Inside

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer that is anything but demanding by modern standards. The measured frame rates show that this combination is heavily GPU-limited at higher settings, yet the CPU’s six cores prove sufficient to push very high frame rates even at 1080p. The data reveals a clear hierarchy where resolution and preset level dictate performance more than any hardware bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, indicating that the RTX 3070 Ti is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 168.6 at 1920x1080 to 143.8 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 24.8 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average falls further to 89.2 FPS, which is a 47% decrease from the 1080p result. This pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario where the pixel throughput demand outpaces the card’s compute capacity.

The Low preset shows a different scaling curve. At 1080p, the average is 219.9 FPS, which is 51.3 FPS higher than the High preset at the same resolution. At 1440p, Low yields 196.7 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 171.8 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K for Low is 48.1 FPS, which is proportionally smaller than the High preset’s drop. This suggests that at Low settings, the CPU begins to play a more significant role, as the GPU has less work to do and the frame rate is increasingly constrained by the i5-9400’s six-thread throughput.

Ultra settings exhibit the most dramatic scaling. From 170.8 FPS at 1080p to 138.1 FPS at 1440p and finally 83.2 FPS at 4K, the degradation is linear and steep. The 4K Ultra result is 51% lower than the 1080p Ultra result, confirming that the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and GA104 chip are fully saturated at that resolution. Medium settings sit between the extremes, with 207.8 FPS at 1080p, 182.6 FPS at 1440p, and 145.5 FPS at 4K.

What the data indicates is that Inside’s visual complexity is low enough that even a mid-range CPU from 2018 can exceed 200 FPS at lower resolutions. The limiting component shifts entirely to the GPU as resolution climbs, with the 4K High result of 89.2 FPS being the only instance where the experience approaches anything below a high-refresh-rate threshold. The scaling pattern is smooth, with no anomalous jumps, suggesting a well-optimized engine that scales predictably with pixel count.

FAQ

Q: Does the Intel Core i5-9400 bottleneck the RTX 3070 Ti in this game?

A: Benchmark results show that at 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 219.9 FPS, which is the highest measured result. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 170.8 FPS. These figures indicate that the CPU is not a limiting factor at standard resolutions, as the GPU is still able to produce very high frame rates. The six-core, six-thread configuration appears sufficient for this title’s physics and scene complexity.

Q: What is the best resolution for a high-refresh-rate monitor?

A: For a 144 Hz display, the data shows that 1440p High yields 143.8 FPS, which is just below the threshold. 1080p High produces 168.6 FPS, comfortably exceeding 144 Hz. 1080p Medium reaches 207.8 FPS, and 1440p Medium hits 182.6 FPS. The 4K High result of 89.2 FPS is better suited to a 60 Hz panel.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 30849, placing it at the 74th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, scores 30755, which is 0.3% lower. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 scores 31112, a 0.8% advantage over the RTX 3070 Ti. These deltas are minimal, indicating near-identical raw compute performance among these cards.

Q: Is the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K in this game?

A: Yes, the measured data shows that 4K Ultra runs at 83.2 FPS, and 4K High runs at 89.2 FPS. The 8 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 256-bit bus and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth is not a constraint in Inside, as the game’s art style uses relatively simple textures. The frame rates remain above 80 FPS even at the highest preset.

Q: What is the CPU’s position relative to other processors?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2305, placing it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, scores 2300, a 0.2% difference. The Intel Core i7-8809G scores 2319, which is 0.6% higher. This places the i5-9400 at the exact midpoint of the performance distribution.

Q: Does the game benefit more from the CPU or GPU at 4K?

A: The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a clear GPU dependency. At High settings, the average drops from 143.8 FPS to 89.2 FPS, a 54.6 FPS reduction. This substantial decline indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti’s shading units (6144) and texture rate (339.8 GTexel/s) are the determining factors, not the CPU’s 2.90 GHz base clock or 4.10 GHz boost clock.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear path for optimizing the experience. For players targeting 60 FPS, every preset at every resolution exceeds that mark, with the lowest result being 83.2 FPS at 4K Ultra. This means that the Ultra preset is viable even at 3840x2160, delivering a smooth experience without compromise.

