Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer that places almost no strain on modern hardware, and the measured results for the Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 reflect that. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet capable of frame rates high enough to make any display refresh rate the bottleneck at 1080p. The combination sits at rank 1161 out of 2887 tested combos for this game, which places it in the upper half of the database, though the sheer frame rates suggest that ranking is more about the specific scoring methodology than about any playability concerns.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows for this combo provide a clear picture: the Low preset is for chasing maximum refresh rates, while the Ultra preset still delivers playable numbers, but the Medium and High presets offer the most balanced experience. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 353 FPS, which is beyond what any standard high-refresh monitor can display, and the Medium preset drops that to 282 FPS. The High preset at 1080p yields 177 FPS average, and the Ultra preset brings it down to 168 FPS. Since the game is a puzzle platformer with no competitive multiplayer pressure, the difference between 168 FPS and 353 FPS is largely academic; the visual improvements from Low to Ultra are likely more noticeable than the frame rate jump.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 203 FPS average with a minimum of 173 FPS and a maximum of 234 FPS, which is a strong indicator of consistent performance. The High preset at 1440p drops to 127 FPS average, while Ultra sits at 121 FPS. The Low preset at 1440p hits 254 FPS, but the visual quality trade-off is severe for a game that relies on atmosphere and lighting. The best experience per the measured rows is the Medium preset at either 1080p or 1440p, as it provides a substantial frame rate buffer above 60 FPS while maintaining a reasonable level of graphical fidelity. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only one with min/max data, showing 108 FPS minimum and 147 FPS maximum with an average of 128 FPS, which makes it the clear recommendation for 4K. High at 4K averages 80 FPS, and Ultra averages 76 FPS, both of which are still playable but leave less headroom for scene complexity. The Low preset at 4K hits 160 FPS, but the visual downgrade is unnecessary given how well Medium performs.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 32 chip, and its specifications are more than adequate for a game like Inside. The GPU has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth, along with a boost clock of 2459 MHz and a game clock of 2041 MHz. The memory configuration is particularly relevant here, as Inside is not a VRAM-heavy title; the 16 GB allocation is far beyond what this game requires, meaning the GPU is never constrained by memory capacity in the measured results. The benchmark scores for the GPU show a percentile ranking of 58 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15852. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R9 370X with a delta of -0.1%, the AMD Radeon RX 9060 with a delta of -1%, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with a delta of -1.7%, placing the RX 7700 in a competitive band where small percentage differences separate similar performers.

In the context of Inside, the GPU's role becomes dominant as resolution increases. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 185 FPS (353 versus 168), which indicates the GPU is still a factor even at lower resolutions. However, the frame rates are so high that the CPU's single-thread performance is likely the limiting factor in the Low preset, given the 353 FPS ceiling. The GPU's 2560 shading units and 40 ray tracing cores are not heavily utilized by this game's 2D side-scrolling visuals, but the raw rasterization throughput is what drives the high averages. The pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s are ample for the simple geometry and lighting effects in Inside, which explains why the GPU can push 128 FPS at 4K Medium without breaking a sweat.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable pattern that confirms the GPU as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 282 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 203 FPS, a reduction of 79 FPS (approximately 28% lower). At 4K Medium, the average falls to 128 FPS, which is 63% lower than the 1080p figure. This scaling is roughly in line with the pixel count increases: 1440p has about 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has 4 times the pixels. The fact that the FPS does not drop proportionally to the pixel count (282 to 203 is a 1.39x drop for a 1.78x pixel increase) suggests that the CPU is still contributing to the performance at 1440p, but by 4K, the GPU is fully saturated.

