Inside

Inside, the 2016 puzzle platformer from Playdead, presents a unique challenge for the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 pairing. The benchmark data shows that this combination is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at lower resolutions, but the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a smooth transition where the RTX 4080 remains the dominant performance factor, while the six-core i5-9400 provides sufficient support without becoming a bottleneck in this specific title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is surprisingly modest given the RTX 4080's capabilities. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 171 FPS at 1920x1080 to 153 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 18 FPS, and then to 131 FPS at 3840x2160, another 22 FPS drop. This translates to a 23.4% decrease from 1080p to 4K at High settings, which is a relatively gentle curve for a game with such a stylized art style.

The Low settings row shows a steeper drop: 222 FPS at 1080p falls to 199 FPS at 1440p and then to 170 FPS at 4K. The absolute difference of 52 FPS between 1080p and 4K at Low settings indicates that the pixel throughput demands at 4K are substantial even when graphical features are minimized. Interestingly, the gap between High and Low at 4K is only 39 FPS (170 vs 131), while at 1080p the gap is 51 FPS (222 vs 171). This suggests that at 4K, the GPU's fill-rate and shading capabilities become the limiting factor, compressing the performance difference between presets.

The Medium preset provides the most complete data, with minimum and maximum frame rates recorded. At 1080p, the Medium preset shows 205 FPS average with a minimum of 174 and maximum of 235. Moving to 1440p, the average drops to 183 FPS with a range of 156 to 211. At 4K, the average is 157 FPS with a minimum of 133 and maximum of 181. The variance between minimum and maximum frame rates narrows slightly as resolution increases, from a 61 FPS spread at 1080p to a 48 FPS spread at 4K, indicating that the GPU's consistent output becomes more stable under higher load.

The Ultra preset shows the lowest overall performance, with 168 FPS at 1080p, 150 FPS at 1440p, and 126 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 42 FPS, which is a 25% reduction. This is nearly identical to the High preset's 23.4% reduction, suggesting that the additional effects in Ultra scale similarly with resolution. The data indicates that the RTX 4080 has enough headroom to push Inside well past 120 FPS at 4K even with Ultra settings, making the resolution scaling largely irrelevant for achieving smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate displays.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results point to the High preset as the optimal choice for most users, as it delivers 131 FPS at 4K, 153 FPS at 1440p, and 171 FPS at 1080p. The jump from High to Ultra only reduces performance by 5 FPS at 1080p, 3 FPS at 1440p, and 5 FPS at 4K, while the visual enhancements in Ultra are typically marginal for a game with Inside's muted color palette and atmospheric lighting. The data shows that High offers 96.4% of the Ultra performance at 1080p and 96.0% at 4K, making the trade-off almost negligible.

For users targeting maximum frame rates, the Low preset provides 222 FPS at 1080p and 170 FPS at 4K, which represents a 30% improvement over High at 1080p. However, the visual downgrade from Low settings in a puzzle platformer that relies heavily on moody, dimly lit environments could compromise the intended atmosphere. The Medium preset sits as a middle ground, offering 205 FPS at 1080p and 157 FPS at 4K, but its minimum frame rate at 4K of 133 FPS is actually lower than the High preset's average, suggesting that Medium might not provide a consistent experience.

The Ultra preset, while delivering 126 FPS at 4K, is the only setting that dips below the 130 FPS mark at the highest resolution. Given that the RTX 4080 is an 86th percentile GPU, the data suggests that High settings are the sweet spot for this hardware combination, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS at 4K and well above 144 FPS at 1080p. The Medium preset's recorded minimums are all above 130 FPS, which makes it a viable alternative for users who want a slight performance buffer, but High appears to be the most balanced choice.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K with high settings?

A: Yes, the measured data shows 131 FPS average at 3840x2160 with High settings, which is comfortably above 60 FPS and even exceeds 120 FPS for high-refresh-rate displays.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 171 FPS to 131 FPS, a 23.4% reduction. At Low settings, the drop is from 222 FPS to 170 FPS, a 23.4% reduction as well.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 overkill for this game?

A: The GPU is ranked in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, and the lowest recorded average frame rate across all tested settings and resolutions is 126 FPS at 4K Ultra. This indicates the card has substantial headroom for this title.

Q: What is the best setting for the highest stable frame rate?

A: The Low preset at 1080p delivers 222 FPS average. If visual quality is a concern, the High preset at 1080p still provides 171 FPS with only a 51 FPS difference.

Q: Are there any frame rate minimums below 60 FPS?

