Inside

The pairing of the Intel Core i9-14900K with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT presents a study in extremes for Inside. The CPU is a top-tier 24-core processor capable of handling far more demanding workloads, while the GPU is an older RDNA 1.0 card that sits in the 68th percentile of all GPUs. The benchmark data for this puzzle platformer shows exactly where the bottleneck lies and how the combination behaves across different resolutions and settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 278.1 FPS, but this drops to 197.8 FPS at 1440p and further to 123.1 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings represents a 55.7% reduction in frame rate, which directly indicates that the RX 5700 XT is the primary limiting factor. The GPU is working progressively harder to fill those extra pixels, and the CPU has ample headroom to spare.

The pattern holds across all settings. At High settings, the frame rate goes from 135.4 FPS at 1080p to 98.5 FPS at 1440p and finally to 62.7 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep at High settings, with a 36.4% decrease. This suggests that the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and its 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated at higher resolutions, especially when textures and effects demand more memory.

At Ultra settings, the situation becomes even more pronounced. The combo manages 131.7 FPS at 1080p, which is only slightly below the High setting score, but falls to 93.2 FPS at 1440p and a barely playable 62.4 FPS at 4K. The difference between 1080p and 4K at Ultra is a 52.6% drop. The data clearly shows that the RX 5700 XT cannot maintain high refresh rates at 4K, regardless of settings, while the i9-14900K never appears to be the constraint.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 5700 XT is the workhorse here, and its specifications directly explain the observed performance. With a boost clock of 1905 MHz and a game clock of 1755 MHz, the card delivers a theoretical FP32 performance of 9.754 TFLOPS. These numbers are modest by modern standards, which is why the card sits in the 68th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile, has an average benchmark score that is 0.1% lower, putting the RX 5700 XT in a tight performance band.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the data shows it becomes a limiting factor at 4K. At 4K Ultra, the combo produces 62.4 FPS, which is nearly identical to the 62.7 FPS at 4K High. This negligible difference between High and Ultra at 4K suggests that the GPU has hit a memory bandwidth or shader compute wall, and additional graphical fidelity settings have little impact because the card is already maxed out.

The GPU's texture rate of 304.8 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 121.9 GPixel/s are the hardware resources that determine how quickly it can process the game's visual elements. Inside is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer with a distinctive monochromatic art style, but it still requires the GPU to render lighting effects, shadows, and particle systems. The benchmark results show that the RX 5700 XT handles these tasks well at lower resolutions, with the 1080p Low score of 278.1 FPS demonstrating that the card can push very high frame rates when the CPU is not a factor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor with a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. Its benchmark scores are exceptional: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872 and a single-core score of 7040. The CPU sits in the 97th percentile of all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 79824 places it just 0.3% behind the AMD EPYC 7413 and 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i9-14900KF. For a game like Inside, which is not a multi-threaded monster, this processor is vastly overqualified.

The data confirms that the CPU is not the bottleneck in any scenario. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 278.1 FPS, which is an extremely high frame rate that most displays cannot even show. The fact that the FPS drops so dramatically as resolution increases—to 123.1 FPS at 4K Low—proves that the CPU has no trouble feeding the GPU with draw calls. The processor's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample low-latency memory for game logic and physics calculations, but these resources are simply not taxed by this game.

The CPU's integrated UHD Graphics 770 is present but irrelevant for this discrete GPU setup. The i9-14900K's Cinebench R15 single-core score of 709 and R20 single-core score of 2956 indicate strong per-thread performance, which is what matters for games that rely on a single main thread. In Inside, the CPU's single-core strength ensures that the game's logic never stalls the frame pipeline, allowing the GPU to operate at its maximum potential. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly struggling, the CPU is ready to deliver more frames if the GPU could keep up.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo capable of running Inside at 4K?*

A: The data shows it can, but with caveats. At 4K High, the combo produces 62.7 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it produces 62.4 FPS. Both are playable, but the frame rate is far below the 123.1 FPS seen at 4K Low, indicating the GPU is heavily loaded.

Q: Which resolution gives the best balance of quality and frame rate?

A: Based on the measured data, 1440p High at 98.5 FPS offers a strong balance. It is over 60 FPS and provides a significant visual upgrade over 1080p. Alternatively, 1440p Ultra at 93.2 FPS is also viable and only slightly slower.

Q: Is the Intel Core i9-14900K overkill for this game?

A: Yes, the benchmark results indicate this. The CPU scores in the 97th percentile of all CPUs, but the frame rate drops by over half from 1080p to 4K, proving that the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU has massive headroom that is unused.

Q: How does the RX 5700 XT compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 5700 XT has an average benchmark score of 24731. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile, is 0.1% slower. The Intel Arc A350M is 0.3% slower, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile is 0.6% slower. All of these are within 1% of each other.

Q: What is the best setting to use at 1080p for maximum frame rate?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo produces 278.1 FPS. If you want maximum frame rate, this is the setting. However, the game is a puzzle platformer, and the 135.4 FPS at High settings is likely more visually pleasing while still being exceptionally smooth.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The data suggests it might. The frame rate at 4K High (62.7 FPS) and 4K Ultra (62.4 FPS) are nearly identical, which indicates the GPU has hit a performance ceiling, likely due to memory bandwidth or capacity limitations, rather than shader compute.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT ranks 1250th out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the lower 25th percentile of all pairings. This low rank is almost entirely due to the GPU. The RX 5700 XT, with its 68th percentile standing among all GPUs, drags down the overall performance of what would otherwise be a top-tier system.

The CPU's presence in this combo does not boost the rank proportionally to its power. The i9-14900K is in the 97th percentile of CPUs, but the game is not CPU-bound, so its massive compute resources go unused. The rank of 1250 out of 1671 indicates that many other combos, likely featuring more modern GPUs paired with mid-range CPUs, outperform this setup in Inside. The data shows that the GPU is the sole determinant of the final frame rate, and a more balanced pairing would be a CPU with lower performance and a GPU with higher performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combo delivers high frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 278.1 FPS, Medium drops to 224.7 FPS, High yields 135.4 FPS, and Ultra is close behind at 131.7 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal, suggesting that the GPU's compute units are the limiting factor at this resolution, not memory bandwidth.

Moving to 1440p, the performance drops are significant. Low settings still produce a very smooth 197.8 FPS, and Medium is playable at 161.8 FPS. High settings fall to 98.5 FPS, which is still above 60 FPS, but Ultra drops to 93.2 FPS. These numbers show that 1440p is a sweet spot for this GPU, with all settings remaining playable.

At 4K, the GPU is clearly struggling. Low settings produce 123.1 FPS, which is still decent, but Medium drops to 99.3 FPS. High settings fall to 62.7 FPS, and Ultra is nearly identical at 62.4 FPS. The plateau between High and Ultra at 4K is a clear indicator that the GPU is completely saturated and cannot process additional graphical effects. For a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K, the data suggests using Medium settings, which provide 99.3 FPS and leave some headroom. The measured FPS data across all resolutions points to a system where the CPU is never the issue, and the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are the definitive bottlenecks.