Inside

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Inside, a game whose minimalist visuals belie the hardware demands of its physics and lighting. The measured frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings indicate that this combination is never truly overburdened, though the scaling patterns reveal where the bottleneck shifts.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and expected progression as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the performance drop is unusually steep between 1440p and 4K. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 168 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at High yields 121 FPS, a 28% reduction. However, jumping to 3840x2160 at High drops the average to 76 FPS, which is a 37% reduction from the 1440p figure and a 55% reduction from the 1080p result. This non-linear scaling pattern strongly suggests that the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT becomes the limiting component at 4K, as the pixel throughput demand outpaces the GPU's raw fillrate capabilities.

The pattern holds across other settings. At Low, the frame rate drops from 337 FPS at 1080p to 242 FPS at 1440p, then falls to 152 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is still well above the 1440p High figure, indicating that the GPU has headroom when visual quality is reduced. At Medium settings, the 4K average of 122 FPS with a minimum of 103 FPS and maximum of 140 FPS shows that even the most demanding resolution remains playable. The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 160 FPS at 1080p, 115 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K.

What is notable is that the delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution is significant but not crippling. At 1080p, the gap between Low (337 FPS) and Ultra (160 FPS) is 177 FPS, a 52% reduction. At 4K, the same comparison shows a drop from 152 FPS to 72 FPS, a 53% reduction. This consistency implies that the GPU is scaling its workload proportionally with the pixel count and shading complexity, but the absolute ceiling at 4K is capped by the RX 6700 XT's 384.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 13.21 TFLOPS FP32 compute. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 24 threads, is clearly not the constraint at any resolution, as even the 4K Low figure of 152 FPS indicates the processor can feed the GPU faster than it can render.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting the smoothest experience without sacrificing visual fidelity, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 emerges as the sweet spot. The measured 194 FPS average with a minimum of 165 FPS and maximum of 223 FPS provides a substantial margin above the 1440p High result of 121 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at this resolution is 73 FPS, which is a 60% improvement, suggesting that the High preset introduces rendering effects that disproportionately tax the GPU without a commensurate visual payoff in this puzzle platformer.

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 160 FPS, which is still exceptionally high for any modern display. However, the Medium preset at 1080p produces 269 FPS with a minimum of 229 FPS, making it the better choice for high-refresh-rate monitors. The data indicates that Ultra at 1080p is only 8% slower than High at the same resolution, but the jump from Medium to High costs 101 FPS. This is a peculiar scaling behavior that suggests the High and Ultra presets enable certain post-processing effects that are disproportionately expensive on the RDNA 2.0 architecture.

For 4K users, the Low preset at 152 FPS is the only option that approaches the fluidity of lower-resolution gameplay. The Medium preset at 122 FPS remains smooth, but the Ultra preset at 72 FPS dips below the 100 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for responsive action. Given that Inside is a puzzle platformer with a deliberate pace, the Medium preset at 4K offers the best balance, providing a 69% improvement over Ultra while still maintaining a frame time consistency that the 103 FPS minimum confirms.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT combination ranks 1806 out of 3716 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the 51st percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms just over half of the configurations in this specific title. The ranking is somewhat surprising given the strong absolute frame rates, but it reflects the fact that Inside is not a demanding title for modern hardware, allowing many older or lower-tier components to achieve high scores.

The CPU component of this combo is a clear strength. The i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 46881, which places it at the 89th percentile against all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 scores 46971 (0.2% higher), the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 scores 47022 (0.3% higher), while the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX and Intel Xeon w3-2535 both score slightly lower at 46654 and 46653 respectively (0.5% lower). This grouping indicates that the i7-13700K is performing exactly as expected for a high-end desktop processor, with no thermal or power throttling anomalies dragging it down.

