Inside

# Inside — Intel Core i7-14700KF + AMD Radeon RX 6600

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 delivers a playable but uneven experience in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer released on 2016-07-06. The data shows a system that can push very high frame rates at lower settings, yet struggles to maintain smooth performance at 4K with higher quality presets. The combination ranks 1364th out of 1671 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower quartile of the database, which reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning rather than any CPU limitation. The Radeon RX 6600 sits at the 69th percentile among all GPUs, while the Core i7-14700KF ranks at the 96th percentile among all CPUs, a disparity that immediately signals where the bottleneck lies.

Resolution Scaling

Frame rates scale dramatically across resolutions, revealing a workload that is heavily dependent on pixel throughput. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 257.6 FPS, which drops to 183.2 FPS at 1440p and further to 116 FPS at 4K. This represents a 54.9% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, a steep decline that points directly at the GPU as the limiting factor, since the CPU has ample headroom. The pattern holds across all settings presets. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 127.5 FPS at 1080p to 93.8 FPS at 1440p, then to 56.1 FPS at 4K — a 56% drop from the lowest to highest resolution. Medium settings show a similar trajectory: 206.8 FPS at 1080p, 147.9 FPS at 1440p, and 91.5 FPS at 4K.

The scaling between 1440p and 4K is particularly steep, suggesting that the RX 6600's 8 GB memory buffer and 128-bit bus become strained as pixel count increases. At Ultra settings, the system manages 119.6 FPS at 1080p but only 87.4 FPS at 1440p and 55.1 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K at Ultra is 37%, while the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 27%. This non-linear degradation indicates that the GPU is reaching its compute ceiling, not a memory bandwidth wall, because the game's visual complexity in Inside is modest for a 2016 title. The data consistently shows that resolution scaling is the dominant factor; the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads are never the constraint at any resolution tested.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. Its boost clock reaches 2491 MHz, with a game clock of 2044 MHz and a base clock of 1626 MHz. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications place the GPU at the 69th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25235. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 890M (deltaPct 0), the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (deltaPct -0.2), and the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (deltaPct 0.2), which shows how tightly clustered this performance segment is.

In Inside, the GPU's role is decisive. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 257.6 FPS exceeds what most displays can show, but this is a best-case scenario. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 55.1 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold many consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. The GPU's FP32 performance of 8.928 TFLOPS and texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s are adequate for the game's side-scrolling 2.5D visuals, but the pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s becomes a limitation at 4K. The DirectX 12 benchmark score of 51 in Passmark and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1492 confirm the GPU's mid-range standing. The 28 ray tracing cores are present but largely irrelevant for a puzzle platformer like Inside, which does not employ ray-traced effects.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1364th out of 1671 tested combinations in Inside, placing it in the bottom 18% of the database. This ranking is surprising given the CPU's strength, but it aligns with the GPU's 69th percentile standing. The data indicates that the combo's performance is almost entirely dictated by the RX 6600, as the i7-14700KF has no peer in this pairing. The CPU's average benchmark score is 70104, with a percentile rank of 96 among all CPUs, and its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i7-14700K (deltaPct 0), AMD EPYC 9115 (deltaPct 0.3), AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (deltaPct -0.4), and Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (deltaPct -1.3). This places the CPU in elite territory, yet the combo rank remains low because the GPU cannot translate that CPU power into high frame rates at demanding settings.

The 1364th rank of 1671 means the system falls behind many combos featuring older or weaker CPUs paired with stronger GPUs. This is a classic imbalance: the CPU is overqualified for the GPU, and the GPU becomes the sole determinant of playable settings. The benchmark results indicate that users would need to reduce resolution or settings to achieve high frame rates, which is a GPU-driven constraint. The 0.2 deltaPct difference between the RX 6600 and the RX 580 2048SP shows how close the GPU is to older budget cards, further explaining the low combo rank.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce 257.6 FPS, Medium yields 206.8 FPS, High reaches 127.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 119.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 50.8 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 7.9 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds marginal visual fidelity for a small performance cost at this resolution. All 1080p results are well above 60 FPS, making this the recommended resolution for consistent smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain playable but show more variance. Low settings hit 183.2 FPS, Medium drops to 147.9 FPS, High falls to 93.8 FPS, and Ultra sinks to 87.4 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 95.8 FPS, a 52% reduction that highlights the GPU's sensitivity to quality settings at higher pixel counts. The 1440p High result of 93.8 FPS is still above 60 FPS, but the margin narrows considerably compared to 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings produce 116 FPS, Medium drops to 91.5 FPS, High falls to 56.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 55.1 FPS. The High and Ultra results are below 60 FPS, making them borderline for smooth gameplay. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is only 1 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset offers no practical benefit at this resolution. The 4K Low result of 116 FPS is the only 4K preset that clears 60 FPS by a wide margin, but it does so by sacrificing visual quality.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Inside?*

A: The data shows 1080p is the most reliable choice, with all settings presets exceeding 119.6 FPS. At 1440p, only Low and Medium exceed 120 FPS, while High and Ultra stay above 87 FPS. At 4K, High and Ultra fall below 60 FPS, making them less desirable.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700KF has an average benchmark score of 70104, which is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-14700K (deltaPct 0) and the AMD EPYC 9115 (deltaPct 0.3). It is 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and 1.3% ahead of the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270.

Q: Is the GPU the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: Yes. The GPU ranks at the 69th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU ranks at the 96th percentile. The frame rate drops of 54-56% from 1080p to 4K across all settings confirm that the RX 6600 is the limiting component.

Q: What is the GPU's closest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 has an average score of 25235, which is within 0.2% of the AMD Radeon 890M and the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP. The Radeon RX 6700M is 0.2% slower, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is 0.5% slower.

*Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K smoothly?*

A: Only at Low or Medium settings, which produce 116 FPS and 91.5 FPS respectively. High settings drop to 56.1 FPS and Ultra to 55.1 FPS, both below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the combo rank overall?

A: The combo ranks 1364th out of 1671 tested combinations in Inside, placing it in the lowest 18% of the database. This low rank is attributable to the GPU's mid-range performance ceiling.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF provides 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3. The CPU's benchmark results are exceptional: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 44557, single-core scores 6290, and Geekbench multicore reaches 19287. Passmark multithread scores 52425, and single-thread scores 4480. These numbers place the CPU at the 96th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70104.

In Inside, the CPU's role is largely passive. The game is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer with modest physics and AI demands, so the i7-14700KF's 20 cores are never fully utilized. The data shows no frame rate pattern that would indicate CPU limitation; instead, the frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings, which is characteristic of GPU-bound workloads. The CPU's 125 W TDP and 10 nm process node are irrelevant to the game's performance, as the bottleneck is clearly the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores — the i7-14700K, EPYC 9115, Ryzen 9 9950X, and Xeon Platinum 8270 — all show deltaPct values within 1.3%, meaning any of these CPUs would perform identically in Inside when paired with the same GPU.