Inside

The Intel Core i7-14700KF and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT combination delivers a thoroughly playable experience in Inside, with average frame rates ranging from 62.2 FPS at 4K Ultra to 279.2 FPS at 1080p Low. The data shows this is a GPU-limited pairing at higher resolutions, while the 20-core CPU provides ample headroom to push extreme frame rates at 1080p. The measured results place this combo at rank 1116 out of 1671 tested combinations, a mid-pack position that reflects the GPU’s 71st percentile standing rather than the CPU’s 96th percentile performance.

Resolution Scaling

Frame rates scale dramatically as resolution drops, revealing a classic GPU-bound scenario at 4K and a CPU-bound ceiling at 1080p. At Ultra settings, the average FPS jumps from 62.2 at 3840x2160 to 98.8 at 2560x1440, a 58.8% improvement, and then to 133.9 at 1920x1080, another 35.5% gain. This steep progression indicates that the RX 6600 XT’s rendering throughput is the primary constraint at higher pixel counts, with the GPU’s 256.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 10.60 TFLOPS FP32 compute being taxed heavily by 4K workloads.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced at lower settings. Moving from 4K Low to 1440p Low yields a 57.6% increase (129 to 203.3 FPS), while 1440p Low to 1080p Low adds another 37.3% (203.3 to 279.2 FPS). The 279.2 FPS figure at 1080p Low suggests the game engine is approaching the practical limit of what this CPU can feed, as the i7-14700KF’s 5.60 GHz boost clock and 33 MB shared L3 cache become more relevant when GPU load diminishes. At 4K High (64.7 FPS) versus 4K Ultra (62.2 FPS), the difference is only 4%, confirming that resolution, not quality preset, dominates the performance curve at this tier.

The 1440p results show a balanced point where neither component is fully saturated. At Medium settings, 1440p delivers 160 FPS versus 102.5 at 4K, a 56.1% delta, while 1080p Medium reaches 224.9 FPS. This indicates that for 1440p gaming, the RX 6600 XT still has headroom to spare, but the CPU’s role becomes more pronounced as the resolution drops toward 1080p where the frame rate exceeds 200 FPS consistently.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF brings substantial processing power to Inside, though the game’s modest thread requirements mean much of this capability sits idle. With 20 cores and 28 threads, the CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities are far beyond what a puzzle platformer typically requires, but its single-thread performance is equally impressive. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6290 and Geekbench single-core score of 2972 indicate strong per-thread throughput, which directly benefits game logic and physics calculations.

The CPU’s 96th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 70104, places it just 0.3% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700K in aggregate performance. However, these synthetic benchmarks don’t translate to meaningful differences in Inside — the frame rates at 1080p Low (279.2 FPS) suggest the game engine is the limiting factor, not the CPU. The 5.60 GHz boost clock provides rapid response for the game’s physics-based puzzles, while the 33 MB shared L3 cache helps maintain consistent frame pacing.

At 1080p, the CPU’s influence becomes visible in the scaling from Low to Ultra: 279.2 to 133.9 FPS, a 52% drop that mirrors GPU load changes rather than CPU limitations. The data shows the i7-14700KF can comfortably maintain frame rates above 130 FPS even at 1080p Ultra, meaning the CPU never becomes a bottleneck in this title. The 125 W TDP and Raptor Lake architecture (10 nm process, 257 mm² die) provide ample margin for sustained performance without thermal throttling in well-ventilated chassis.

FAQ

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

A: The maximum measured average is 279.2 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 62.2 FPS, still above playable thresholds.

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

A: The i7-14700KF scores 0.3% higher than the AMD EPYC 9115 and 0.4% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X in aggregate benchmarks, but these differences have negligible impact on Inside’s frame rates given the game’s light CPU demands.

Q: Is 8 GB of VRAM sufficient for 4K Ultra settings?

A: The data shows 62.2 FPS at 4K Ultra, indicating the 8 GB GDDR6 memory with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for this game at that resolution, though performance is modest.

Q: What is the GPU’s percentile ranking among all graphics cards?

A: The RX 6600 XT ranks in the 71st percentile, with an average benchmark score of 27985. It performs within 0.9% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 and 0.1% ahead of the GTX 980 Ti.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combination ranks 1116 out of 1671 tested combos, placing it in the middle third of all pairings tested for this game.

Q: Does the CPU’s 96th percentile ranking translate to better gaming performance?

