4.10 GHz boost clock and six cores are sufficient to keep up, but they are not the reason for the performance degradation; that is purely a function of the GPU’s rendering capabilities.

FAQ

*Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the GTX 1660 SUPER in Inside?*

A: No. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 216 FPS, which is a very high frame rate. The CPU’s six cores and 4.10 GHz boost clock are sufficient to feed the GPU. The performance drop when moving to higher resolutions is consistent with a GPU bottleneck, not a CPU limitation.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 60 FPS target at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers an average of 78 FPS, and Ultra delivers 74 FPS. Both of these settings comfortably exceed a 60 FPS target. Even the Medium preset, at 125 FPS, is far above the target, so users have significant headroom.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Inside?*

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Low, the average FPS is 98, which is smooth. At 4K Medium, it drops to 78 FPS, which is still playable. However, at 4K High (49 FPS) and 4K Ultra (47 FPS), the frame rate dips below 60 FPS, which may not be ideal for all players.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to the AMD Radeon RX 580 in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The average benchmark score for the GTX 1660 SUPER is 12986, while the Radeon RX 580 scores 12928. This makes the GTX 1660 SUPER 0.4% faster in this specific comparison, indicating that they are virtually identical in raw compute performance.

Q: Is the CPU’s performance closer to the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 or the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500?

A: The i5-9400’s average score is 2254. The Core i7-1068NG7 scores 2259, which is 0.2% higher, while the Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246, which is 0.4% lower. The i5-9400 is essentially in the middle, with a negligible difference from both.

Q: Does the 6 GB of VRAM on the GTX 1660 SUPER cause any issues at 4K resolution?

A: The measured data shows no indication of VRAM-related stuttering or performance collapse. At 4K Medium, the minimum FPS is 66, which suggests that the 6 GB of VRAM is sufficient for Inside’s texture and memory requirements at this resolution and settings level.