Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that, on this hardware pairing, turns out to be remarkably scalable. The data shows a configuration—Intel Core i9-14900K with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti—that can push well beyond typical 60 FPS targets at nearly every setting, with the only real compromises appearing at the highest preset. The measured results indicate that this is a case where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, but the CPU's headroom becomes evident as resolution drops, producing frame rates that approach or exceed 300 FPS at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across resolutions and settings, examines the role of the GPU's specifications, and contextualizes the combo's standing among other tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for Inside reveals a clear hierarchy of performance across the four tested presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1920x1080, the differences are stark, with the Low preset delivering an average of 317 FPS, while the Ultra preset still manages a robust 151 FPS. The Medium preset sits comfortably in between at 254 FPS, and High follows at 159 FPS. Given that the game is a puzzle platformer with no competitive multiplayer demands, the optimal experience hinges on balancing visual fidelity with the negligible risk of frame drops. At 1080p, the High preset is the recommended choice—it provides a substantial visual upgrade over Low and Medium while maintaining an average of 159 FPS, which is far above the refresh rate of any standard display. The Ultra preset, while only 8 FPS slower on average than High at 151 FPS, offers diminishing returns for the performance cost, though it remains perfectly playable.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern continues but the gaps narrow. The Low preset produces an average of 228 FPS, Medium drops to 183 FPS, and High and Ultra come in at 114 FPS and 109 FPS, respectively. At this resolution, the High preset is again the sweet spot. It delivers a 114 FPS average, which is more than sufficient for a smooth experience on 1440p monitors, and it does so while keeping the visual quality high. The Ultra preset's 109 FPS average is nearly identical, but the data does not include minimum frame times for High or Ultra, whereas the Medium preset shows a minimum of 155 FPS against a maximum of 210 FPS. The lack of min/max data for High and Ultra suggests they are likely stable, but the Medium preset's measured range indicates headroom. For 1440p, High is the recommended preset to ensure a consistent experience without sacrificing image quality.

At 3840x2160, the performance landscape changes significantly. The Low preset averages 143 FPS, which is excellent, but the Medium preset drops to 115 FPS with a minimum of 97 FPS and a maximum of 132 FPS. High and Ultra presets fall to 72 FPS and 68 FPS averages, respectively. While 68-72 FPS is technically playable, it sits below the 144 Hz target that gamers with high-refresh-rate 4K displays might expect. For 4K, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation. It offers a 115 FPS average, which is a 60% improvement over the High preset's 72 FPS, and the measured minimum of 97 FPS ensures that even the most demanding scenes will not drop below 60 FPS. The visual difference between Medium and High is often negligible in a game with Inside's art style, making Medium the best balance of performance and fidelity at 4K. The Ultra preset is only recommended for players who prioritize maximum image quality over frame rate and are content with a 68 FPS average.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the defining component in this pairing for Inside. Its specifications are substantial: 11 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 484.4 GB/s. The GPU has 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 88 ROPs. Its base clock is 1481 MHz with a boost clock of 1582 MHz. These figures are critical to understanding the measured performance. The 11 GB frame buffer is more than sufficient for Inside at any resolution, as the game's art style does not demand excessive texture memory. The high memory bandwidth, however, is likely a key factor in the smooth scaling from 1080p to 4K, as it allows the GPU to feed its 3584 shading units efficiently.

The GPU's compute capabilities are also noteworthy. It delivers 11.34 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s. The texture rate is 354.4 GTexel/s. For a game like Inside, which relies on atmospheric lighting and shadow effects, the pixel rate is particularly relevant. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the GPU still manages a 68 FPS average, which indicates that its raw processing power is being fully utilized. The GTX 1080 Ti sits in the 58th percentile of all GPUs according to benchmark scores, and its average benchmark score is 15548. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R9 M380 (0.2% higher score), the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (0.8% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (1.7% higher). This placement suggests that while the GTX 1080 Ti is not a top-tier card by modern standards, it is far from obsolete.

