Inside

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers an exceptionally high level of performance in Inside, a game that clearly does not tax modern hardware heavily. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings are consistently high, indicating that this combination is far more powerful than the game requires. The analysis of the measured data reveals distinct scaling patterns, a clear GPU bottleneck at lower resolutions, and a surprisingly robust performance at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a classic performance scaling curve, but with an unusual twist: the game is so light that even at 4K, the frame rates remain remarkably high. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average frame rate drops from 189 FPS to 136 FPS, a reduction of 53 FPS, or roughly 28%. This is a substantial decrease, but the absolute numbers are still far beyond what any display could utilize effectively. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at High settings shows a further drop from 136 FPS to 85 FPS, a 51 FPS decline, which represents a 37.5% reduction from the 1440p figure. This pattern indicates that the rendering load is scaling directly with the pixel count, which is the expected behavior for a GPU-bound scenario.

The scaling behavior at the Low preset is more extreme. At 1080p Low, the system produces 378 FPS. This drops to 272 FPS at 1440p Low, a 106 FPS decrease. At 4K Low, the frame rate falls to 171 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28%, and from 1440p to 4K is 37.1%. These numbers are very similar to the High preset scaling, suggesting that the relative performance penalty of increasing resolution is consistent regardless of the graphical preset. This consistency strongly implies that the GPU is the primary limiting factor here; the CPU is providing frames faster than the GPU can render them at every resolution.

However, the most telling observation is the absolute FPS. At 4K Ultra, the combination still manages an average of 81 FPS. This is a playable and smooth frame rate. The fact that the lowest measured average across all settings and resolutions is 81 FPS (at 4K Ultra) proves that this hardware combination is essentially overkill for Inside. The performance ceiling of the game is being hit, rather than the hardware's limit. The scaling is not about finding a playable configuration, but rather about understanding how far the hardware can push the frame rate. The 4K Ultra result, while the lowest, is still above the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that users with 4K displays can max out the game without worrying about performance dips.

Settings Recommendations

Given the extremely high frame rates at every preset, the recommendation is straightforward: use the Ultra preset. The data shows that the Ultra preset at 1920x1080 yields an average of 180 FPS, which is already a staggeringly high number. Moving up to 2560x1440 Ultra still produces 129 FPS, and even at 3840x2160 Ultra, the system maintains an average of 81 FPS. There is no measurable benefit to dropping below the highest settings for this game, as the performance headroom is so vast.

The Medium preset provides a small frame rate advantage over Ultra, but this is irrelevant in practice. At 1080p, the Medium preset averages 302 FPS versus 180 FPS for Ultra. This 122 FPS difference is massive in raw numbers but utterly meaningless for any real-world display, which typically caps at 144Hz or 240Hz. The same logic applies at 1440p, where Medium hits 217 FPS and Ultra hits 129 FPS. Both are well above the refresh rate of common high-refresh monitors. At 4K, the difference narrows, with Medium at 136 FPS and Ultra at 81 FPS, but both are still comfortably playable.

The Low preset is entirely unnecessary. While it produces the highest frame rates, such as 378 FPS at 1080p, the visual quality reduction is not worth the performance gain that cannot be perceived. The only reason to use the Low preset would be if the user were chasing benchmark records or had an extremely high refresh rate display (e.g., 360Hz), but even then, the Ultra preset's 180 FPS at 1080p would likely suffice for most users. The data suggests that the optimal experience is the Ultra preset at any resolution, as it provides the best visual fidelity while still maintaining frame rates that exceed the refresh rate of nearly all monitors on the market. The benchmark results indicate that this hardware combination is so powerful that the game's settings are purely a visual choice, not a performance one.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 plays the central role in determining the frame rates for this game. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, the card offers a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clocks run at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. This bandwidth is more than sufficient for a game with the visual complexity of Inside, which does not appear to rely on massive texture streaming or high-resolution assets that would saturate the memory bus. The measured frame rates show no signs of a memory bottleneck, as the performance scales predictably with resolution.

The GPU's compute capabilities are also more than adequate. The RTX 3070 features 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output processors. Its boost clock is listed at 1725 MHz, and it achieves a pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 317.4 GTexel/s. These specifications are easily capable of handling the rendering demands of this puzzle platformer. The game's art style, which is likely not heavily reliant on complex shaders or particle effects, means that the GPU is never operating at its full capacity. The fact that the card reaches an average of 378 FPS at 1080p Low suggests that it is rendering frames as fast as the driver and game engine will allow, not at its physical limit.

The GPU's performance percentile is 61, and its average benchmark score is 17208. In this game, however, the RTX 3070 is not being stressed. The difference between the 4K High (85 FPS) and 1080p High (189 FPS) shows that the GPU is the scaling component. If the CPU were the limit, the frame rates would be similar across resolutions. The data points to a GPU-bound scenario at all settings. While the GPU is the bottleneck, it is a bottleneck at a very high level of performance. The card is simply so fast for this specific workload that the playable limit is reached before the hardware's limit is close to being hit.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for this combo at 4K with the Ultra preset?

