Inside

# Inside — Intel Core i7-14700KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The benchmark data for Inside with this combination reveals a puzzle platformer that is remarkably forgiving on hardware, yet the scaling patterns expose interesting bottlenecks. Across all twelve measured configurations, frame rates never dip below 96 FPS, which immediately signals that this game is far from a stress test for either component. The dataset shows a clear hierarchy: resolution matters far more than settings, and the RTX 3080 appears to be the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions while the i7-14700KF's headroom remains largely untapped. The measured results indicate a system that can comfortably handle this title at maximum settings on any resolution, with the 4K Ultra result of 96.2 FPS being the only figure that approaches typical 60 FPS display thresholds — and it clears them with substantial margin.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 produces a distinct pattern that reveals where the workload concentrates. At High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 219.4 to 159.4 FPS, a reduction of roughly 27%. Moving from 1440p to 4K High brings the frame rate to 101 FPS, another 37% decline. This accelerating degradation as resolution increases is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario — the CPU's job does not scale with pixel count, but the GPU's shading, texture, and memory workload does.

The Low preset tells an even more revealing story. At 1080p Low, the system produces 411.3 FPS, which drops to 317.6 FPS at 1440p and then to 201.1 FPS at 4K. The percentage losses are 23% and 37% respectively. Interestingly, the 4K Low result (201.1 FPS) is nearly identical to the 1080p High result (219.4 FPS) — the resolution increase and the settings increase roughly cancel each other out. This suggests that Inside's visual effects at higher presets impose a similar cost to the additional pixel throughput required at higher resolutions.

What the data implies is that at 1080p, particularly with Low or Medium settings, the system may be approaching a CPU or engine-level limit. The 411.3 FPS Low figure is more than double the 4K High result, yet even at this extreme frame rate, the i7-14700KF with its 20 cores and 28 threads is unlikely to be the constraint — the game's physics and logic loads are simply too light for this processor. The RTX 3080, with its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth, appears to be the limiting component throughout, but only because the CPU is so far ahead of what this game demands.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows offer a clear picture of how each preset tier trades performance for visual fidelity. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 209 FPS, which is only 5% lower than High's 219.4 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is even smaller in absolute terms: 354.3 vs 219.4 FPS, though the percentage difference is substantial. The most efficient choice at 1080p is arguably High, as it sits between the extreme Low figure of 411.3 FPS and the Ultra figure of 209 FPS, providing a balanced experience without the diminishing returns of the top tier.

At 1440p, the pattern shifts. High produces 159.4 FPS, while Ultra drops to 152.8 FPS — a mere 4% penalty for the highest preset. Medium delivers 252.9 FPS, but the visual difference between Medium and High in a puzzle platformer like Inside is likely more noticeable than the frame rate gap suggests. The data indicates that Ultra at 1440p is the sweet spot for this combination: 152.8 FPS is still far above any display refresh rate below 144 Hz, and the cost from High to Ultra is negligible.

At 4K, the recommendation becomes more nuanced. Ultra runs at 96.2 FPS, which is playable on any current display but does not fully utilize a 120 Hz or 144 Hz panel. High at 101 FPS offers only a 5% improvement, so the choice between High and Ultra at 4K comes down to whether the extra visual effects are worth the small frame rate sacrifice. Medium at 158.5 FPS is the standout option for high-refresh-rate 4K displays, providing over 60% more performance than Ultra while still maintaining a middle-ground visual quality. For most users, the data supports High or Ultra at 1080p and 1440p, with Medium being the pragmatic choice for 4K high-refresh-rate gaming.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080's specifications provide context for why this game runs so smoothly. With 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, the GPU has ample parallel processing capacity for a title with Inside's modest geometry and effect complexity. The boost clock of 1710 MHz, combined with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory across a 320-bit bus, delivers 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth — more than sufficient for the game's art style, which relies on atmospheric lighting and silhouettes rather than dense texture work.

The VRAM allocation is a non-issue here. Even at 4K Ultra, the game's requirements fall well within the 10 GB capacity, and the benchmark results show no anomalous drops that would indicate memory swapping or capacity-related stuttering. The GPU's 80th percentile ranking among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35787, places it in the upper tier of graphics cards, and its nearest rivals — the AMD Radeon Pro Duo at -0.2% delta, the AMD Radeon 880M at +0.4%, and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE at -0.9% — all cluster within a narrow performance band.

