Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that, on the surface, seems modest in its graphical demands, yet the measured data for the Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the Intel Arc B370 reveals a surprisingly steep performance curve. This combination, ranked 3422 out of 3716 tested combos for this game, places it in the lower percentile of systems, suggesting that the integrated-class Arc B370 GPU is the primary bottleneck in most scenarios. The benchmark results show a clear pattern: the game is playable at lower resolutions and settings, but the experience degrades rapidly as resolution and visual fidelity increase, making it a study in how a powerful CPU cannot compensate for a limited graphics processor.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a dramatic and consistent drop as resolution scales from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 70 FPS at 1080p to 51 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 32 FPS at 4K. This represents a 54% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K at High settings, indicating that the rendering load is scaling heavily with pixel count. The pattern holds across other presets: Low settings drop from 141 FPS at 1080p to 101 FPS at 1440p and 64 FPS at 4K, while Medium settings fall from 113 FPS to 81 FPS and then 51 FPS across the same resolutions.

This scaling behavior strongly implies that the limiting component is the GPU, not the CPU. The i9-14900K, with its 24 cores and 32 threads, is more than capable of feeding frames to any graphics card in this title, but the Arc B370’s performance ceiling is being hit well before the CPU becomes a factor. The fact that the FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p (roughly a 1.78x increase in pixel count) results in a 28% performance hit at High settings, while the jump from 1440p to 4K (a 2.25x pixel increase) causes a 37% drop, shows that the scaling is not linear but consistently steep. The data suggests that at 4K, the GPU is fully saturated, with average frame rates falling to 30-32 FPS on High and Ultra presets, which is at the edge of playability.

Interestingly, the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, Low produces 141 FPS while Ultra produces 67 FPS, a 74 FPS difference. At 4K, Low produces 64 FPS while Ultra produces 30 FPS, a 34 FPS difference. This narrowing absolute gap indicates that at 4K, the GPU is so constrained that even dropping to Low settings cannot fully compensate for the pixel count, whereas at 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to benefit more substantially from lower settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame data places this specific system at rank 3422 out of 3716 tested combinations, which puts it in the bottom 8% of all tested setups for Inside. This is a notably low ranking, especially considering the CPU involved. The Intel Core i9-14900K is a top-tier desktop processor, scoring 39399.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2262.5 in single-core, with an average benchmark score of 79097 that places it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i9-14900KF (deltaPct of -0.3%) and the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (deltaPct of -0.6%), are all within a 1% performance margin, confirming the CPU’s position at the very top of the processor hierarchy.

However, the GPU tells a completely different story. The Intel Arc B370 has an average benchmark score of just 1184, placing it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (deltaPct of -0.2%) and the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (deltaPct of -0.5%), which are both over a decade old and from a completely different era of graphics hardware. This extreme mismatch between a flagship CPU and an entry-level integrated GPU is what drags the combo ranking down to 3422. The data implies that in Inside, the GPU is so dominant a factor that even the fastest consumer CPU available cannot elevate the system’s overall standing.

The rank of 3422 out of 3716 means there are only 294 tested combos that perform worse in this game. This suggests that most other systems, even those with much older or weaker CPUs, achieve higher frame rates simply because they pair them with more capable discrete graphics solutions. The benchmark results make it clear that for this title, the choice of GPU is far more consequential than the CPU, and this particular pairing represents an extreme example of CPU overkill relative to GPU capability.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution and the user’s preference for smoothness versus visual quality. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 113 FPS with a minimum of 96 FPS and a maximum of 130 FPS. This is the sweet spot for a smooth experience, as it maintains a frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold while offering better visual quality than Low. The High preset at 1080p produces 70 FPS average, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes, while Ultra drops to 67 FPS, which is marginally lower.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again appears to be the best balance, offering 81 FPS average with a minimum of 69 FPS. This is the only 1440p preset that consistently stays above 60 FPS. High at 1440p falls to 51 FPS average, which may be acceptable for some but risks noticeable stuttering in action sequences. Low at 1440p produces 101 FPS, which is smooth but sacrifices significant visual detail. For 4K resolution, the data shows that no preset achieves a comfortable 60 FPS. Low at 4K produces 64 FPS average, which is the only 4K option above 60 FPS, but it comes with the lowest visual fidelity. Medium at 4K drops to 51 FPS, and both High and Ultra fall to 32 FPS and 30 FPS respectively, which are barely playable.

The recommendation is to prioritize Medium settings for resolutions up to 1440p, as this preset consistently provides a playable frame rate with a reasonable visual upgrade over Low. For 4K, users should accept Low settings if they want to stay above 60 FPS, or Medium if they can tolerate a 51 FPS average. The data does not support using High or Ultra at 4K, as both fall below 33 FPS, which is generally considered too low for a smooth experience in a puzzle platformer where precise timing matters.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS table for this combo is as follows. At 3840x2160, the High preset yields an average of 32 FPS, Low yields 64 FPS, Medium yields 51 FPS (with a minimum of 43 and maximum of 59), and Ultra yields 30 FPS. At 2560x1440, High produces 51 FPS, Low produces 101 FPS, Medium produces 81 FPS (with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 93), and Ultra produces 48 FPS. At 1920x1080, High produces 70 FPS, Low produces 141 FPS, Medium produces 113 FPS (with a minimum of 96 and maximum of 130), and Ultra produces 67 FPS.

