Inside

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces exceptionally high frame rates in Inside, a 2D puzzle platformer that is far more demanding on the CPU than the GPU at high refresh rates. Across all tested settings and resolutions, the combo never drops below 143 frames per second, making the experience exceptionally smooth on any display. The data indicates that the "Ultra" preset at 2560x1440 is the optimal choice for most users, delivering 228.5 frames per second while providing the maximum visual fidelity the game offers. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset yields 277 frames per second, still far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. The "High" preset at 3840x2160 is the best option for 4K displays, achieving 154.1 frames per second, which is a significant step up from the 143 frames per second of the Ultra preset at the same resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results present a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the gap between Low and Ultra is substantial: the Low preset achieves 369 frames per second, while Ultra still manages 277 frames per second. The difference between High and Ultra at this resolution is minimal, with only 4.5 frames per second separating them (281.5 vs 277). Given that the visual improvements from High to Ultra are often subtle in a game with Inside's monochromatic art style, the High preset offers the best balance of image quality and performance headroom. However, since even the Ultra preset at 1080p produces 277 frames per second, there is no practical reason to sacrifice visual quality unless targeting a 360Hz display, where the Low preset's 369 frames per second would be the only setting capable of saturating such a panel.

At 2560x1440, the "Ultra" preset stands out as the recommended choice. It achieves 228.5 frames per second, which is comfortably above the 144Hz refresh rate of most high-refresh monitors, and it exceeds the 240Hz threshold by a slim margin. The Medium preset at this resolution delivers 305.3 frames per second, but the difference between Medium and Ultra is only 76.8 frames per second, a gap that is imperceptible on a 144Hz display. The High preset at 1440p produces 240.3 frames per second, which is nearly identical to the Ultra preset's performance. For users with a 240Hz monitor, the Ultra preset at 1440p is the clear winner, as it provides the maximum visual settings while still hitting the refresh rate ceiling.

At 3840x2160, the picture changes significantly. The Ultra preset drops to 143 frames per second, which is still excellent but represents a 37.4% performance penalty compared to the High preset's 154.1 frames per second. The Medium preset at 4K produces 245.4 frames per second, while Low reaches 282.4 frames per second. For 4K displays, the High preset is the optimal choice, as it delivers 154.1 frames per second—well above the 120Hz standard for high-end 4K panels—while retaining most of the visual enhancements. The Ultra preset at 4K is only recommended for users with a 144Hz display who prioritize image quality over the slight frame rate advantage of High, though the difference of 11.1 frames per second is unlikely to be noticeable in this game's slow-paced gameplay.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a monolithic powerhouse, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process node. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a massive 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is far more than a 2D puzzle platformer could ever utilize. The GPU's base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz are the primary drivers of its raw compute performance. With 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines, the RTX 5090 has a theoretical peak of 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. In Inside, the GPU is severely underutilized; the benchmark results show that even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate is 143 frames per second, likely constrained by the CPU rather than the GPU. The GPU's 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores are irrelevant for this game, which uses no ray-traced effects or AI-based upscaling.

The RTX 5090's performance in synthetic benchmarks places it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, scores 84,241, a mere 0.1% difference. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 trails by 1.3% with a score of 83,209, while the NVIDIA CMP 40HX is 1.6% ahead at 85,637. In Inside, the GPU's massive memory bandwidth and texture fill rate are entirely wasted; the game's simple 2D sprites and low-poly geometry place negligible load on the rendering pipeline. The data shows that the GPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution or setting, as the frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution, suggesting a CPU-limited scenario even at 4K.

FAQ

*Q: What is the maximum frame rate achievable with this combo in Inside?*

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 369 frames per second at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. At the more practical Ultra preset, the maximum is 277 frames per second at 1920x1080.

*Q: Is the RTX 5090 overkill for a game like Inside?*

A: Yes, the benchmark data suggests the GPU is heavily underutilized. The frame rates are so high that even at 4K Ultra, the combo produces 143 frames per second, indicating that the CPU is likely the limiting factor, not the GPU.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves 240.3 frames per second, while Ultra is nearly identical at 228.5 frames per second. The 11.8 frames per second difference is imperceptible on most displays, making Ultra the recommended choice for maximum visual quality.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K at high refresh rates?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers 154.1 frames per second, which is above the 144Hz refresh rate of high-end 4K monitors. The Ultra preset drops to 143 frames per second, which is still viable for 144Hz displays but leaves less headroom.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: The Low preset at 3840x2160 achieves 282.4 frames per second, while Ultra produces 143 frames per second. This represents a 49.3% reduction in frame rate when switching from the lowest to the highest settings.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM matter for this game?

A: No, Inside is a 2D puzzle platformer with minimal texture memory requirements. The GPU's massive 32 GB GDDR7 memory pool is entirely irrelevant for this title, as the game's assets are far too small to stress even a fraction of that capacity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 45th out of 1,671 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the top 2.7% of all configurations, which reflects the raw power of both components. The high rank is primarily driven by the CPU's 12 cores and 20 threads, which provide substantial single-threaded performance that is critical for this game's physics and logic. The i7-12700K's boost clock of 5.00 GHz is the key factor, as Inside relies heavily on a single primary thread for game logic, with secondary threads handling audio and rendering. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 1,043 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,128 indicate excellent per-core performance, which directly translates to the high frame rates observed.

The RTX 5090's contribution to this rank is minimal, as the GPU is not a bottleneck. The combo's position at 45th out of 1,671 is likely determined by the CPU's ability to feed frames to the GPU, which is exceptional given the i7-12700K's performance. The CPU's average benchmark score of 35,684 places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, scoring 35,802 (0.3% higher). The Intel Core i7-13700T trails by 0.6% with a score of 35,468, while the Intel Core i5-14500HX is 0.7% behind at 35,940. These marginal differences in synthetic benchmarks are amplified in Inside, where the i7-12700K's 5.00 GHz boost clock provides a decisive advantage in the game's CPU-bound scenarios.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It features a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 25 MB L3 cache. In Inside, the CPU's role is paramount, as the game's 2D physics and puzzle logic are heavily single-threaded. The high boost clock of 5.00 GHz is the primary factor driving the frame rates, as the game cannot utilize more than a few threads effectively. The CPU's 3DMark performance in 2-thread tests (2,065) and 4-thread tests (4,011) demonstrates strong scaling, but the single-thread score of 1,043 is the most relevant metric for this game.

The i7-12700K's PassMark single-thread score of 4,013 places it in the upper echelon of CPUs, and its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,128 confirms its strength. In Inside, the CPU's performance is so high that the GPU is never the limiting factor, even at 4K Ultra. The benchmark data shows that the frame rate scales modestly with resolution: at 1920x1080 Ultra, the combo produces 277 frames per second, while at 3840x2160 Ultra, it produces 143 frames per second. This 48.4% drop in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K suggests that the GPU is beginning to become a factor at higher resolutions, but the CPU's single-threaded performance remains the dominant constraint. The CPU's 20 threads are largely unused, as the game's engine does not scale beyond a few threads, making the i7-12700K's high clock speed more valuable than its core count. The CPU's memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 allows for flexible system configuration, though the dual-channel memory bus is sufficient for this game's modest bandwidth requirements.