What the data suggests is that the RTX 3080 is the active partner in this pairing, with its performance ceiling defining the frame rates at every resolution. The 4K Ultra result of 96.2 FPS is likely close to the GPU's maximum output in this game, and the fact that it holds above 100 FPS at 4K High indicates that the card has sufficient headroom for this title's demands. The GPU's 320 W TDP and dual-slot design are typical for its class, but the thermal and power characteristics do not appear to affect the measured results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range produces a spread from 411.3 FPS at Low to 209 FPS at Ultra. The intermediate values are 354.3 FPS at Medium and 219.4 FPS at High. The step from Low to Medium costs 57 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 135 FPS — a much larger jump. The step from High to Ultra costs only 10.4 FPS. This pattern suggests that the High preset includes a significant visual feature that Medium lacks, while Ultra adds relatively little over High.

At 2560x1440, the values are 317.6 FPS (Low), 252.9 FPS (Medium), 159.4 FPS (High), and 152.8 FPS (Ultra). The gap between Medium and High here is 93.5 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the 1080p gap (135 FPS on a smaller base). The High-to-Ultra delta remains small at 6.6 FPS, reinforcing the idea that Ultra is a marginal upgrade over High.

At 3840x2160, the results are 201.1 FPS (Low), 158.5 FPS (Medium), 101 FPS (High), and 96.2 FPS (Ultra). The scaling from 1440p to 4K at each preset shows consistent reductions: Low drops by 36.7%, Medium by 37.3%, High by 36.6%, and Ultra by 37.0%. This uniformity strongly indicates that the performance scaling is resolution-driven and not settings-dependent — the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are being taxed in a linear fashion as pixel count increases.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Inside, this pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 323rd out of 1671 combos. This places it in the top 19% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing but not a top-tier result. The ranking reflects that many other GPU and CPU combinations achieve higher frame rates in this game, likely due to newer or more powerful graphics cards that can push 4K Ultra past the 100 FPS mark.

The CPU's individual standing is notable: the i7-14700KF sits in the 96th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70104. Its nearest rivals — the Intel Core i7-14700K at 0% delta, the AMD EPYC 9115 at +0.3%, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X at -0.4%, and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 at -1.3% — all perform within a narrow 1.6% band. This indicates that the processor is among the fastest available, yet its impact on Inside's frame rates is minimal because the game does not scale with CPU resources beyond a moderate single-threaded load.

The GPU's 80th percentile ranking, with an average benchmark score of 35787, is lower than the CPU's standing. This mismatch — a top-tier CPU paired with a high-end but not flagship GPU — explains the 323rd overall rank. The data implies that upgrading the GPU would yield larger frame rate gains in Inside than upgrading the CPU, which is already near the top of the performance hierarchy.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF brings formidable specifications to this pairing: 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3. This is a Raptor Lake Refresh part built on Intel's 10 nm process, supporting both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 44557 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6290 in single-core, with a Passmark multithread score of 52425.

For Inside, these numbers are overkill. The game's puzzle platformer genre does not require complex physics simulation, large agent counts, or heavy AI — the workload is predominantly graphics-bound. The measured FPS data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would theoretically have the most influence, the system achieves 411.3 FPS. This figure is likely constrained by the GPU's ability to render frames quickly enough, not by the CPU's processing speed.

The CPU's 96th percentile ranking and its proximity to the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (-0.4% delta) suggest that in more demanding titles, this processor would be a top-tier choice. But in Inside, the data reveals that the CPU is effectively idle relative to its capacity. The 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform are standard for this class, and the unlocked multiplier offers overclocking potential, but none of this matters for this game's frame rates. The conclusion from the data is that the i7-14700KF provides no measurable bottleneck in Inside, and its role is to ensure that the GPU operates without any CPU-induced frame pacing issues.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K Ultra with playable frame rates?*

A: Yes. The measured 4K Ultra result is 96.2 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. High settings at 4K yield 101 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: The data shows Ultra at 152.8 FPS and High at 159.4 FPS, a difference of only 6.6 FPS. Ultra is recommended because the frame rate cost is minimal relative to the visual upgrade.

Q: Is the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: Yes. The benchmark results show no anomalies or frame rate drops that would indicate VRAM limitations. Even at 4K Ultra, the game runs at 96.2 FPS, suggesting memory usage stays within the 10 GB capacity.

Q: How does the i7-14700KF compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i7-14700KF scores 70104 on average, with the Intel Core i7-14700K at 0% delta, the AMD EPYC 9115 at +0.3%, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X at -0.4%. All four processors perform within 1.3% of each other.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 354.3 FPS. This is high enough for any current display, including 360 Hz esports panels.

*Q: Does this combination rank highly among tested systems for Inside?*

A: It ranks 323rd out of 1671 combinations, placing it in the top 19% of tested systems. The GPU's 80th percentile standing is the limiting factor, while the CPU ranks in the 96th percentile.