The Low preset scaling is even more revealing. At 1080p Low, the average is 353 FPS, which drops to 254 FPS at 1440p (a 28% reduction) and then to 160 FPS at 4K (a 55% reduction from 1440p). The High preset shows a similar trend: 177 FPS at 1080p, 127 FPS at 1440p (28% lower), and 80 FPS at 4K (37% lower from 1440p). The Ultra preset follows the same pattern with 168, 121, and 76 FPS respectively. The consistent 28% drop from 1080p to 1440p across all settings indicates that the CPU is still keeping up at 1440p, but the larger drop from 1440p to 4K (ranging from 37% to 55%) signals the GPU becoming the limiting component. For a puzzle platformer, the 4K Medium result of 128 FPS average is more than sufficient, but players with 4K 120Hz displays will find the High preset's 80 FPS average to be the practical ceiling for this combo.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1161 out of 2887 tested combinations in Inside, placing it at roughly the 60th percentile (since 1161 divided by 2887 is approximately 40% from the top). This is a middling ranking that might surprise someone looking at the raw FPS numbers, but it reflects the scoring system used by the database. The Intel Core i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 46881 and ranks in the 89th percentile against all CPUs, while the AMD Radeon RX 7700 has an average benchmark score of 15852 and ranks in the 58th percentile against all GPUs. The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU creates a system that is well-balanced for most games, but the ranking suggests that other combos with similar or better GPU performance achieve higher scores in this specific title.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 with a delta of -0.2%, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 with a delta of -0.3%, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX with a delta of 0.5%. These small deltas indicate that the i7-13700K is tightly clustered with other high-end processors, meaning the CPU choice is unlikely to be the deciding factor in the combo ranking. The GPU's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon R9 370X (delta -0.1%), the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (delta -1%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (delta -1.7%), which shows the RX 7700 is in a competitive segment where a few percentage points separate it from older and newer cards. The combo's rank of 1161 suggests that many other configurations with faster GPUs or more balanced pairings outperform it, but for the actual gameplay experience in Inside, the performance is far above the threshold for smooth play.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores are impressive across the board: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30745, a single-core score of 2116, and a Geekbench multi-core score of 19429. The CPU has 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core, which is more than sufficient for a game like Inside that has minimal CPU demands. In this title, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with frame data, and the measured FPS at 1080p Low (353 FPS) suggests the CPU is capable of generating frames much faster than the GPU can render them at higher settings.

The single-thread performance is particularly relevant for Inside, as puzzle platformers typically rely on a few main threads for game logic and physics. The i7-13700K's 3DMark single-thread score of 1136 and Passmark single-thread score of 4333 indicate strong per-core performance, which is likely why the frame rates at 1080p Low reach such high levels. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking against all CPUs confirms its position as a high-end part, and its nearest rivals are all within a fraction of a percent in average benchmark score. The 125W TDP is modest for a 16-core part, and the fact that this CPU can drive 353 FPS in a simple game without breaking a sweat confirms its IPC and clock speed. In the context of this combo, the CPU is never the bottleneck at 4K, but at 1080p Low, the 353 FPS ceiling is likely a CPU limit, as the GPU could theoretically render even more frames if the CPU could supply them faster.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show the following averages: Low setting produces 353 FPS, Medium produces 282 FPS with a minimum of 240 and maximum of 325, High produces 177 FPS, and Ultra produces 168 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is significant at 105 FPS, which is larger than the gap between High and Ultra at 9 FPS. This suggests that the High preset introduces graphical features that have a disproportionate performance cost, while the step from High to Ultra is relatively minor. The minimum FPS of 240 at Medium indicates that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate stays above 240 Hz, which is excellent for competitive play if the game required it.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 254 FPS, Medium at 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 and maximum of 234, High at 127 FPS, and Ultra at 121 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers a minimum of 173 FPS, which is still well above the 144Hz refresh rate that most high-end monitors use. The drop from Medium to High at 1440p is 76 FPS, which is a 37% reduction, indicating that the High preset's additional effects are more demanding at this resolution. The Low preset at 1440p (254 FPS) is close to the 1080p High result (177 FPS) but with better visual quality, making it a viable option for players who prioritize frame rate over fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 160 FPS, Medium at 128 FPS with a minimum of 108 and maximum of 147, High at 80 FPS, and Ultra at 76 FPS. The 4K Medium result is particularly notable because it maintains a minimum of 108 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS standard and approaching 120Hz territory. The High preset at 4K (80 FPS) is still playable, but the 48 FPS drop from Medium to High is substantial, making Medium the sweet spot for 4K on this combo. The Ultra preset at 4K (76 FPS) is within 4 FPS of High, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional features are not significantly more demanding than High at this resolution. The Low preset at 4K (160 FPS) is the only setting that approaches the 1440p Medium performance, but the visual downgrade is severe for a game with such atmospheric visuals. Overall, the measured FPS data shows that this combo can handle Inside at any resolution, with the Medium preset providing the best balance of frame rate and visual quality across all three resolutions.