Inside

Inside is a 2D puzzle-platformer from 2016, and the measured results for the Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 show a system that is dramatically overqualified for the task. The data indicates that this combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, firmly placing the bottleneck on the GPU only at the highest visual presets. The following analysis breaks down the measured performance, component roles, and practical settings for this specific configuration.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a classic pattern where the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases, but the CPU's immense headroom keeps the system from ever feeling constrained. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 309 FPS, which is a staggering figure that highlights the CPU's ability to feed frames far faster than any standard display can show. Moving to 1440p Low drops the average to 222 FPS, a 28% reduction, and at 4K Low it falls to 140 FPS, a 55% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline with resolution is a clear sign that the Radeon RX 9060 is being tasked with more pixel work, while the i7-14700KF has ample processing power to spare.

The scaling behavior changes character when looking at the High and Ultra presets. At 1080p High, the system hits 155 FPS, and at 1440p High it drops to 111 FPS, a 28% decrease. The 4K High result is 70 FPS, which is a 55% drop from 1080p High—identical scaling percentages to the Low preset. This consistency suggests that within each settings tier, the relative workload increase from resolution scaling is uniform. However, the absolute numbers tell a more nuanced story: at 4K Ultra, the frame rate bottoms out at 66 FPS, which is only 57% of the 1080p Ultra score of 147 FPS. The gap between 4K High (70 FPS) and 4K Ultra (66 FPS) is a mere 4 FPS, indicating that the GPU is nearly saturated at this resolution, and the extra graphical fidelity from the Ultra preset has minimal additional cost because the renderer is already maxed out.

The data suggests that the limiting component shifts based on the target. At 1080p and 1440p, even with Ultra settings, the frame rates remain high enough (147 and 106 FPS respectively) that the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads are likely not the constraint, as a weaker processor would still struggle to push beyond 150 FPS in a physics-light game like this. At 4K, the GPU is definitively the bottleneck, evidenced by the dramatic scaling from Low to Ultra (140 to 66 FPS, a 53% drop). For a game with simple 2D visuals, this resolution scaling indicates that the system is bandwidth and pixel-throughput limited at 4K, not compute limited, which aligns with the GPU's 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this CPU and GPU combination in Inside?

A: The highest measured average is 309 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only result above 300 FPS in the dataset.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, which places it 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (score 16129) and 1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (score 15852). Its percentile rank is 59, meaning it outperforms 59% of all GPUs in the database.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this setup?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High, the system averages 70 FPS, which is playable. At 4K Ultra, it drops to 66 FPS. The jump from Medium (112 FPS) to High (70 FPS) at 4K is a 42 FPS loss, which is substantial, so users targeting 60 FPS should stick to High or Medium.

Q: What is the CPU's performance percentile relative to all processors?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700KF sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70163. It is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and 0.9% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X.

Q: Does the game show a significant difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: Yes. The average frame rate drops from 178 FPS at Medium to 111 FPS at High, a 67 FPS (38%) reduction. This suggests the High preset introduces a substantial increase in rendering complexity, likely related to shadow quality or post-processing effects.

Q: What is the lowest frame rate recorded across all tested configurations?

A: The lowest average is 66 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. The only min FPS values recorded in the data are for Medium settings: 95 FPS at 4K, 151 FPS at 1440p, and 210 FPS at 1080p.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060, built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, is the primary driver of frame rate differences across settings and resolutions in Inside. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a modest figure by modern standards, but more than sufficient for a 2D side-scroller. The measured data confirms this: even at 4K Ultra, the GPU maintains a 66 FPS average, indicating that memory capacity is not a limiting factor, as the game's textures and frame buffers likely fit comfortably within 8 GB.

The clock speeds are notable for their headroom. The base clock is 1700 MHz, the game clock is 2400 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2990 MHz. This 1290 MHz spread between base and boost suggests that the card can aggressively scale its frequency under load, which helps explain the strong performance at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the GPU produces 309 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra, it produces 147 FPS—a 52% reduction. This scaling from Low to Ultra at a fixed resolution shows the GPU's shading units (1792), texture mapping units (112), and raster operators (64) are being utilized progressively harder. The pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s are the theoretical limits, and the measured frame rates suggest the card is operating near these limits at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores provide context for its gaming performance. It scores 3322 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 17631 in Passmark G3D, and 9919 in Passmark GPU Compute. Its average benchmark score of 16014 places it in the 59th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rival is the RTX 3060 Ti, which it trails by 0.7%. The passmark DirectX scores are low (104 for DX10, 182 for DX11, 44 for DX12), but these are likely synthetic tests that do not reflect real-world gaming, as the measured FPS in Inside is far higher than what those scores would suggest. The GPU's FP32 performance of 21.43 TFLOPS is substantial for a card in this class, and the 1:1 FP16 ratio indicates strong compute potential that is irrelevant for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides 12 measured configurations, covering four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) at three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, 4K). The following is a complete enumeration of the results.