For 144 Hz displays, the best balance is found at 1440p High, which produces 143.8 FPS. This is nearly at the refresh rate ceiling and offers a visual quality improvement over Medium, which runs at 182.6 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 1440p is 5.7 FPS (143.8 vs 138.1), suggesting that Ultra is a minor cost for slightly better shadows and effects. However, the jump from High to Ultra at 4K is more punishing, with a 6 FPS difference (89.2 vs 83.2), which is negligible in real-world terms.

At 1080p, the data shows that Medium at 207.8 FPS is the sweet spot for esports-level responsiveness, though High at 168.6 FPS is still well above 144 Hz. Low settings at 1080p produce 219.9 FPS, but the visual downgrade is unnecessary given the GPU’s headroom. The recommendation is to use High as the baseline preset, as it provides a substantial visual uplift over Low with only a 51.3 FPS penalty at 1080p and 28.1 FPS penalty at 4K.

For players with 4K 60 Hz panels, Ultra is the only preset that pushes the GPU to its limits without exceeding the refresh rate, but High is more efficient. The 4K High result of 89.2 FPS leaves 29.2 FPS of headroom, which could be used for other tasks or simply to reduce fan noise. Medium at 4K (145.5 FPS) is overkill for a 60 Hz display, wasting GPU resources that could be allocated to higher fidelity.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 932 out of 1671 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the 56th percentile of all systems. This ranking is surprisingly mid-pack for a GPU that sits at the 74th percentile of all GPUs, indicating that the CPU is dragging the overall score down relative to other pairings. The i5-9400’s 50th percentile CPU ranking (2305 average score) is the weaker link, as many combos likely pair the RTX 3070 Ti with higher-end processors.

The data shows that the GPU alone scores 30849 on average, while the CPU scores 2305. The combo’s rank of 932 suggests that there are 739 combos that outperform it, likely due to superior CPUs rather than faster GPUs. The nearest CPU rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, is within 0.2% of the i5-9400’s score, but the GPU’s rivals are within 1.2%, meaning the performance hierarchy is tight at the component level. The combo’s mid-pack ranking is a reflection of the CPU’s age (released in 2018) relative to the GPU’s newer architecture (2021).

In practical terms, this rank means that the system will handle Inside exceptionally well, but there are faster combinations available. The 1671 total combos include many with more recent CPUs like the Core i3-1125G4 (which scores 2299, a 0.2% delta) or the Core i7-8809G (2319, 0.6% higher). These small CPU deltas translate into measurable frame rate differences at high FPS ranges, but the overall experience remains smooth due to the GPU’s dominance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, with its 8 GB of GDDR6X memory running at 19 Gbps effective and a 256-bit bus delivering 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is more than adequate for Inside, as evidenced by the 4K Ultra result of 83.2 FPS. The card’s GA104 chip, built on Samsung’s 8 nm process, contains 17,400 million transistors across a 392 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 44.4M per mm².

Clock speeds are modest at 1575 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost, which is lower than many newer cards, but the architecture’s efficiency compensates. The FP32 throughput is 21.75 TFLOPS, and the texture rate is 339.8 GTexel/s. These figures explain why the 4K High preset achieves 89.2 FPS, as the card’s 192 TMUs and 96 ROPs handle the game’s moderate texture loads without issue.

The GPU’s 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs (average score 30849) shows that it is positioned above the median, but its nearest rivals are very close. The AMD Radeon RX 590 GME is only 0.3% slower, and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 is just 0.8% faster. This tight clustering means that in Inside, the RTX 3070 Ti’s performance is representative of its class, but the game is so light that even a 0.8% difference translates to less than 2 FPS at 4K.

The card’s 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient, as the game’s maximum memory footprint does not exceed this limit. The memory clock of 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) provides the bandwidth needed for 4K textures, but the game’s art style—characterized by dark, atmospheric environments—does not stress the memory subsystem. The GPU’s role is purely to render the 2D side-scrolling scenes at high frame rates, which it does with significant headroom.