Inside

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor built on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz provide substantial single-thread headroom, which is critical for a game like Inside, a puzzle platformer that relies on consistent frame pacing rather than massive multi-threaded workloads. The CPU's L3 cache totals 33 MB shared, with 2 MB L2 and 80 KB L1 per core, ensuring that the game's relatively modest data footprint can reside close to the execution cores.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU scores 2160 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 33440.5 in multi-core, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (deltaPct -0.2), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (deltaPct -0.7), and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (deltaPct -0.9). The i7-14700K's single-core performance is particularly relevant here: Inside's gameplay loop—physics-driven puzzle interactions, character movement, and environmental triggers—tends to be bound by a single primary thread. The 5.60 GHz boost clock gives this combo a decisive edge in maintaining high frame rates even when the GPU is not fully saturated.

The measured FPS data confirms this interpretation. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 386 FPS average, a figure that far exceeds any display's refresh rate and indicates that the CPU is not a limiting factor at lower resolutions. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is typically the bottleneck, the CPU's strong single-thread performance ensures that frame times remain stable. The CPU's 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory further underline its role as a high-end desktop part, though the game itself does not appear to stress the memory bandwidth or multi-threaded capabilities to any significant degree.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: The combo delivers an average of 309 FPS at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, with minimum and maximum values of 263 and 355 FPS respectively. This represents a 60% increase over the High preset's 193 FPS average at the same resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB scores 2913, which is 0.1% above the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF (2910), 0.2% above the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB (2907), and 0.7% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4010 (2893). The GPU sits in the 19th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the best preset for a 1440p display?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 yields 139 FPS average, while Medium produces 222 FPS and Low reaches 278 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 132 FPS. For a 144Hz display, Medium provides sufficient headroom; for 60Hz displays, Ultra is viable.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-core score compare to its closest rival?

A: The i7-14700K scores 33440.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, has an average benchmark score that is 0.2% higher, a negligible difference in real-world gaming terms.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested configurations?

A: The i7-14700K + RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB combination ranks 1186 out of 3716 tested combos, placing it in roughly the 68th percentile of all tested systems.

Q: Does the GPU's VRAM capacity limit performance at 4K?

A: The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB achieves 87 FPS average at 4K High and 83 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 8 GB GDDR6 memory over a 128-bit bus (288.0 GB/s bandwidth) appears adequate for Inside, as the frame rate drop from High to Ultra is only 4.6%, suggesting VRAM is not a hard constraint.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data reveals a clear hierarchy across presets, with each step in quality costing a measurable fraction of performance. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 386 FPS average, while Medium drops to 309 FPS, High to 193 FPS, and Ultra to 184 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is just 9 FPS, making Ultra the better choice for 1080p users who want maximum visual fidelity without sacrificing much frame rate—184 FPS still exceeds any mainstream display's refresh rate.

At 1440p, the picture shifts. Medium offers 222 FPS average, which is a comfortable margin above 144Hz displays. High drops to 139 FPS, which is just under the 144Hz threshold but still excellent for 120Hz panels. Ultra at 132 FPS is nearly identical to High, suggesting diminishing returns from the Ultra preset's additional effects. Low at 278 FPS is only useful for competitive play, which is not typical for a puzzle platformer.

At 4K, the choices become more constrained. Medium is the standout: 140 FPS average with a minimum of 119 FPS, making it the only 4K preset that clears a 120 FPS floor. High and Ultra deliver 87 and 83 FPS respectively, both suitable for 60Hz displays but not for high-refresh 4K panels. Low at 174 FPS is technically viable but visually underwhelming for a game with Inside's atmospheric art direction.

The optimal recommendation depends on display refresh rate. For 1080p/1440p at 144Hz, Medium provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate headroom. For 4K at 60Hz, High is the sweet spot—it delivers 87 FPS average with no minimum data recorded, but the 4.6% difference from Ultra suggests that High's visual settings are nearly indistinguishable while offering slightly better performance. For maximum fidelity at any resolution, Ultra is only penalized by 5-9% compared to High, making it a reasonable choice for users prioritizing image quality over raw FPS.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The i7-14700K + RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB configuration ranks 1186 out of 3716 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the 68th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly one-third of configurations outperform it. Given that the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB sits in the 19th percentile of all GPUs, the combo's above-median ranking is largely attributable to the CPU's strong performance.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all processors compensates for the GPU's modest standing. In a game like Inside, which is not graphically demanding by modern standards, the CPU's single-thread prowess (2160 in Cinebench R23 single-core) drives frame rates that would typically require a more powerful GPU. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (386) and 1440p Low (278) are figures that suggest the game is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions, allowing the i7-14700K to push the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB to its limits.