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 309 FPS on Low, 247 FPS on Medium, 155 FPS on High, and 147 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset has the only recorded min and max values at this resolution: 210 FPS minimum and 284 FPS maximum, indicating a stable frame pacing with a 74 FPS range. The gap between High and Ultra at 1080p is only 8 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds minimal overhead over High, possibly just a few extra effects that the GPU can handle without significant cost.

At 2560x1440, the results are 222 FPS on Low, 178 FPS on Medium, 111 FPS on High, and 106 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a min of 151 FPS and a max of 204 FPS, a 53 FPS spread. The transition from Medium to High at 1440p is a steep 67 FPS drop, which is the largest single-setting jump in the entire dataset. This indicates that High enables a rendering feature that disproportionately impacts performance at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are 140 FPS on Low, 112 FPS on Medium, 70 FPS on High, and 66 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset records a min of 95 FPS and a max of 128 FPS. The drop from Medium to High at 4K is 42 FPS, and the drop from High to Ultra is a mere 4 FPS. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that the difference between High and Ultra becomes negligible, as the card is likely bound by memory bandwidth or pixel fill rate rather than shader complexity.

The overall pattern shows that Low and Medium settings are always playable (above 100 FPS) even at 4K, while High and Ultra dip below 100 FPS only at 4K. The system ranks 1615 out of 2887 total combinations for this game, which places it in the 56th percentile of tested systems, indicating that while this is a strong setup, there are many other configurations that achieve higher frame rates in this specific title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a 20-core, 28-thread processor from the Raptor Lake-R architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its synthetic benchmarks are exceptional: it scores 44167 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 6235 in single-core, and 52425 in Passmark multithread. These numbers place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70163, which is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX.

In Inside, the CPU's role is largely to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The game's 2D nature means that the CPU load is minimal compared to a 3D open-world title. The measured data supports this: at 1080p Low, the system produces 309 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine limit or the GPU's maximum output at that resolution, not a CPU constraint. The fact that the frame rate scales down as resolution increases (309 to 140 FPS from 1080p to 4K at Low) is purely a GPU workload increase.

The CPU's high single-thread performance (6235 in Cinebench R23, 4480 in Passmark single-thread) is particularly relevant for a game like Inside, which likely relies on a single main thread for game logic. The boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that this thread can execute as fast as possible, eliminating any potential CPU bottleneck. The 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample on-die storage for the game's assets, reducing memory latency.

Given that the CPU is in the 94th percentile and its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, is only 1% faster in average benchmark score, the i7-14700KF has more than enough headroom for this game. The data shows no scenario where the CPU would be the limiting factor, as the frame rates are consistently high even at the lowest resolution, where CPU overhead would be most apparent. The 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory make it a versatile choice, though memory bandwidth is unlikely to matter for this title given the modest GPU demands.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target display refresh rate and resolution. For a standard 60 Hz display at 4K, the High preset at 70 FPS is the best choice, as it provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while delivering higher visual quality than Medium. The Ultra preset at 66 FPS is also acceptable but offers a negligible visual improvement over High (4 FPS difference), so High is the more sensible pick to maintain stability.

For 1440p displays with 144 Hz refresh rates, the Medium preset at 178 FPS is the sweet spot. It provides a 34 FPS margin over the 144 FPS target, ensuring smooth gameplay without frame drops, and it has a recorded min of 151 FPS, which stays above the refresh rate. The High preset at 111 FPS would be suitable for a 120 Hz display, but for 144 Hz, Medium is the safer option. The Ultra preset at 106 FPS is not recommended for high-refresh gaming, as it falls below the 144 Hz threshold.

For 1080p displays, which are still common, the system has overwhelming performance. The Medium preset at 247 FPS is ideal for 240 Hz monitors, while the High preset at 155 FPS suits 165 Hz displays. The Ultra preset at 147 FPS also works for 144 Hz monitors, but the 8 FPS difference between High and Ultra suggests that High is the better value in terms of performance per visual gain. The Low preset at 309 FPS is only useful for extreme esports-style play, which is unnecessary for a puzzle-platformer.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience, with the only recorded min and max FPS values in the dataset, indicating that it is the most stable configuration. The data shows that High and Ultra presets do not have recorded min/max values, which may suggest higher frame time variance. For the best overall experience, Medium at 1440p (178 FPS) or 1080p (247 FPS) provides a high frame rate with a safety margin, while High at 4K (70 FPS) is the choice for maximum visual fidelity at a playable frame rate. The GPU's 59th percentile ranking and the CPU's 94th percentile ranking indicate that this system is well-balanced, with the GPU being the limiting factor only at 4K Ultra.