Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer that is far more forgiving on hardware than its moody, monochrome presentation suggests. The measured data for the Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER shows a combination that is heavily GPU-limited at higher settings, but the CPU's immense headroom becomes apparent at lower presets. This pairing ranks 1454th out of 1671 tested combos for this game, placing it in the lower tier of the database, primarily due to the graphics card's age rather than any processor deficiency.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is stark, confirming that the GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary bottleneck in this configuration. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 105.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 75.3 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 30.4 FPS. Pushing further to 3840x2160 yields just 51.4 FPS, which is a 54.3 FPS drop from the 1080p result. This pattern indicates that pixel throughput is the limiting factor; the GPU's 48 ROPs and 336.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth are being saturated as resolution increases.

The scaling behavior changes dramatically when settings are lowered. At Low settings, the 1080p result of 219.1 FPS drops to 157.7 FPS at 1440p and 101.1 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is roughly 54% at Low, compared to a 51% drop at High, suggesting that the GPU is still the main constraint but that the CPU is beginning to show its strength at lower resolutions. The fact that 4K Low (101.1 FPS) still outperforms 1080p Ultra (101.8 FPS) is telling—the settings have a greater impact on performance than the resolution does in this range.

At Medium settings, the deltas are more moderate: 172.3 FPS at 1080p, 126.7 FPS at 1440p, and 79.1 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most significant drop-off, with 101.8 FPS at 1080p falling to 50.0 FPS at 4K, a 51.8 FPS difference. This suggests that Ultra settings introduce effects that heavily tax the GPU's shading units and texture rate, making 4K Ultra an unrealistic target for this combo.

GPU Role

The GTX 1660 SUPER is a Turing-architecture card with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 1785 MHz and 1408 shading units deliver a peak FP32 performance of 5.027 TFLOPS. In Inside, these specifications translate to a card that can handle 1080p and 1440p gaming well, but struggles at 4K with higher presets. The GPU's benchmark percentile of 55 indicates it sits just above the median of all tested GPUs, which aligns with its measured performance in this game.

The VRAM capacity of 6 GB is not directly stressed by Inside's measured rows, as even the 4K Ultra preset does not show a catastrophic frame rate collapse, only a reduction to 50.0 FPS. However, the card's memory clock of 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) and bandwidth appear sufficient for this title's relatively simple textures. The data shows that the GPU's compute capabilities, rather than its memory subsystem, are the limiting factor when moving from Medium to High or Ultra settings, as the frame rate drops by roughly 25-30% at each resolution when stepping up from Medium to High.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1278 and Passmark G3D score of 12699 provide context for its overall capabilities, but Inside's measured results are more telling. The card's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (with a deltaPct of -0.7), perform nearly identically in synthetic benchmarks, yet the GTX 1660 SUPER's real-world results in this game are what matter for this analysis.

Settings Recommendations

The data strongly suggests that Medium settings provide the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combo. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 172.3 FPS, which is over 66 FPS higher than High (105.7 FPS) and just 46.8 FPS short of Low's 219.1 FPS. The visual difference between Medium and High in a puzzle platformer like Inside is unlikely to justify a 38.6% performance penalty. For 2560x1440, Medium's 126.7 FPS remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the recommended preset for higher-resolution displays.

For users targeting 4K, the choices are more constrained. Medium at 3840x2160 produces 79.1 FPS, which is playable, but dropping to Low raises this to 101.1 FPS. High and Ultra at 4K fall to 51.4 FPS and 50.0 FPS respectively, which are borderline for smooth gameplay but may be acceptable for a slower-paced puzzle title. The recommendation is to use Medium for the best overall experience, as it maintains high frame rates across all resolutions without sacrificing the game's atmospheric lighting effects. Low settings at 4K are a viable fallback if frame rate consistency is prioritized over visual quality.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Inside at 4K smoothly?

A: Yes, at Medium settings the average frame rate is 79.1 FPS, and at Low it reaches 101.1 FPS. However, High and Ultra drop to 51.4 FPS and 50.0 FPS respectively, which may feel less fluid.

