Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer with a deliberately restrained visual style, yet the benchmark data for the Intel Core i7-14700F and AMD Radeon RX 7600 combination reveals a wide performance envelope that scales dramatically with both resolution and settings. The measured frame rates show a system that is overwhelmingly capable of running this 2016 title at maximum settings, though the data also exposes distinct bottlenecks that shift between the CPU and GPU depending on the load.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K under identical settings illustrates how the rendering load grows faster than the pixel count. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 282 at 1920x1080 to 203 at 2560x1440, a 28% reduction, and then to 127 at 3840x2160, a further 37% reduction from the 1440p figure. This pattern indicates that at Low settings, the game is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions; the CPU’s 20 cores and 28 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p, but as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, causing the steep decline.

The scaling at High settings tells a similar story with a slightly different slope. The average FPS is 141 at 1080p, 101 at 1440p, and 64 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28%, identical to Low, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 37%, also matching. This consistency suggests the relative load between CPU and GPU remains proportional across these settings, with the GPU’s pixel throughput becoming the dominant constraint as resolution climbs.

Medium settings provide the only rows with min and max FPS values, offering insight into frame time stability. At 1080p, the average is 226 FPS with a min of 192 and max of 259, a range of 67 FPS. At 1440p, the average is 162 with a min of 138 and max of 186, a range of 48 FPS. At 4K, the average is 102 with a min of 87 and max of 117, a range of 30 FPS. This tightening range as resolution increases is a classic sign of the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck; at higher resolutions, the GPU’s workload is more consistent, reducing the variance that CPU scheduling or driver overhead can introduce at lower resolution.

Ultra settings show the most compressed scaling, with 134 FPS at 1080p, 97 FPS at 1440p, and 61 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 28% and 37%, respectively, again matching the other settings. This uniformity across all four presets strongly suggests that the scaling factor is resolution-dependent, not setting-dependent, meaning the RX 7600’s 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 128-bit bus are the primary limiters at 4K, while the CPU’s headroom is sufficient at 1080p regardless of visual complexity.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 282, recorded at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K on the highest preset?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 61, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold.

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

A: The average FPS drops from 226 at 1920x1080 to 102 at 3840x2160, representing a 55% reduction in frame rate.

Q: Are frame times more stable at higher resolutions?

A: Yes. At Medium settings, the difference between min and max FPS is 67 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 30 FPS at 4K, indicating tighter frame pacing as resolution increases.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor. The 282 FPS average at 1080p Low is far below the GPU’s theoretical maximum, and the linear scaling as resolution increases indicates the CPU has headroom that the GPU cannot utilize at higher resolutions.

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

A: High settings average 101 FPS, while Ultra averages 97 FPS, a difference of only 4 FPS. This indicates the visual upgrade to Ultra costs almost no performance at this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data shows that Ultra settings provide the best visual experience with minimal performance cost compared to High. At 1080p, Ultra averages 134 FPS versus 141 FPS on High, a mere 5% penalty. At 1440p, the gap narrows to 4 FPS (97 vs 101), and at 4K, it is 3 FPS (61 vs 64). This consistent 3-5% difference suggests that the Ultra preset does not add a significant computational burden, likely because the game’s art style relies more on post-processing than geometry or texture complexity.

For users targeting 60 FPS at 4K, Ultra is the clear choice, as it averages 61 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K averages 102 FPS, which is overkill for standard 60 Hz displays but useful for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the min FPS of 87 at 4K Medium indicates that even in demanding scenes, the system stays well above 60 FPS.

At 1080p, all settings exceed 130 average FPS, meaning users with 144 Hz or 240 Hz monitors should consider Low (282 FPS) or Medium (226 FPS) to fully utilize their display’s refresh rate. The data shows that Low settings at 1080p provide the highest frame rate, but Medium offers a better balance with a 226 FPS average and a min FPS of 192, ensuring no drops below typical high-refresh thresholds.