A: No. The lowest recorded minimum frame rate across all data points is 133 FPS at 4K Medium settings, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does this combo's performance rank among all tested systems?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 and RTX 4080 combination is ranked 1789 out of 3716 tested combinations for Inside, placing it in the upper half of all configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the benchmark data shows a clear hierarchy across presets. The Low setting produces the highest average frame rate at 222 FPS, followed by Medium at 205 FPS, High at 171 FPS, and Ultra at 168 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 174 FPS and maximum of 235 FPS show a 61 FPS spread, indicating some variability in scene complexity. The difference between High and Ultra at this resolution is only 3 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not particularly demanding.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same ordering persists. Low leads with 199 FPS, Medium follows at 183 FPS, High at 153 FPS, and Ultra at 150 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum and maximum are 156 and 211 FPS, respectively, with a 55 FPS spread. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is most pronounced for the High preset, which loses 18 FPS, while Low only loses 23 FPS. This indicates that the pixel count increase affects each preset similarly, but the absolute performance headroom of Low settings absorbs the impact better.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals that Ultra settings drop to 126 FPS, High to 131 FPS, Medium to 157 FPS, and Low to 170 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum is 133 FPS and maximum is 181 FPS, showing a 48 FPS spread. Notably, the gap between High and Ultra at 4K is 5 FPS, which is slightly larger than at lower resolutions, indicating that the Ultra preset's effects have a more significant impact at higher pixel counts. The Low settings at 4K still deliver 170 FPS, which is higher than the High preset at 1080p, demonstrating the GPU's massive performance headroom in this game.

The overall pattern across all resolutions shows that the RTX 4080 maintains a minimum of 126 FPS even in the most demanding configuration (4K Ultra), and the worst-case minimum frame rate recorded is 133 FPS at 4K Medium. This makes the system capable of driving high-refresh-rate monitors at any setting combination tested.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the clear performance driver in this game. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 256-bit memory bus provide 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a game like Inside that uses relatively simple textures and geometry. The 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54247, places it just 0.1% behind the RTX 4080 SUPER and 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X. The nearest rival data shows a very tight grouping, with the RTX 4080 sitting between the RTX 4080 SUPER and the RX 6750 GRE 12 GB.

The GPU's clock speeds of 2205 MHz base and 2505 MHz boost are high for a 5 nm Ada Lovelace chip, and the 9728 shading units combined with 304 texture mapping units and 112 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s. This raw throughput explains why the game can achieve 170 FPS at 4K Low settings, as the pixel workload is the primary constraint at higher resolutions. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is never the limiting factor at 1080p, where even Ultra settings achieve 168 FPS, but at 4K the scaling from Low to Ultra (170 to 126 FPS) indicates the GPU's shading and rasterization units are being fully utilized.

The RTX 4080's 320 W TDP and triple-slot cooler are substantial, but the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6567 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 263779 demonstrate its computational capability. In Inside, the GPU's performance is so far beyond the game's requirements that the primary benefit is the ability to run at 4K with all settings maxed while still exceeding 120 FPS. The RTX 4080's launch MSRP is 1,199 USD, and its position in the 86th percentile of all GPUs confirms that it is a high-end solution that dominates this particular title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 plays a secondary but essential role in this configuration. With 6 cores and 6 threads running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, this Coffee Lake Refresh processor is not a high-end part, ranking in the 47th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 2254. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, scores 2259, a 0.2% difference, while the Core i7-10710U scores 2248, a 0.3% difference. These margins are negligible, indicating that the i5-9400 is solidly mid-range.

The CPU's single-core performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 at 935 points, is adequate for a game like Inside that does not rely heavily on multi-threaded physics or complex AI. The multi-core score of 6629 in Cinebench R23 suggests that even if the game were to utilize all six threads, there is sufficient headroom. However, the measured FPS data shows that the i5-9400 is not a bottleneck at any resolution or setting. At 1080p Low, the GPU achieves 222 FPS, and the fact that this number drops to 170 FPS at 4K Low confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor, not the CPU.

The CPU's 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide 42.7 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for the game's data requirements. The fact that the i5-9400 was released in 2018 and is now end-of-life, with a 65 W TDP, means it is a modest component, but the benchmark results show it does not hinder the RTX 4080 in this specific game. The data indicates that the frame rates are entirely GPU-bound, and the i5-9400's 47th percentile ranking does not translate to any measurable performance penalty in Inside, as evidenced by the consistent FPS across all tested configurations.