Q: Why is there such a large gap between Low and Ultra settings?

A: The measured data shows a 117.3 FPS difference at 1080p (219.1 vs 101.8 FPS). This indicates that Ultra settings impose significant shading and texture demands that the GPU's 1408 shading units struggle to meet.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700KF holding back the GTX 1660 SUPER in this game?

A: No. The processor's Passmark multithread score of 52425 and single-thread score of 4480 place it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, meaning it has ample headroom. The GPU is the limiting component at all tested resolutions.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: 2560x1440 with Medium settings provides 126.7 FPS, offering a good balance between image clarity and performance. 1920x1080 with Medium gives 172.3 FPS if maximum frame rates are desired.

Q: How does this GPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 14286, which is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (14314) and Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics (14315), with deltaPct values of -0.2% for both.

Q: Does the game favor the CPU's multi-core or single-core performance?

A: The data shows that even at 1080p Low (219.1 FPS), the CPU is not bottlenecked, so both its 20 cores and 28 threads along with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz contribute to ensuring the GPU is the sole limiting factor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a Raptor Lake Refresh processor with 20 cores and 28 threads, boosting up to 5.60 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44557 and single-core score of 6290 place it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, making it an exceptionally powerful partner for a mid-range GPU. In Inside, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations, and the benchmark results confirm it does so without breaking a sweat. Even at 1080p Low, where the frame rate reaches 219.1 FPS, the processor is not the limiting factor.

The CPU's L3 cache of 33 MB and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory contribute to its ability to handle game logic efficiently. Its Passmark physics score of 2961 and integer math score of 183056 suggest that any computational demand from Inside's puzzle mechanics is trivial for this processor. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700K, has an average score of 70074 with a deltaPct of 0, indicating they are functionally identical in performance, while the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X trails by -0.4% in synthetic averages.

This CPU's strength means that users upgrading the GPU in the future will see immediate frame rate improvements in Inside without needing to change the processor. The data shows that the i7-14700KF can easily drive a more powerful graphics card, as its current bottleneck is entirely on the GTX 1660 SUPER side.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are 219.1 FPS (Low), 172.3 FPS (Medium), 105.7 FPS (High), and 101.8 FPS (Ultra). The jump from Low to Medium costs 46.8 FPS, while moving from Medium to High costs 66.6 FPS, indicating that High settings introduce a significant rendering load. Ultra is only 3.9 FPS slower than High, suggesting diminishing returns at the highest preset.

At 2560x1440, the results are 157.7 FPS (Low), 126.7 FPS (Medium), 75.3 FPS (High), and 77.1 FPS (Ultra). Notably, Ultra is actually 1.8 FPS faster than High at this resolution, which is within expected variance but still notable. The drop from Medium to High is 51.4 FPS, nearly identical in absolute terms to the 1080p drop, showing that the GPU's fill rate limits are consistent across resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the results are 101.1 FPS (Low), 79.1 FPS (Medium), 51.4 FPS (High), and 50.0 FPS (Ultra). The 4K results show that Medium is the only preset that remains above 60 FPS, while High and Ultra fall into the 50 FPS range. The difference between Low and Medium at 4K is 22 FPS, which is smaller than at lower resolutions, indicating that resolution scaling becomes the dominant factor.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ranks 1454th out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the bottom 13% of all tested configurations, which is a direct reflection of the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU's. The rank is determined by the measured FPS across all resolutions and settings, and the GTX 1660 SUPER's 55th percentile GPU ranking drags the overall combo score down despite the CPU's 96th percentile ranking.

The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming at Medium settings, where it can achieve high frame rates. For users with this pairing, the ranking suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield substantial improvements in Inside's performance, as the CPU has demonstrated it can support much higher frame rates. The combo's rank of 1454 is a clear signal that the graphics card is the weak link, and any future GPU upgrade would move this combination significantly higher in the rankings.