The Medium preset at each resolution is the only one that includes minimum and maximum FPS values, which provides additional insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the range from 96 to 130 FPS indicates a relatively stable experience with a 34 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 69-93 FPS, a 24 FPS spread, suggesting slightly more consistent performance. At 4K Medium, the range is 43-59 FPS, a 16 FPS spread, which is the tightest of all, indicating that while the average is low, the frame times are more uniform. This could mean that the GPU is consistently saturated at 4K, rather than experiencing sporadic spikes or drops.

The progression across presets at any given resolution is predictable: Low is always the fastest, followed by Medium, then High, and finally Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 74 FPS, at 1440p it is 53 FPS, and at 4K it is 34 FPS. This diminishing return from lower settings at higher resolutions reinforces the notion that the GPU is the limiting factor, as reducing settings has less impact when the pixel count is already overwhelming the graphics processor.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics processor based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, which is a substantial boost ratio. The GPU has 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 render output units, along with 10 ray tracing cores. Its pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s, with a FP32 performance of 6.144 TFLOPS. The memory configuration is listed as "System Shared," meaning it uses the system’s main memory rather than dedicated VRAM, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent."

This shared memory architecture is likely a significant factor in the game’s performance. Inside, while not a graphically intense title, still requires consistent memory bandwidth for texture streaming and frame buffer operations. The fact that the GPU’s memory bandwidth is system-dependent means that the overall performance can be influenced by the system’s RAM configuration, which in this case is dual-channel DDR4 or DDR5 supported by the CPU. The 25 W TDP of the Arc B370 is extremely low, indicating that it is designed for power efficiency rather than raw performance, which aligns with its 5th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark score of 1184 for this GPU is its only recorded benchmark in the fact pack, and it places it in the same performance tier as the ATI Radeon HD 5770, a GPU from 2009. This historical comparison underscores how far behind modern discrete GPUs this integrated solution is. In Inside, the GPU’s limitations are most evident at 4K resolution, where even the Low preset only achieves 64 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 30 FPS. The data suggests that the GPU’s 20 ROPs and 6.144 TFLOPS are insufficient to handle the pixel fill rate and shading demands of 4K rendering in this game, despite its age.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. Its benchmark results are impressive: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5, single-core of 2262.5, Geekbench multi-core of 21697, and single-core of 2655. It also achieves a Passmark multi-thread score of 58674 and a single-thread score of 4697.

Given these specifications, the CPU is vastly overqualified for Inside, which is a 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer that does not utilize multi-threading heavily. The game’s CPU demands are likely minimal, and the i9-14900K’s single-core performance, which is among the best available, should easily maintain frame delivery. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 141 FPS, which is well above any CPU-bound threshold for this type of game. The CPU’s 95th percentile ranking and its nearest rivals being within 1% of its average benchmark score indicate that there is no meaningful CPU bottleneck in this configuration.

The real story is the mismatch. The CPU supports PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes, which could theoretically feed a much faster discrete GPU, but the Arc B370 is integrated and uses the system’s shared memory. This means the CPU’s memory controller and cache hierarchy are working to provide data to the GPU, but the GPU’s own throughput limits prevent any benefit from the CPU’s speed. The benchmark results show that at 4K, the FPS numbers are nearly identical across High and Ultra (32 and 30 FPS), which suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor, as even a much weaker CPU paired with this GPU would likely produce similar results. The CPU’s role here is to ensure that the GPU is never starved for data, but the GPU’s compute capacity is the hard ceiling.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves an average of 64 FPS, while Medium averages 51 FPS. High and Ultra fall to 32 FPS and 30 FPS respectively. So 4K is technically playable, but only on Low settings consistently above 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 113 FPS average with a minimum of 96 FPS and a maximum of 130 FPS. This is the highest settings level that stays comfortably above 100 FPS, making it the best balance of visual quality and performance.

Q: Why is the combo rank so low despite having a top-tier CPU?

A: The comboRankInGame is 3422 out of 3716, which places it in the bottom 8%. This is due to the Intel Arc B370 GPU, which scores in the 5th percentile of all GPUs and is comparable to the ATI Radeon HD 5770. The CPU’s high performance cannot compensate for the GPU’s low rendering capability in this game.

Q: How does the GPU’s memory configuration affect performance?

A: The Arc B370 uses "System Shared" memory, meaning it relies on the system’s RAM instead of dedicated VRAM. The bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent," so performance can vary based on the system’s memory setup. In Inside, this shared architecture likely contributes to the significant FPS drops at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No, the data indicates the opposite. The i9-14900K’s single-core score of 2262.5 in Cinebench R23 is more than sufficient for this game. The FPS drops are consistent with GPU limitations, as seen in the 54% FPS reduction from 1080p to 4K at High settings.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values for Medium settings?

A: The measured data includes minimum FPS only for Medium settings. At 1080p, the minimum is 96 FPS; at 1440p, it is 69 FPS; and at 4K, it is 43 FPS. These values indicate that Medium at 1080p and 1440p stays above 60 FPS, while 4K Medium can dip below that threshold.