Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that, on paper, should not stress modern hardware. Yet, the measured frame rates for the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER combination reveal a fascinating scaling curve that defies typical expectations for a title of this era. The data suggests that while the GPU is the primary workhorse, the CPU's headroom is vast, and the game's engine scales in a way that prioritizes raw fill rate over complex shading.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows show a clear hierarchy, but the optimal preset depends on whether the target is maximum fluidity or visual fidelity. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 407.5 FPS, which is exceptionally high. However, moving from Low to Medium only reduces the average to 375.1 FPS, a relatively small drop of 32.4 FPS (roughly 8%). The jump to High brings the average down to 270.1 FPS, and Ultra sits at 259.8 FPS. Given that the difference between High and Ultra is only 10.3 FPS, Ultra is the sensible choice for 1080p if the display can handle the refresh rate, as the visual cost of dropping to High is minimal relative to the performance gain.

At 2560x1440, the story shifts. The Low preset hits 364 FPS, Medium drops to 313.7 FPS, and High falls to 193.6 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is a significant 120.1 FPS, which is likely to be more noticeable than the visual upgrade. Ultra sits at 186.6 FPS, only 7 FPS below High. For a puzzle platformer, the Medium preset at 1440p offers a balanced experience, but the data strongly suggests that High is the sweet spot if the user prefers visual consistency, as it remains above 180 FPS. The Ultra preset is not worth the 7 FPS loss over High.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits. Low produces 244.6 FPS, Medium drops to 196 FPS, and High falls to 121.3 FPS. Ultra is the most demanding, yielding 114 FPS. The transition from Medium to High is a 74.7 FPS drop, which is substantial. However, High still maintains a playable average of 121.3 FPS. The data indicates that High is the best experience at 4K, as it provides a significant visual improvement over Medium while keeping the frame rate above 120 FPS. Ultra offers only a 7.3 FPS improvement over High, which is negligible.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, with its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and a 256-bit bus, demonstrates a clear performance ceiling at higher resolutions. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s and boost clock of 2610 MHz are more than adequate for this title. The data shows that the GPU is the primary scaling factor when moving from 1440p to 4K. For instance, at High settings, the average FPS drops from 193.6 at 1440p to 121.3 at 4K, a reduction of 72.3 FPS.

This indicates that the game is heavily fill-rate dependent. The pixel rate of 250.6 GPixel/s is the likely bottleneck at 4K, as the GPU must process four times the pixels of 1080p. The texture rate of 689.0 GTexel/s is also a factor, but the consistent scaling across settings suggests that the ROPs (96) are the limiting factor at extreme resolutions. The FP32 performance of 44.10 TFLOPS is ample, but it is not being utilized to its full potential, as the frame rate drops are more linear with resolution than with settings complexity. The 16 GB VRAM is not a concern here, as even at 4K Ultra, the game does not appear to be memory-constrained.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER overkill for a 2016 game like Inside?

A: The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 407.5 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it still maintains 114 FPS. This suggests the GPU has significant headroom, but the scaling to 4K indicates it is not overkill if the target is high refresh rate at maximum settings.

Q: Why is the difference between High and Ultra so small at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS drops from 270.1 on High to 259.8 on Ultra, a difference of only 10.3 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset adds minimal additional shading work that the GPU can handle easily at this resolution, making the visual upgrade essentially free.

Q: Which resolution provides the best balance of performance and quality?

A: The 2560x1440 High preset delivers 193.6 FPS, which is high enough for smooth gameplay. The 1440p Medium preset offers 313.7 FPS, but the visual jump to High is significant, and the frame rate remains well above refresh rate thresholds.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at 3840x2160. The FPS drops from 244.6 on Low to 114 on Ultra, showing a strong dependency on GPU workload. The CPU's high core count (20 cores) and boost clock (5.60 GHz) are not the bottleneck in this scenario.

Q: Can this combo hit 240 FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, at Low settings the average is 364 FPS, and at Medium it is 313.7 FPS. However, at High settings, the average drops to 193.6 FPS, which is below the 240 FPS target. This shows that the High preset is the boundary for 240 Hz displays.

Q: How does the GPU's 16 GB memory affect performance?

A: The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is not a limiting factor in this game. The frame rates scale consistently with resolution, indicating that memory capacity is sufficient even at 4K Ultra, where the game may use more memory for textures.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER produces a wide range of results. Low settings yield an average of 407.5 FPS, Medium drops to 375.1 FPS, High falls to 270.1 FPS, and Ultra is the slowest at 259.8 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 147.7 FPS, showing that the game’s visual settings have a moderate impact at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 364 FPS on Low, 313.7 FPS on Medium, 193.6 FPS on High, and 186.6 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Medium and High is 120.1 FPS, which is the largest single-settings jump across all resolutions. This suggests that the High preset introduces a significant rendering feature, such as more complex lighting or shadows, that heavily taxes the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the results compress. Low averages 244.6 FPS, Medium hits 196 FPS, High reaches 121.3 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 114 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is only 7.3 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset is nearly identical to High in terms of performance cost at 4K. The minimum FPS values are not provided, but the averages suggest that all presets are playable.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is ranked 81st out of 1671 tested combos in this game. This places it in the top 5% of all configurations. The high ranking is expected given the hardware, but the data shows that the ranking is not solely due to the CPU. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 48704 and the CPU’s average of 70074 indicate that both components are strong, but the combo’s performance in Inside is more reliant on the GPU.

The nearest rival for the GPU is the NVIDIA CMP 50HX, which has a deltaPct of -0.7, meaning the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is slightly faster. The CPU’s nearest rival is the Intel Core i7-14700KF with a deltaPct of 0, showing identical performance. This combo’s rank of 81 suggests that while it is not the absolute fastest, it is well above the median, and the performance in this game is consistent with the hardware’s capabilities.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K features 20 cores and 28 threads, with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. In a game like Inside, which is not heavily multithreaded, the CPU’s single-core performance is more relevant. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6287 and Geekbench single-core score of 2932 indicate strong per-core performance. The data from the measured FPS shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution.

For example, at 1080p Low, the 407.5 FPS average does not show signs of CPU limitation. The frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution, which is a hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU’s 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample bandwidth for the game’s logic. The base clock of 3.40 GHz is sufficient, but the boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that the game’s main thread is never starved. The TDP of 125 W is a nominal figure, and the data suggests that the CPU has significant headroom remaining.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent with a GPU-bound workload. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 407.5 at 1080p to 244.6 at 4K, a reduction of 162.9 FPS (40%). At High settings, it drops from 270.1 to 121.3, a reduction of 148.8 FPS (55%). At Ultra, it falls from 259.8 to 114, a reduction of 145.8 FPS (56%). This pattern shows that the performance penalty for increasing resolution is more severe at higher settings, which is expected.

The scaling also reveals that the GPU is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would not drop as much when moving to 4K, as the CPU workload remains constant. The fact that the FPS drops by roughly half from 1080p to 4K at High and Ultra settings suggests that the GPU is processing twice the pixels with diminishing returns. The 1440p results sit neatly between the two extremes, confirming that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s memory bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s is the key factor in maintaining playable frame rates at 4K. The data implies that for this game, the upgrade path is clear: the GPU is the sole determinant of performance, and the CPU is a silent partner.