Inside

The data for Inside with the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER shows a title that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet reveals a subtle CPU dependency at 1080p. The game, a Puzzle Platformer released in 2016, presents a unique scaling curve where the frame rate ceiling is exceptionally high, but the performance gap between settings narrows as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic resolution-scaling pattern, but with a notable twist specific to this game's engine. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 with High settings yields a drop from 172.1 FPS to 155.4 FPS, a reduction of approximately 16.7 FPS. The subsequent jump to 3840x2160 at High settings produces a more significant decline to 117.5 FPS, a further 37.9 FPS loss. This indicates that the GPU's rendering load scales predictably with pixel count, but the absolute frame rates remain high enough to suggest the RTX 4070 SUPER is never fully saturated at 1080p.

The most telling observation comes from the Low settings data. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 219.9 FPS, which is only 47.8 FPS higher than the 4K Low result of 168.3 FPS. This relatively small absolute delta—a 23.5% reduction—contrasts sharply with the High settings delta of 31.7%. The implication is that at Low settings, the CPU begins to assert a limiting influence at 1080p, preventing the GPU from fully flexing its capabilities. Conversely, at 4K, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck, as evidenced by the fact that the gap between Low and Ultra settings compresses from 51.2 FPS at 1080p (219.9 vs 168.7) to just 58.2 FPS at 4K (168.3 vs 110.1). This compression suggests that the pixel fill rate and shading complexity at 4K dominate the GPU's time, diminishing the impact of lower-level settings that reduce CPU draw-call overhead.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest recorded average is 219.9 FPS when using Low settings at 1920x1080. For Ultra settings at the same resolution, the average drops to 168.7 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested systems for this game?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 and RTX 4070 SUPER combination ranks 876th out of 1671 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the middle of the distribution.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at 3840x2160. The difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K is 58.2 FPS (168.3 vs 110.1), showing that GPU load scales heavily with settings, whereas the CPU's 6-core configuration is sufficient to feed the GPU at these high pixel counts.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings produce an average of 181.0 FPS, while High settings yield 155.4 FPS. This represents a 25.6 FPS advantage for Medium settings.

Q: Does the RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB memory capacity appear to limit performance in this game?

A: No, the benchmark data shows no evidence of memory capacity limits. The game's frame rates remain high even at 4K Ultra (110.1 FPS), indicating that the 12 GB GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for this title.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark score compare to its closest rival?

A: The Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2305, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i3-10305's score of 2300, and 0.4% higher than the Intel Xeon E-2134's 2295.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide adequate bandwidth for a game of Inside's scope. In synthetic Cinebench tests, the CPU scores 7969 in R23 multi-core and 1125 in R23 single-core, placing it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals—the Core i3-10305, Core i3-1125G4, and Xeon E-2134—all score within a 0.6% delta, confirming that the i5-9400's compute power is average for its generation.

In this game, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions and lower settings. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 219.9 FPS, but this is only 20.7% higher than the 4K Low result (168.3 FPS). If the GPU were the sole bottleneck, the 1080p result would be substantially higher, as the pixel count is four times lower. The fact that it is not suggests that the CPU's 6 threads and 4.10 GHz boost clock cap the frame rate around the 220 FPS mark in less demanding scenes. However, the CPU is not a serious liability; even at 1440p Low, the system maintains 197.4 FPS, indicating that the processor can comfortably sustain high refresh rates. The data shows that the i5-9400 is a balanced partner for the RTX 4070 SUPER, providing enough headroom for most settings but revealing its age when the GPU is underutilized.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a clear matrix of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 219.9 at Low to 168.7 at Ultra. The progression is 219.9 (Low), 206.7 (Medium), 172.1 (High), and 168.7 (Ultra). The step from Medium to High is the largest single jump at this resolution, a 34.6 FPS decline, while the High to Ultra drop is only 3.4 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 197.4 (Low), 181.0 (Medium), 155.4 (High), and 151.6 (Ultra). The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is a 22.5 FPS drop, but at Ultra settings, the drop is only 17.1 FPS. This suggests that the game's Ultra preset includes effects that are more computationally expensive relative to the resolution change, such as post-processing that scales with screen space.

At 3840x2160, the results are 168.3 (Low), 155.2 (Medium), 117.5 (High), and 110.1 (Ultra). The most dramatic reduction occurs between Medium and High at 4K, a 37.7 FPS drop, which mirrors the 1080p pattern but with a larger absolute difference. This indicates that the High preset introduces significant GPU workload, likely through higher-resolution textures and more complex shading. The Ultra preset adds only a marginal 7.4 FPS penalty over High at 4K, suggesting diminishing returns for the highest settings. Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently delivers the highest frame rates, with 4K Low outperforming 1080p High by 3.8 FPS (168.3 vs 172.1), a counterintuitive result that highlights the game's engine scaling.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the i5-9400 and RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 876th out of 1671 tested combinations for Inside, placing it in the 52.4th percentile of all systems. This middle-of-the-pack ranking is somewhat surprising given the GPU's high performance—the RTX 4070 SUPER sits in the 84th percentile of all GPUs and has an average benchmark score of 42576, which is 0.2% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and 1.6% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla M40. The CPU, however, drags the overall ranking down; its 50th percentile standing means it is exactly average, and its nearest rival, the Core i7-8809G, scores 0.6% higher.

The ranking implies that while the GPU is capable of exceptional frame rates, the CPU's modest multi-threaded performance limits the system's overall score in the game's benchmark. Notably, the combo's measured FPS at 4K Ultra (110.1 FPS) is still highly playable, but the ranking reflects that many other systems with stronger CPUs achieve higher average scores. The 876th rank suggests that this pairing is not optimal for maximizing the game's frame rate ceiling, but it is far from a poor performer. The data shows that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting, as evidenced by its 84th percentile standing, while the CPU's 6 cores are adequate but not exceptional. For a title like Inside, which is not CPU-intensive in its logic, the ranking is likely influenced more by the GPU's raw throughput, but the CPU's inability to push frame rates beyond 220 FPS at 1080p Low is a tangible limit that affects the final score.