The GPU's contribution to the ranking is more modest. The RX 6700 XT has an average benchmark score of 27425, placing it at the 72nd percentile against all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile, scores 27435 (0% difference), while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 scores 27565 (0.5% higher). The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 is 1.5% higher at 27839, and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell is 1.1% lower at 27135. The fact that a desktop GPU is trading blows with mobile and professional variants suggests that the RX 6700 XT is adequately matched with the i7-13700K, though the combo's overall rank is likely dragged down by the GPU's mid-pack positioning relative to the CPU's top-tier standing.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Inside?*

A: The highest measured average is 337 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This represents the absolute ceiling for this configuration.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Inside?*

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Medium, the combo delivers 122 FPS with a 103 FPS minimum, which is smooth. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 72 FPS, which is still playable but noticeably less fluid.

Q: How does the i7-13700K compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 46881, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 and 0.3% lower than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375. It is 0.5% higher than both the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX and Intel Xeon w3-2535.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 242 FPS while Ultra produces 115 FPS. This is a 127 FPS difference, meaning Ultra is 53% slower than Low.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor even at 1080p. The 337 FPS Low result versus 160 FPS Ultra shows that the RX 6700 XT's rendering pipeline is the constraint, as the i7-13700K's 3dmark single-thread score of 1136 and 16-thread score of 10717 indicate it can feed frames far faster than the GPU can render them.

Q: How does the RX 6700 XT compare to the RTX 3090 in this context?

A: The RX 6700 XT has an average benchmark score of 27425, which is 0.5% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090's 27565. In Inside, this performance difference would translate to a negligible frame rate gap, well within the margin of error for the measured FPS values.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process from TSMC, featuring 17,200 million transistors on a 335 mm² die. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical resource for Inside's shadow rendering and post-processing effects. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2321 MHz, with a game clock of 2424 MHz and a boost clock of 2581 MHz. These clocks are relatively high for the architecture, and the measured performance suggests they are being utilized effectively in this title.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, which deliver 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s. The texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s is more than sufficient for Inside's stylized visuals, but the pixel rate becomes the bottleneck at 4K. The data supports this: at 4K Ultra, the GPU produces 72 FPS, which corresponds to a pixel throughput of approximately 597 million pixels per second (3840×2160×72), nearly saturating the theoretical pixel rate. At 1080p Ultra, the 160 FPS result requires only 331 million pixels per second, leaving ample headroom.

The RX 6700 XT's RDNA 2.0 architecture includes 40 ray accelerators, though Inside does not appear to use ray tracing based on the frame rate scaling. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility ensure it can handle any rendering path the game might use. The 72nd percentile ranking against all GPUs is consistent with its positioning as a mid-to-high-end part, and its 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2435 confirms it can sustain modern API workloads. The GPU's power delivery, requiring a 230 W TDP with 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin connectors, is adequate for the performance it delivers in this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K represents the top end of the Raptor Lake desktop lineup, built on Intel's 10 nm process with a 257 mm² die. Its 16 cores and 24 threads operate at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost to 5.40 GHz, providing the kind of single-thread headroom that puzzle platformers benefit from. The processor's cache hierarchy, with 80 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 30 MB shared L3, ensures that the game's level geometry and physics state remain resident for rapid access.

In Inside, the CPU's role is primarily to maintain consistent frame pacing and handle the game's physics simulations. The i7-13700K's 3dmark single-thread score of 1136 and 2-thread score of 2262 indicate that even lightly threaded workloads are processed with minimal latency. The 4-thread score of 4469 and 8-thread score of 8193 show strong scaling for multi-threaded game logic, while the max-thread score of 12412 and 16-thread score of 10717 reveal that the processor can handle heavily parallel workloads without thermal throttling.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 30745 and single-core score of 2116 place it in the top tier of desktop processors, and its Passmark multithread score of 45887 with a single-thread score of 4333 confirm this positioning. The 89th percentile ranking against all CPUs is well earned, and the data shows that the i7-13700K is never the limiting factor in this game. Even at 1080p Low with 337 FPS, the processor's frame generation capability exceeds the GPU's render speed by a wide margin. The CPU's DDR4 and DDR5 memory support, along with its 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes, provide ample bandwidth for the RX 6700 XT over its PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The processor's 125 W TDP is modest for its performance class, allowing sustained boost clocks during extended gaming sessions without power limit throttling.