Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer with a deliberately minimalist visual style, yet the benchmark data for the Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the Intel Arc B390 shows that achieving high frame rates is not automatic. The combination of a high-end 12th Gen processor with an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture produces a wide performance spread depending on the settings and resolution chosen. The measured results indicate that this specific configuration ranks in the 2547th position out of 2887 tested combos, placing it in the lower tier of overall system performance for this title. The data reveals a system that can handle the game at playable speeds, but only when the graphical load is carefully managed, as the integrated GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher quality presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Inside with this CPU and GPU combo?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 provides the most fluid experience, with an average of 156 FPS at Low settings and 125 FPS at Medium settings. At 2560x1440, performance drops to 112 FPS on Low, while 3840x2160 only reaches 70 FPS on Low, making 1080p the most reliable choice for high refresh rates.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of average FPS?

A: The Ultra preset consistently yields the lowest average FPS across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 74 FPS compared to High's 78 FPS. The gap widens at higher resolutions, with Ultra averaging 53 FPS at 2560x1440 versus 56 FPS on High, and 34 FPS at 3840x2160 versus 35 FPS on High, indicating a marginal difference between these two settings.

Q: Is the Intel Arc B390 a dedicated graphics card?

A: No, the Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a slot width of "IGP" and a bus interface of "IGP". It relies on System Shared memory, meaning its performance is dependent on the system's main memory bandwidth and capacity rather than dedicated VRAM.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Medium settings at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset provides an average of 112 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 90 FPS. This represents a 22 FPS drop, or roughly a 20% reduction in average frame rate, when moving from the lowest to the medium quality settings.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance in this game at 1080p?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700K has 12 cores and 20 threads with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and its benchmark scores are high, such as 19,784 in Cinebench R23 multicore. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K suggests the GPU is the limiting factor, as the frame rate drops significantly with resolution, indicating the CPU is likely not the primary constraint at lower resolutions.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all other tested systems for Inside?

A: The combo rank in game is 2547 out of 2887 tested combinations. This places it in the bottom percentile of systems, specifically around the 12th percentile, indicating that most other CPU and GPU pairings tested deliver higher average frame rates for this title.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the graphics engine for this configuration, and its specifications define the boundaries of performance in Inside. It is built on the 3 nm process with the Panther Lake chip, featuring 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation units. The GPU has a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. Its FP32 performance is rated at 7.680 TFLOPS, which provides a baseline for its computational capability.

Crucially, the B390 uses System Shared memory for both its memory type and size, with a bus width also listed as System Shared. This means there is no dedicated VRAM; instead, the GPU accesses the system's main memory, making bandwidth "System Dependent". This architecture has a profound impact on performance, as the lack of dedicated video memory can lead to contention with the CPU for memory access. The benchmark data for the GPU shows a single score of 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX and the GeForce 800M, with delta percentages of 1.3% and 1.5% respectively, indicating that its raw compute performance is comparable to entry-level mobile parts from over a decade ago.

In the context of Inside, the GPU's role is to handle the rendering of the game's 2.5D side-scrolling environments, lighting effects, and post-processing. The measured FPS data shows that the B390 can manage the game, but with significant limitations. At 1920x1080, the average frame rate ranges from 156 FPS on Low to 74 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p results in a 31 FPS drop (from 156 to 125 FPS), indicating that the GPU is sensitive to increases in shading complexity and texture filtering. The difference between High and Ultra is smaller, with only a 4 FPS drop (from 78 to 74 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset adds effects that are not as taxing relative to the High preset's baseline. The data shows that the GPU's performance is the primary limiter, as the frame rate scales inversely with resolution and settings, which is a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the user's target resolution and desired smoothness. For a 60 FPS experience, the data shows that the Medium preset is the highest quality setting that consistently delivers above 60 FPS at 1080p, with an average of 125 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 90 FPS, which is still comfortable for 60 Hz displays. However, at 3840x2160, the Medium preset drops to an average of 56 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

For users prioritizing a high refresh rate experience, the Low preset is the only viable option. At 1920x1080, Low averages 156 FPS, which is suitable for 144 Hz monitors. At 2560x1440, Low averages 112 FPS, which is still good for 100 Hz+ displays. The Ultra preset offers no tangible benefit over High in terms of frame rate, as the difference is only 3-4 FPS at each resolution, but it does not provide a playable experience at 4K, with an average of 34 FPS.