A: Not proportionally — while the CPU excels in synthetic tests, Inside’s frame rates are predominantly GPU-limited beyond 1080p, so the CPU’s high percentile has minimal impact on the measured FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The data clearly favors Medium settings as the optimal balance for this hardware. At 1080p Medium, the combo delivers 224.9 FPS, which is 57.5% higher than High settings (142.8 FPS) and only 19.4% lower than Low (279.2 FPS). The visual fidelity gain from Medium to High costs 82.1 FPS at 1080p, a steep trade-off that Medium avoids while still providing better image quality than Low.

For 1440p users, Medium settings again stand out: 160 FPS versus 104 High and 203.3 Low. This 160 FPS figure aligns well with high-refresh 1440p monitors, making Medium the clear choice for competitive play without sacrificing the game’s atmospheric lighting. At 4K, Medium yields 102.5 FPS, which is 65% higher than Ultra (62.2 FPS) and 20.6% lower than Low (129 FPS), presenting the only viable path to triple-digit frame rates at this resolution.

Ultra settings are difficult to justify given the measured results. At every resolution, Ultra delivers the lowest frame rates of the three quality presets tested above Low — 133.9 FPS at 1080p, 98.8 at 1440p, and 62.2 at 4K — with marginal visual improvements over High. The 4K Ultra figure sits close to the 60 FPS baseline, making it playable but with no headroom for demanding scenes. Medium settings provide the best combination of frame rate stability and graphical quality across all resolutions, particularly at 1440p where the 160 FPS average offers excellent responsiveness.

How This Combo Ranks

This pairing sits at rank 1116 out of 1671 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle of the database. The rank reflects the GPU’s 71st percentile (avg score 27985) more than the CPU’s 96th percentile (avg score 70104), indicating that the RX 6600 XT is the performance-limiting component in this pairing. The combo’s position is consistent with its hardware profile: a high-end CPU paired with a mid-range GPU, resulting in frame rates that are solid but not exceptional for 4K Ultra workloads.

Relative to other tested combos, this configuration outperforms the bottom third of pairings but trails configurations featuring higher-tier GPUs. The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, scores within 0.1% in aggregate benchmarks, while the RTX 3070 is 0.9% ahead — these small GPU-level differences translate to similarly modest frame rate deltas in Inside. The CPU’s rivals (i7-14700K at 0% delta, EPYC 9115 at 0.3%) show that processor choice has minimal impact on this game’s performance, reinforcing that the GPU drives the combo ranking.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings spectrum is well represented: Low averages 279.2 FPS, Medium 224.9, High 142.8, and Ultra 133.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 54.3 FPS, while the High-to-Ultra delta is only 8.9 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at the top end. 2560x1440 results show a similar pattern: Low 203.3, Medium 160, High 104, and Ultra 98.8 FPS. The 1440p Medium figure represents an 84.9% increase over 4K Medium, highlighting the resolution’s lighter load on the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 129 FPS (Low), 102.5 (Medium), 64.7 (High), and 62.2 (Ultra). The 4K Low result exceeds 1440p High (104 FPS) by 24%, demonstrating that resolution scaling has a larger impact than quality presets. The most extreme spread is at 1080p, where Low beats Ultra by 145.3 FPS (279.2 vs 133.9), while at 4K the spread narrows to 66.8 FPS (129 vs 62.2). This compression at higher resolutions confirms the GPU becomes the dominant constraint as pixel count increases.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, built on the 7 nm RDNA 2.0 architecture with 11,060 million transistors, delivers consistent performance in Inside but shows its mid-range positioning at 4K. The GPU’s 71st percentile ranking (avg score 27985) places it just 0.1% ahead of the GTX 980 Ti and 0.9% behind the RTX 3070, with its 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs driving the measured frame rates. The 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s bandwidth, which appears sufficient for this game’s texture loads even at 4K Ultra.

The GPU’s clock behavior — 1968 MHz base, 2359 MHz game, 2589 MHz boost — contributes to strong 1080p performance, where the card sustains above 130 FPS at all settings. The 10.60 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 331.4 GTexel/s texture rate handle Inside’s 2D-style rendering efficiently, though the 4K Ultra figure of 62.2 FPS indicates the card is working near its limits. The 160 W TDP and dual-slot cooler suggest thermal headroom for sustained loads, and the 450 W suggested PSU leaves adequate margin for the rest of the system.

The 4K scaling from Low (129 FPS) to Ultra (62.2 FPS) shows a 51.8% reduction, which correlates with increased shading and texture work. At 1440p, the GPU maintains 98.8 FPS at Ultra, a 58.8% improvement over 4K Ultra, demonstrating that 1440p is the card’s sweet spot for maximum quality. The RX 6600 XT’s 16 Gbps effective memory speed and PCIe 4.0 x8 interface are not bottlenecks in this title, as evidenced by the high frame rates at lower resolutions where CPU and memory bandwidth could become limiting.