Inside

The Intel Core i9-14900K and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT combination delivers exceptional performance in Inside, a game that heavily favors high refresh rates. Across all tested resolutions and settings, the pair never drops below 90.9 FPS, ensuring a consistently smooth experience in this Puzzle Platformer. The data indicates that while the GPU is powerful, the CPU’s substantial headroom is the defining factor at lower resolutions, allowing the system to reach frame rates far beyond typical display capabilities.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. This processor is a top-tier part, ranking in the 97th percentile of all CPUs. Its aggregate benchmark score of 79824 places it in a tight competition with the AMD EPYC 7413, which scores 80041 (a 0.3% difference), and it sits slightly ahead of the Intel Core i9-14900KF, which scores 79245 (a 0.7% advantage for the 14900K).

In Inside, the CPU's role becomes evident when analyzing the performance scaling. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 423.4 FPS. This extreme frame rate, which exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors, suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more data than it can process, even at lower graphical loads. The high single-thread performance, reflected in a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7040, is particularly relevant for a game like Inside, which does not typically utilize all 24 cores but benefits from strong per-core throughput. The processor's 36 MB of shared L3 cache also helps reduce latency for game logic.

The benchmark results show a clear pattern: the CPU is not the bottleneck in this configuration. Even when the GPU is stressed at 4K Ultra, the average frame rate remains at 90.9 FPS, a figure that is more likely limited by the graphics card. The i9-14900K's massive multi-threading capabilities, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872, provide a stable foundation, but the game's performance is dictated by the GPU once resolution and settings increase. The processor's 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory offer flexibility, but in this specific title, its raw computational power is more than sufficient.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

*Q: What is the maximum average frame rate this combo achieves in Inside?*

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 423.4 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900K has an average benchmark score of 79824. This is 0.7% higher than the Intel Core i9-14900KF (79245) and 0.9% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (79102).

Q: Is the GPU's benchmark performance significantly different from the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER?

A: Yes. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT has an average benchmark score of 49982, which is 2.6% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's score of 48704.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops from 306.2 FPS on Low settings to 145.9 FPS on Ultra settings, representing a significant reduction of 160.3 FPS.

Q: Does the system maintain playable frame rates at 4K?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160, the lowest average frame rate recorded is 90.9 FPS on Ultra settings. The highest at that resolution is 193.7 FPS on Low settings.

Q: How does the GPU's G3D benchmark score compare to its compute score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT scores 24980 in the Passmark G3D (graphics) test, while its Passmark GPU Compute score is 13245, indicating a significant difference between rasterization and compute workloads.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The performance scaling across resolutions clearly identifies the GPU as the primary limiter at higher settings. Moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 on High settings, the average frame rate drops from 214 FPS to 98.4 FPS, a reduction of 115.6 FPS. This trend is consistent across all settings. On Low settings, the frame rate falls from 423.4 FPS at 1080p to 193.7 FPS at 4K, a drop of 229.7 FPS. This substantial decrease is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance, as the rendering load increases exponentially with pixel count.

At 1080p, the frame rates are exceptionally high, often exceeding 200 FPS. The gap between Low (423.4 FPS) and Ultra (200.6 FPS) settings at this resolution is significant, but even the Ultra number is high enough to suggest the CPU is still providing ample headroom. The data shows that the i9-14900K is not a limiting factor at 1080p; the difference in frame rates between settings is almost entirely due to the GPU's workload. The 306.2 FPS result at 1440p Low further confirms this, as it is a frame rate that most CPUs would struggle to maintain, yet the i9-14900K does so with ease.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is also telling. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 155.9 FPS to 98.4 FPS, a 57.5 FPS decrease. This proportional drop indicates that the RX 6800 XT is working harder at 4K, and its performance is the deciding factor. The data suggests that for a 4K experience, users will need to rely on the GPU's capabilities, which are solid, but for maximum refresh rates, 1080p or 1440p are the resolutions where this combo truly shines, leveraging the CPU's power to push frame rates to extreme levels.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured average FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings yield 423.4 FPS, Medium settings yield 338.1 FPS, High settings yield 214 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 200.6 FPS. The progression shows a steep drop from Low to High, but a more moderate decline from High to Ultra, suggesting diminishing returns on visual fidelity at the highest preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high. Low settings produce 306.2 FPS, Medium settings produce 247.8 FPS, High settings produce 155.9 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 145.9 FPS. The ratio of performance between Low and Ultra is similar to 1080p, with Ultra delivering roughly half the frame rate of Low. This indicates a consistent scaling pattern for the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the system still delivers excellent performance. Low settings average 193.7 FPS, Medium settings average 154.2 FPS, High settings average 98.4 FPS, and Ultra settings average 90.9 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is notable, with a 55.8 FPS decrease, while the difference between High and Ultra is only 7.5 FPS. This suggests that the High preset offers a good balance, while Ultra provides minimal additional visual benefit for a significant performance cost at this resolution. All frame rates across every configuration are above 90 FPS, confirming that this combination is more than capable of handling Inside at any setting.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a high-end graphics card based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, featuring 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s. Its clocks are set to a base of 1825 MHz, a game clock of 2015 MHz, and a boost clock of 2250 MHz. This card ranks in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49982. It is 0.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A550M (49737) and 1.9% ahead of the NVIDIA CMP 50HX (49071).