The best experience per the measured rows is achieved with the Medium preset at 1920x1080. This setting provides a high average FPS of 125, with a minimum FPS of 106 and a maximum of 144, ensuring smooth gameplay without the visual degradation of the Low preset. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is also a strong choice, with an average of 90 FPS and a minimum of 76 FPS, which is adequate for most displays. The High and Ultra presets are not recommended for 4K, as they result in average FPS of 35 and 34 respectively, which are below the threshold for comfortable play.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at how the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B390 handle Inside across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low averages 156 FPS, Medium averages 125 FPS with a minimum of 106 and a maximum of 144, High averages 78 FPS, and Ultra averages 74 FPS. The progression shows a significant drop from Low to Medium, a further drop from Medium to High, and a modest decline from High to Ultra.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 112 for Low, 90 for Medium (with a minimum of 76 and maximum of 103), 56 for High, and 53 for Ultra. Compared to 1080p, this represents a reduction of 44 FPS for Low, 35 FPS for Medium, 22 FPS for High, and 21 FPS for Ultra. The absolute FPS drops are smaller at higher settings, but the percentage drop is more uniform, indicating a scaling factor related to pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the performance degrades further: Low averages 70 FPS, Medium averages 56 FPS (with a minimum of 48 and maximum of 65), High averages 35 FPS, and Ultra averages 34 FPS. The Low preset is the only one that remains above 60 FPS at this resolution, while Medium is just below. The High and Ultra presets are essentially unplayable, with average FPS in the low 30s. The minimum FPS data for the Medium preset shows a consistent pattern, with 106 at 1080p, 76 at 1440p, and 48 at 4K, demonstrating that the frame pacing degrades as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling of FPS from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 provides insight into the limiting component of this system. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 156 at 1080p to 112 at 1440p, a 28% reduction, and then to 70 at 4K, a further 38% reduction from 1440p. This steep decline is a clear indicator that the GPU is the bottleneck, as the workload on the graphics processor increases with the number of pixels rendered.

For the Medium preset, the average FPS goes from 125 at 1080p to 90 at 1440p (a 28% drop) and then to 56 at 4K (a 38% drop from 1440p). The High preset shows a similar trend, with 78 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p (a 28% drop), and 35 FPS at 4K (a 38% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across different settings suggests that the scaling is primarily resolution-driven, rather than being affected by the quality preset.

The data shows that the Intel Arc B390's performance is heavily constrained by pixel throughput. The transition from 1080p to 1440p increases the pixel count by 78%, but the FPS drops by only 28-30%, indicating that the GPU is not purely pixel-bound at this stage. However, the transition from 1440p to 4K increases the pixel count by another 125%, and the FPS drops by 38%, which is close to the theoretical limit if the GPU were fully saturated. This pattern implies that at 1080p, the system may have some headroom, but by 4K, the GPU is working at its maximum capacity, with the shared memory architecture likely contributing to the performance ceiling.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a high-end desktop processor from the Alder Lake architecture, featuring 12 cores and 20 threads. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 25 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache. Its benchmark scores are strong, including a 3DMark 16-thread score of 9276 and a single-thread score of 1043. In Cinebench R23, it scores 19,784 in multicore and 1850.5 in single-core tests. Its average benchmark score is 35,287, placing it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs.

In the context of Inside, a puzzle platformer that is not known for demanding CPU physics or complex AI, the i7-12700K's processing power is more than sufficient. The game's engine likely relies on a single or few threads for its core logic, and the processor's single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1043 and Geekbench single-core score of 2308, ensures that the game logic will not be a bottleneck. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i5-13600T and Core i7-13700T, have delta percentages of -0.1% and -0.3% respectively, showing that the i7-12700K is in a tight performance cluster with these parts.

The measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this configuration. The frame rates scale directly with resolution and settings, which are GPU-dependent variables. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar FPS across different resolutions at the same settings. Instead, the FPS drops significantly from 1080p to 4K, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint. The CPU's high core count and clock speeds ensure that it can feed the GPU with draw calls and game state updates without becoming a performance ceiling, even at the lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined performance of the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B390 in Inside is reflected in its combo rank of 2547 out of 2887 tested combinations. This places the system in the bottom 12% of all tested hardware pairings. This low rank is primarily attributable to the GPU's weak performance, as the CPU is in the 84th percentile of all processors. The data shows a stark contrast between the high-end CPU and the entry-level integrated GPU, which creates an unbalanced system for gaming.

The GPU's 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1482, drags down the overall combo performance. In comparison, the CPU's average benchmark score of 35,287 is nearly 24 times higher than the GPU's score, highlighting the disparity. The nearest GPU rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX and GeForce 800M, have scores of 1463 and 1460 respectively, which are within 2% of the Arc B390's score. These are legacy parts that are not designed for modern gaming, and the data confirms that the Arc B390 is in the same performance class.

For Inside specifically, the combo's rank of 2547 suggests that most other systems can achieve higher frame rates. The measured FPS data supports this, as even at 1080p Low, the system only averages 156 FPS, while many dedicated GPUs would likely exceed this. The high rank of the CPU does not compensate for the GPU's limitations, and the overall experience is constrained by the integrated graphics solution. This ranking serves as a clear indicator that while the i7-12700K is a powerful processor, the Intel Arc B390 is not suitable for gaming beyond basic settings and lower resolutions.