Inside

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivers exceptional performance in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer that is far more demanding than its minimalist art style suggests. The benchmark data reveals a system that utterly dominates this title, with frame rates that remain astronomically high even at 4K resolution with maximum settings. The measured results show a clear hierarchy where the GPU becomes the primary scaling factor as resolution increases, while the CPU's robust multi-threading capabilities ensure the game never becomes processor-bound. This combination ranks in the 92nd percentile of all tested configurations, placing it firmly in elite territory for this specific workload.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario, though the absolute numbers are so high that the practical impact is minimal. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 364.9 FPS, which drops to 325.6 FPS at 1440p and 243.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33.3% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the RTX 4070 Ti is still the limiting factor even at the lowest quality preset. The pattern intensifies at Ultra settings, where 1080p yields 253.5 FPS, 1440p drops to 183.9 FPS, and 4K falls to 114.1 FPS—a 55% decrease across the resolution spectrum. This steep scaling curve strongly suggests that pixel throughput is the dominant constraint, as the GPU's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 192-bit bus width become progressively more taxed at higher resolutions. Interestingly, the delta between Low and Ultra at 1080p is only 111.4 FPS, while at 4K the same settings gap is 129.3 FPS, showing that the GPU's compute resources are more heavily utilized at higher resolutions, where the 40.09 TFLOPS FP32 throughput must work harder to maintain those frame rates.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti's specifications paint a picture of a GPU that is massively overqualified for Inside's visual demands, yet the data shows it is still the performance bottleneck. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory operating at 21 Gbps effective speed, the card has ample VRAM headroom—the game's modest texture requirements never approach capacity limits, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates across all settings presets. The boost clock of 2610 MHz, combined with 7680 shading units and 80 ROPs, delivers a pixel rate of 208.8 GPixel/s, which explains why even 4K Ultra maintains 114.1 FPS. The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5024 and PassMark G3D score of 31624 place it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the RTX 5090 Mobile, is only 0.6% faster in average benchmark score. This performance headroom means that the GPU is never the limiting factor in a negative sense—instead, it provides such high frame rates that the game becomes trivial to run, with the lowest recorded average of 114.1 FPS still being more than sufficient for any display refresh rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i7-12700KF and RTX 4070 Ti achieves a combo rank of 135 out of 1671 tested configurations, placing it in the top 8% of all combos tested for Inside. This ranking is particularly impressive given that the CPU and GPU individually sit in the 89th and 85th percentiles respectively, suggesting that their pairing produces synergistic benefits for this game. The CPU's nearest rival, the i5-14400, has an average score of 35336, which is only 0.1% lower than the i7-12700KF's 35355, indicating that the two processors are nearly interchangeable for gaming workloads. However, the GPU's position tells a different story—the RTX 4070 Ti's average benchmark score of 44900 is 1.6% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 580's 44195, yet the RTX card is 1.5% slower than the Intel Arc A730M's 45592. This tight clustering among rivals suggests that the combo's high rank is more attributable to the overall system balance rather than any single component's dominance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates provide a comprehensive picture of performance across all twelve resolution and settings combinations. At 1080p, the system ranges from 253.5 FPS at Ultra to 364.9 FPS at Low, with High settings producing 268.2 FPS and Medium at 337.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the numbers remain remarkably high: Low produces 325.6 FPS, Medium 303.3 FPS, High 193.6 FPS, and Ultra 183.9 FPS. The 4K results show the most significant scaling, with Low at 243.4 FPS, Medium at 198.1 FPS, High at 121.8 FPS, and Ultra at 114.1 FPS. The consistency of these results is notable—there are no anomalous dips or spikes, suggesting that the game's engine is well-optimized and the hardware combination provides stable performance across all scenarios. The delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution is telling: 111.4 FPS at 1080p, 141.7 FPS at 1440p, and 129.3 FPS at 4K, showing that the performance penalty for maximum quality settings remains relatively consistent regardless of resolution.

Settings Recommendations

For players seeking the optimal balance between visual fidelity and frame rate, the data clearly indicates that High settings at 1440p provides the sweet spot for this combination. At 2560x1440 with High settings, the system produces 193.6 FPS—a figure that exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all gaming monitors while maintaining the visual enhancements that Medium and Low settings sacrifice. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs 109.7 FPS (from 303.3 to 193.6), which is a substantial reduction, but the resulting 193.6 FPS is still more than double the 4K Ultra performance of 114.1 FPS. For players prioritizing maximum visual quality, 4K Ultra at 114.1 FPS remains perfectly playable and is recommended for those with 120Hz displays, though the 1080p Ultra setting of 253.5 FPS offers the highest frame rates without compromising on quality. The Low preset at any resolution produces frame rates that exceed 240 FPS, making it suitable for competitive play or esports scenarios, though the visual compromises are likely unnecessary given the game's artistic nature.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this system in Inside?*

A: The highest recorded average is 364.9 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings, followed closely by 337.1 FPS at 1080p Medium and 325.6 FPS at 1440p Low.

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

A: At Ultra settings, the system drops from 253.5 FPS at 1080p to 114.1 FPS at 4K, representing a 55% reduction in average frame rate.

Q: Is this combination better at 1440p High or 4K Medium?

A: The 1440p High setting produces 193.6 FPS, which is slightly lower than the 4K Medium result of 198.1 FPS, though 1440p High offers superior visual quality per pixel.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested systems for this game?

A: This combination ranks 135th out of 1671 tested combos, placing it in the top 8% of all configurations tested for Inside.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Ti compare to its nearest rival in raw benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti's average benchmark score of 44900 is 1.6% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 580's 44195, but 1.5% lower than the Intel Arc A730M's 45592.

Q: Which settings preset shows the smallest performance gap between 1080p and 4K?

A: The Low preset shows the smallest absolute gap of 121.5 FPS (from 364.9 to 243.4), while the High preset shows the largest gap of 146.4 FPS (from 268.2 to 121.8).

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF's contribution to Inside's performance is characterized by its 12 cores and 20 threads, which provide substantial multi-threading headroom for a game that dates back to 2016. The processor's 3.60 GHz base clock and 5.00 GHz boost clock, combined with 25 MB of shared L3 cache, ensure that the game's logic and physics calculations never become a bottleneck. The CPU's 3DMark multi-threaded score of 9983 and single-thread score of 1043 demonstrate strong balanced performance, while its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28979 and single-core score of 4091 show that it can handle both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads efficiently. The PassMark multi-thread score of 34092 and single-thread score of 3984 further reinforce this capability. Notably, the CPU's nearest rival, the i5-14400, has an average score of 35336, which is only 0.1% lower than the i7-12700KF's 35355, suggesting that the two processors are nearly identical in overall performance. However, the i7-12700KF's 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs, combined with its 125 W TDP and support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, indicates that it provides ample processing power for this game without becoming a limiting factor. The data implies that the CPU's role in Inside is primarily supportive—it ensures that the GPU can operate at its full potential, but the frame rates are ultimately dictated by the graphics card's capabilities, as evidenced by the consistent GPU-bound scaling patterns across all resolution and settings combinations.