In Inside, the GPU's role is to handle the rendering workload, and its performance is directly reflected in the frame rate scaling. The 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, which is not particularly demanding on memory capacity, even at 4K Ultra settings. The high memory bandwidth ensures that textures and geometry can be streamed quickly, but the game's visual style does not appear to stress the memory subsystem heavily.

The performance data shows that the RX 6800 XT is the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. For instance, at 4K Ultra, the card produces 90.9 FPS, which is a respectable result but much lower than the 200.6 FPS seen at 1080p Ultra. This 109.7 FPS difference highlights the GPU's scaling behavior. The card's raw compute power, rated at 20.74 TFLOPS for FP32, is substantial, but the increased pixel count at 4K demands more from the shaders and ROPs (128 ROPs). The results indicate that while the GPU is powerful, it is not so overpowered that the CPU becomes irrelevant; instead, they form a balanced pair where the GPU dictates performance for most high-fidelity scenarios.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. For users with a 1080p display, the Ultra preset is viable, delivering 200.6 FPS. This is high enough for any monitor, but the difference from High (214 FPS) is minimal. However, the jump from Medium (338.1 FPS) to High (214 FPS) is significant, making High a more efficient choice if the goal is to reduce GPU load while retaining high visual quality.

At 1440p, the Ultra preset yields 145.9 FPS, which is still very smooth and suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors. The High preset at 155.9 FPS offers nearly identical performance, so choosing between them is a matter of visual preference. The Medium preset (247.8 FPS) is arguably the best choice for competitive play or for maximizing frame rates, as it provides a massive 101.9 FPS advantage over Ultra while likely offering a noticeable improvement over Low (306.2 FPS).

For 4K gaming, the recommendations change due to the GPU workload. The Ultra preset delivers 90.9 FPS, which is playable but may not fully utilize a 120Hz or 144Hz display. The High preset, at 98.4 FPS, offers a slight improvement. The Medium preset (154.2 FPS) is the best option for a high-refresh-rate 4K experience, as it more than doubles the Ultra frame rate. Given that the difference between High and Ultra is only 7.5 FPS, High is a sensible default, but for a smoother experience, Medium provides the best balance of performance and quality. The data clearly shows that this system can handle Inside at maximum settings for most use cases, but for extreme frame rates, dropping to Medium is the most effective strategy.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

In the database of tested combinations, the Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ranks 373rd out of 1671 total combos for Inside. This places it in the top 22.3% of all tested systems, which is a strong result given the game's age and the hardware's capabilities. The rank is a holistic measure that considers all resolutions and settings, and the high frame rates achieved across the board contribute to this solid positioning.

The rank of 373 indicates that while this is a very powerful setup, there are 372 other combinations that outperform it in this specific game. This is likely due to more recent or higher-end GPUs that can achieve even higher frame rates, particularly at 4K resolution. However, the performance gap is not enormous, as the data shows the system is capable of exceeding 90 FPS in all scenarios. The combo's rank confirms the RX 6800 XT's enduring capability, especially considering its 87th percentile standing among all GPUs.

The ranking also suggests that the CPU is not holding the system back. The i9-14900K is ranked in the 97th percentile of all CPUs, and its performance is nearly identical to the i9-14900KF and Core Ultra 7 265K. Therefore, the system's position in the rankings is primarily determined by the GPU's limits, which are modest when compared to newer flagship cards. For a user with this combo, the data confirms that they have a well-balanced, high-performance system that is more than adequate for Inside, but those seeking the absolute highest frame rates would need a more powerful GPU.