Inside

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 delivers an exceptionally strong performance profile in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings are high, indicating that this combination is far beyond what the game demands. The data shows a clear pattern where the GPU becomes the primary scaling factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU's robust single-thread performance ensures no bottlenecks at lower settings. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to explain the component dynamics, optimal settings, and overall ranking of this combo.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario, particularly at higher quality presets. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 218.4 at 1920x1080 to 158.0 at 2560x1440, and further to 97.8 at 3840x2160. This represents a significant 55% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K, illustrating that the Radeon RX 9070's rendering workload scales directly with pixel count. The Ultra preset follows a similar trajectory: 204.1 FPS at 1080p, 146.1 at 1440p, and 95.7 at 4K. The consistency of this scaling suggests that the GPU's compute units and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors at these settings, rather than any CPU constraint.

However, the scaling behavior changes dramatically when lower settings are selected. At Low settings, the frame rate at 1080p is 365.4, which drops to 312.8 at 1440p and 196.4 at 4K. The relative drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 14%, indicating that the CPU is starting to play a more significant role at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work to do. The jump from 1440p to 4K at Low settings still shows a 37% decrease, which shows that even a powerful GPU like the RX 9070 has limits when pushing 8.3 million pixels. The Medium preset shows an intermediate pattern: 337.1 FPS at 1080p, 250.7 at 1440p, and 155.1 at 4K.

The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p with Low or Medium settings, the Intel Core i7-12700KF is likely the limiting component, as the GPU is capable of producing frame rates well above what most displays can show. At 4K, regardless of settings, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 100.7 FPS (196.4 vs 95.7), which shows the substantial impact of graphical fidelity on rendering load. For a game like Inside, which has a distinctive monochromatic art style with dynamic lighting, the scaling suggests that the visual effects at higher presets are computationally expensive, but the hardware handles them admirably at all tested resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured data, the Ultra preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, delivering an average of 146.1 FPS. This frame rate is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and provides headroom for any potential frame time spikes. Pushing to 4K Ultra drops to 95.7 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 35% reduction compared to 1440p. For players with 4K displays, the High preset is the recommended choice, as it maintains 97.8 FPS while likely sacrificing only minor shadow or reflection details compared to Ultra.

At 1080p, the Ultra preset operates at 204.1 FPS, which is far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors, making it the obvious choice for this resolution. The data shows that even the most demanding settings cannot stress this combo at 1080p, as the GPU is never the limiting factor here. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 337.1 FPS, which is excessive for any practical display, and the difference between Medium and Ultra (133 FPS) is not worth the potential visual downgrade. For competitive play or maximum responsiveness, Low at 1440p (312.8 FPS) could be considered, but the visual style of Inside benefits from higher quality shadows and ambient occlusion, which are typically tied to the preset level.

The measured rows suggest that High is the "sweet spot" preset across all resolutions. At 4K, it provides a 2.1 FPS advantage over Ultra while likely maintaining most of the visual features. At 1440p, High's 158.0 FPS is 8% faster than Ultra, which could be decisive for maintaining a stable frame rate on high-refresh-rate displays. The performance gap between High and Medium at 4K is 62.6 FPS, indicating that High settings are not overly demanding and leave performance on the table compared to Medium. Ultimately, the recommendation is to use High for 4K, Ultra for 1440p and 1080p, as the GPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070, built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 48 chip, is the primary driver of frame rates at higher resolutions. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the textures and effects in Inside even at 4K. The GPU's boost clock of 2520 MHz and game clock of 2070 MHz allow it to sustain high throughput, as evidenced by the 97.8 FPS average at 4K High settings. The PassMark G3D score of 25381 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6290 place this GPU in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, confirming its high-end positioning.