A: The measured average FPS is 81, which is the lowest average across all tested settings and resolutions.

Q: Does this system perform better at 1080p Low or 1440p Ultra?

A: The 1080p Low preset produces a higher average frame rate of 378 FPS, while the 1440p Ultra preset averages 129 FPS. The 1080p Low setting is faster by a margin of 249 FPS.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor. This is evident because frame rates scale directly with resolution; for example, the High preset drops from 189 FPS at 1080p to 85 FPS at 4K, which is a classic symptom of a GPU bottleneck.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the data set?

A: The data set only includes minimum FPS values for the Medium preset. At 4K Medium, the minimum FPS is 116, while at 1440p and 1080p Medium, the minimums are 185 and 257 FPS, respectively.

Q: Can this hardware run the game at 4K smoothly?

A: Yes. The lowest average frame rate at 4K is 81 FPS on the Ultra preset. At 4K High and Medium, the averages are 85 FPS and 136 FPS, respectively, all of which are above the standard 60 FPS smoothness threshold.

Q: How does the combo's rank in this game compare to its overall hardware percentiles?

A: The combo ranks 1317 out of 3716 tested combinations for Inside. This is a better standing than the GPU's percentile of 61, suggesting the game favors this specific pairing.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is ranked 1317 out of 3716 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the 64.5th percentile of all systems tested for this specific game. This ranking is notably higher than the GPU's general percentile of 61, which measures its performance across a wide variety of workloads. The data shows that this particular pairing is better suited for Inside than the GPU's average performance would suggest.

This discrepancy is likely due to the game's low system requirements. A GPU like the RTX 3070, which is at the 61st percentile in general benchmarks, can perform closer to its peak in a less demanding game. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 24 threads, is not a limiting factor. The CPU's percentile is 89, which is much higher than the GPU's 61. In a game that is GPU-bound, the system's overall ranking is pulled down by the GPU's relative position. However, because the game is so light, the RTX 3070 is not the bottleneck it would be in a more demanding title.

The ranking indicates that this system is in the top third of all tested configurations for this game. Given that the game is from 2016, many of the 3716 tested combos likely include older, less powerful hardware. The i7-13700K and RTX 3070 represent a modern high-end pairing, and its rank reflects that. The data shows that this combo will not struggle with Inside in any way, and its performance will be more than sufficient for a flawless experience. The high ranking confirms that this is a robust configuration for this title, even if it is not in the top tier of absolute performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K plays a supporting role in this game, but its capabilities ensure that it never becomes a bottleneck. With 16 cores and 24 threads, and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, the CPU has immense processing power. Its benchmark scores, such as a multi-core score of 30745 in Cinebench R23 and a single-core score of 2116, indicate that it is far more powerful than what a puzzle platformer requires. The CPU's percentile ranking is 89, placing it well above the GPU's 61.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU's influence is only visible at the highest frame rates. For example, at 1080p Low, the system reaches 378 FPS. This is a massive number, but it is likely constrained by the game engine or the GPU's ability to issue draw calls, rather than the CPU's raw compute power. The CPU's single-thread performance is critical for games, and the 13700K's score of 2116 in Cinebench R23 single-core ensures that it can handle the game's logic and physics without issue. The data shows that the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is entirely consistent, which would not be the case if the CPU were struggling to keep up.

The i7-13700K's architecture, Raptor Lake, and its 30 MB of shared L3 cache provide ample resources for the game. The fact that the average FPS at 4K Ultra is 81 shows that even when the GPU is under its heaviest load, the CPU is still feeding it data fast enough. The CPU is not the limiting factor; it is simply providing a stable platform for the GPU to operate. The high frame rates at lower resolutions are a signal of the CPU's strength, as a weaker processor would likely cap the frame rate well below the 378 FPS seen at 1080p Low. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is more than capable of extracting the maximum performance from the RTX 3070 in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is a complete breakdown of the measured average FPS for every tested configuration.

1920x1080:

• Low: 378 FPS
• Medium: 302 FPS (minimum 257, maximum 347)
• High: 189 FPS
• Ultra: 180 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 272 FPS
• Medium: 217 FPS (minimum 185, maximum 250)
• High: 136 FPS
• Ultra: 129 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 171 FPS
• Medium: 136 FPS (minimum 116, maximum 157)
• High: 85 FPS
• Ultra: 81 FPS

The data shows a clear hierarchy. At each resolution, the Low preset offers the highest frame rate, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra being the most demanding. The difference between High and Ultra is consistently small, with only a 9 FPS gap at 1080p and a 4 FPS gap at 4K. This suggests that the Ultra preset adds minimal additional rendering cost over High for this game. The Medium preset provides a significant boost over High, with a 113 FPS difference at 1080p and a 51 FPS difference at 4K. The Low preset provides another large jump over Medium, with a 76 FPS difference at 1080p and a 35 FPS difference at 4K. These numbers show that the game is highly scalable, but the absolute performance is so high that the differences are only relevant for users with extremely high refresh rate displays.