The rank also reflects the GPU's performance tier. The nearest GPU rivals are the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF (0.1% faster), RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB (0.2% faster), and RTX 4010 (0.7% slower). The 8 GB variant's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 2913 is nearly identical to the 16 GB version, indicating that the extra VRAM would not materially change Inside's performance. The combo's rank is therefore a function of the CPU's headroom combined with the GPU's sufficient-for-this-game rendering capability.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data shows a predictable scaling pattern across resolutions, but the degree of drop reveals which component is the primary limiter. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 386 at 1080p to 278 at 1440p (a 28% drop) and then to 174 at 4K (a 37% drop from 1440p). This steep decline at Low settings indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly saturated as pixel count rises, even with minimal graphical effects.

At Medium settings, the scaling is shallower: 309 at 1080p, 222 at 1440p (a 28% drop), and 140 at 4K (a 37% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and Medium suggests that the GPU's rendering pipeline is the bottleneck once the CPU has fed it enough frames. At 1080p Low, the 386 FPS is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation limit for this game, meaning the CPU is the limiter at that point.

At High settings, the scaling steepens: 193 at 1080p, 139 at 1440p (a 28% drop), and 87 at 4K (a 37% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows a similar pattern: 184 at 1080p, 132 at 1440p (a 28% drop), and 83 at 4K (a 37% drop from 1440p). The near-identical percentage drops across all presets indicate that the GPU's fill rate and shader throughput scale almost linearly with resolution, while the CPU's contribution remains constant.

The key insight is that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p Low, where 386 FPS exceeds what the GPU can render at higher settings. As resolution increases, the GPU takes over as the primary constraint. At 4K, even the Low preset's 174 FPS is above 144Hz, suggesting that the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB has ample headroom for this game at any resolution, and the CPU's strong single-thread performance prevents it from becoming a bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 386 FPS, while Medium averages 309 FPS with a minimum of 263 and maximum of 355. High drops to 193 FPS, and Ultra to 184 FPS. The step from Medium to High costs 116 FPS (37.5%), while the step from High to Ultra costs only 9 FPS (4.7%). This suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects are relatively lightweight, and the GPU's 4352 shading units and 48 ROPs are not fully taxed until higher resolutions.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 278 FPS, Medium averages 222 FPS (minimum 189, maximum 255), High averages 139 FPS, and Ultra averages 132 FPS. The Medium-to-High gap is 83 FPS (37.4%), nearly identical to the percentage at 1080p, while High-to-Ultra costs only 7 FPS (5.0%). The minimum FPS at Medium (189) is still above 144Hz, indicating that even the lowest frame times remain smooth on high-refresh displays.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more modest but remain playable. Low averages 174 FPS, Medium averages 140 FPS (minimum 119, maximum 161), High averages 87 FPS, and Ultra averages 83 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 119 FPS is notable because it is the only 4K configuration that stays above 60 FPS in all recorded frames. High and Ultra both hover in the mid-80s, which is adequate for 60Hz displays but leaves no headroom for V-sync dips.

The data shows a consistent scaling factor: each resolution step (1080p to 1440p, 1440p to 4K) reduces FPS by approximately 28% at the same settings. This geometric scaling is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the number of pixels (1.92x from 1080p to 1440p, 2.25x from 1440p to 4K) directly impacts rendering time. The fact that the percentage drop is identical across all presets confirms that the GPU's workload scales linearly with resolution, independent of visual complexity.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, using a 5 nm process at TSMC. Its AD106 chip contains 22,900 million transistors on a 188 mm² die, with a transistor density of 121.8M per mm². The GPU operates at a base clock of 2310 MHz and a boost clock of 2535 MHz, with memory clocked at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). The 8 GB GDDR6 memory runs over a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

For a game like Inside, which was released in 2016 and features stylized 2.5D graphics rather than photorealistic 3D rendering, the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB's specifications are more than adequate. The 4352 shading units deliver 22.06 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the 136 TMUs and 48 ROPs handle texture and pixel throughput at 344.8 GTexel/s and 121.7 GPixel/s respectively. The 34 RT cores and 136 tensor cores are present for ray tracing and DLSS, but Inside does not utilize either technology, meaning the GPU's rasterization performance is what matters here.

The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2913 places it in the 19th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF (2910, deltaPct 0.1), RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB (2907, deltaPct 0.2), and RTX 4010 (2893, deltaPct 0.7). The 8 GB and 16 GB variants score nearly identically, confirming that VRAM capacity is not a differentiator in this benchmark. For Inside, the 8 GB capacity is sufficient—the game's measured FPS at 4K Ultra (83) does not indicate any memory throttling, and the 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is ample for the game's texture streaming requirements.

The GPU's 160 W TDP and dual-slot design are modest for a modern graphics card, and the PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides sufficient bandwidth for the game's data transfer needs. The display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a) support high-refresh monitors, and the GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) support ensures compatibility with modern rendering APIs, though Inside's older engine likely runs in DirectX 11 mode. The end-of-life production status indicates this is a mature product, but its performance in this game remains strong—the measured FPS at 4K Medium (140) exceeds what many higher-tier GPUs achieve in more demanding titles.