The GPU's 3584 shading units and 128 ROPs are key to its pixel-pushing capability, with a pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s. This allows the card to maintain high fill rates even at 4K, which is critical for a game with Inside's distinctive visual style that relies on heavy use of post-processing effects and lighting. The FP32 performance of 36.13 TFLOPS provides ample compute power for the game's physics and rendering calculations. The measured performance at 4K Ultra (95.7 FPS) suggests that the GPU is nearly saturated, as the difference between High and Ultra at this resolution is only 2.1 FPS, indicating that the additional settings in Ultra are not the primary cost.

The GPU's nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, include the NVIDIA A2 (deltaPct of -0.2%), the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (deltaPct of 0.3%), and the older AMD Radeon HD 7970 (deltaPct of 0.7%). These deltas are minimal, showing that the RX 9070 sits in a specific performance tier, but its modern feature set and 16 GB VRAM make it far more suitable for contemporary games than these older or specialized cards. The effective memory speed of 20.1 Gbps is critical for avoiding bandwidth bottlenecks, and the data shows that even at 4K, the card is not bandwidth-limited, as Low settings still achieve 196.4 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this combination of Intel Core i7-12700KF and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 398th out of 1671 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the top 24% of all configurations, which is a strong showing for a system that is not the absolute latest generation. The rank reflects the balanced nature of the pairing, where neither component severely bottlenecks the other. The high rank is particularly notable given that Inside is a relatively lightweight game, meaning that many lower-end GPUs can achieve playable frame rates, making the differentiation between high-end combos less pronounced.

The combo's rank is primarily driven by the GPU's 4K performance, as the CPU's contribution is less critical at lower resolutions. The 89th percentile ranking of the CPU versus all CPUs and the 79th percentile of the GPU versus all GPUs combine to produce a system that is well above average. The rank of 398 out of 1671 suggests that there are 397 combos that perform better, which likely include newer GPUs like the RX 9070's successors or higher-end models with more compute units. However, for the specific task of playing Inside, the measured frame rates show that this combo never drops below 95.7 FPS at any setting, making it capable of delivering an excellent experience.

The measured data being marked as "true" indicates that these results are from actual hardware testing, not estimations. This lends credibility to the ranking and suggests that the combo's position is accurate relative to other tested systems. The rank could be higher if the GPU had a higher percentile score, but the RX 9070's 79th percentile is respectable. The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals are all within 0.3%, showing that the i7-12700KF is comparable to modern mid-range CPUs, which helps maintain the combo's competitive ranking.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF, with its 12 cores and 20 threads, provides substantial multi-threaded capability that is largely underutilized in Inside. The game's puzzle platformer nature does not heavily stress multi-core performance, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low (365.4 FPS) where the CPU is more likely to be the limiting factor. The CPU's boost clock of 5.00 GHz and single-thread performance are crucial for this game, as the 3DMark single-thread score of 1043 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4091 indicate excellent per-core performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 3984 further confirms this, showing that the CPU can handle the game's main thread without becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU's base clock of 3.60 GHz and its Alder Lake architecture with a 10 nm process node provide a solid foundation. The 25 MB of shared L3 cache is beneficial for game data that is frequently accessed, though Inside's relatively small asset footprint means that cache size is not a critical factor. The CPU's 125 W TDP is modest for a desktop part, and its performance in the Cinebench R23 multi-core test (28979) shows that it has ample headroom for any background tasks. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 9282 and max-thread score of 9983 demonstrate that the CPU scales well with thread count, though this is not a primary requirement for this game.

The data reveals that at 1080p Low, the frame rate of 365.4 FPS is likely near the CPU's maximum achievable output for this game. The fact that the frame rate increases from 365.4 at 1080p Low to 312.8 at 1440p Low (a 17% decrease) shows that the GPU is still the primary limiter, but the CPU's single-thread speed sets an upper ceiling. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i5-14400 (deltaPct of 0.1%), show that the i7-12700KF is perfectly competitive with newer mid-range parts. Its 89th percentile ranking versus all CPUs means it outperforms the vast majority of processors, which is why the combo achieves high frame rates even at 1080p where CPU load is more prominent.