The recommendation is to use Ultra for 4K and 1440p if visual fidelity is the priority, as the performance cost over High is negligible. For 1080p, Medium is the sweet spot for high refresh rates, while Low is only necessary for extreme frame rate chasing beyond 240 Hz.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and AMD Radeon RX 7600 ranks 2500 out of 3716 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the 33rd percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly two-thirds of configurations perform better in this specific game. This ranking is surprising given the absolute frame rates, which are exceptionally high for a puzzle platformer.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 53620 places it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, with rivals like the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X scoring 53288 (0.6% lower) and the Intel Xeon 6505P scoring 53701 (0.2% higher). The GPU’s average benchmark score is 15171, putting it in the 57th percentile of all GPUs, with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM scoring 15199 (0.2% higher) and the AMD Radeon 680M scoring 15270 (0.7% higher).

The low combo rank is likely due to the game’s age and low system requirements. Inside was released in 2016, and its engine is not designed to scale with modern high-core-count CPUs or recent GPU architectures. The combo’s absolute performance is strong, but the benchmark database includes many systems with higher-end GPUs that achieve even higher frame rates in this lightweight title. The rank of 2500 out of 3716 indicates that while this combo is above the median in raw capability, it is not optimized for this specific game’s workload.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F features 20 cores and 28 threads based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This processor is clearly not a bottleneck in Inside, as evidenced by the frame rates at 1080p Low, where the system averages 282 FPS. At this resolution and setting, the GPU is idle much of the time, and the CPU’s single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4958) is more than sufficient to feed the GPU.

The CPU’s multi-core performance is exceptional, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35122 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 19620. However, Inside is a puzzle platformer that likely uses only a handful of threads, meaning the 28 threads are largely underutilized. The benchmark data confirms this: the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings, indicating that the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions where the GPU’s pixel throughput dominates.

The high boost clock of 5.40 GHz is likely more important than the core count for this game. The single-thread performance, as measured by Passmark’s single-thread score of 4257, is what drives the 282 FPS at 1080p Low. The CPU’s 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample bandwidth for the game’s data, further reducing any potential CPU-induced stutter.

In summary, the CPU’s role in Inside is to provide a high-frequency, low-latency execution environment. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the frame rate is determined by the GPU’s ability to render pixels. The i7-14700F’s 20 cores are overkill for this game, but its high boost clock ensures that the few threads the game does use run at maximum speed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 282 FPS on Low, 226 FPS on Medium, 141 FPS on High, and 134 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset’s min and max are 192 and 259 FPS, respectively. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is capable of driving even the fastest consumer monitors.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 203 FPS on Low, 162 FPS on Medium, 101 FPS on High, and 97 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset’s min and max are 138 and 186 FPS. The 1440p results show a clear step down from 1080p, but every preset still exceeds 97 FPS, making this resolution fully playable on high-refresh displays.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 127 FPS on Low, 102 FPS on Medium, 64 FPS on High, and 61 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset’s min and max are 87 and 117 FPS. This is the only resolution where some presets dip below 100 FPS, but even the most demanding Ultra setting maintains an average above 60 FPS.

The data reveals that the gap between Low and Medium is larger than the gap between High and Ultra. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Medium is 56 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is only 7 FPS. This pattern repeats at 1440p (41 FPS vs 4 FPS) and 4K (25 FPS vs 3 FPS). This suggests that Medium adds a significant visual feature that taxes the GPU, while Ultra adds only minor enhancements.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 33 chip, featuring 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s boost clock is 2655 MHz, and it has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. These specifications position it as a mainstream card, and the benchmark data confirms its role as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

At 1080p, the GPU is not fully utilized, as evidenced by the 282 FPS on Low settings. The GPU’s 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is more than enough for this game’s simple shaders. However, as resolution increases, the GPU’s pixel fill rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s become the limiting factors.

The 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for Inside, even at 4K, as the game’s textures are not memory-intensive. The GPU’s 57th percentile ranking versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15171, places it just behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15199, 0.2% higher) and ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 560X (15082, 0.6% lower).

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent with a GPU that is bandwidth-limited. The 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are the weakest links in the system, as evidenced by the 55% frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings. The boost clock of 2655 MHz helps mitigate this, but the GPU’s ROP count of 64 limits the pixel throughput at 4K.

In Inside, the GPU’s role is to maintain frame rates above 60 FPS at 4K, which it does even on Ultra settings. The card’s 8 GB VRAM, while modest by modern standards, is more than adequate for this game’s visual fidelity. The RX 7600’s performance in this title reflects the efficiency of the RDNA 3.0 architecture, as it delivers playable 4K performance in a game that is not graphically demanding.