In the context of Inside, the GPU's role is clearly the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The CPU, an Intel Core i9-14900K with 24 cores and 32 threads, is vastly overqualified for this title. The CPU's boost clock is 6.00 GHz, and its benchmarks are exceptional—it scores 39399.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2262.5 in single-core. The GPU, by contrast, is from an older generation (Pascal architecture, 16 nm process) and is marked as end-of-life. The performance delta between the two components is evident in the data: at 1080p Low, the system hits 317 FPS, which is likely CPU-bound or engine-limited, but as resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows, and frame rates drop proportionally. The GPU's 250 W TDP and 600 W suggested PSU are relevant for system builders, but the measured data shows that the GTX 1080 Ti is still capable of delivering a high-refresh-rate experience in this specific game.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS is 317, achieved at the Low preset in 1920x1080. The Medium preset delivers 254 FPS, and the High preset delivers 159 FPS. The Ultra preset is the lowest at 151 FPS.

Q: Is the game playable at 4K Ultra settings with this hardware?

A: Yes, the data shows an average of 68 FPS at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset. While not as high as lower resolutions, it is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, though the Medium preset offers a better experience at 115 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1080 Ti compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 15548. It is 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon R9 M380, 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500, and 1.7% ahead of both the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 97, which occurs at 3840x2160 with the Medium preset. The other Medium preset measurements show minimums of 216 at 1080p and 155 at 1440p. No minimum FPS data is provided for the Low, High, or Ultra presets.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at 4K, where the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the 317 FPS average is likely approaching an engine or CPU limit, but the i9-14900K's capabilities (6.00 GHz boost clock, 32 threads) mean it is not the primary constraint in most scenarios.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra presets across all resolutions?

A: At 1080p, the difference is 8 FPS (159 vs 151). At 1440p, the difference is 5 FPS (114 vs 109). At 4K, the difference is 4 FPS (72 vs 68). The Ultra preset consistently provides a marginal visual gain at a small performance cost.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ranks 2004th out of 3716 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the 46th percentile of all configurations, which is a middling result for a pairing that includes one of the fastest consumer CPUs available. The ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU, which is the weaker link in this duo. The GTX 1080 Ti's performance percentile is 58, meaning it outperforms 58% of all GPUs, but it is not in the top tier. The CPU, by contrast, is in the 95th percentile for all CPUs.

The delta between the CPU and GPU capabilities is stark. The i9-14900K's average benchmark score is 79097, which is 0.3% behind the Intel Core i9-14900KF, 0.6% behind the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, and 1.2% behind the AMD EPYC 7413. It is 1.7% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395. The GPU's average score of 15548 is far lower in absolute terms, and its rivals are all within a 2% range. This indicates that the GPU is not a high-end part in 2024, but its performance in Inside is still respectable.

The 2004th rank out of 3716 combos means that a slight majority of tested configurations perform better. This is expected, as many modern systems pair high-end CPUs with more recent GPUs that feature faster memory and more compute units. However, the rank does not tell the whole story. The measured FPS data shows that this combo can run Inside at 4K with playable frame rates, which is more than can be said for many lower-ranked combos. The rank is a function of the GPU's age, but the actual gameplay experience is smooth, especially at lower resolutions. For a game released in 2016, this hardware is more than adequate, and the ranking reflects the GPU's position relative to newer parts rather than its ability to run this specific title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of scaling from 1080p to 4K. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 317 at 1080p to 228 at 1440p, a decrease of 28%. Further dropping to 4K yields 143 FPS, which is a 37% reduction from 1440p and a 55% reduction from 1080p. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is under significant stress as pixel count increases. The GTX 1080 Ti's 11 GB of VRAM is not the issue; rather, its compute throughput is being saturated.

At the Medium preset, the scaling is similar but with slightly smaller percentage drops. 1080p yields 254 FPS, 1440p yields 183 FPS (a 28% drop), and 4K yields 115 FPS (a 37% drop from 1440p). The High preset shows 159 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p (a 28% drop), and 72 FPS at 4K (a 37% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset follows the same trend: 151 FPS at 1080p, 109 FPS at 1440p (a 28% drop), and 68 FPS at 4K (a 38% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across all presets is notable—it suggests that the GPU is the bottleneck at every resolution, and the CPU has ample headroom to maintain consistent frame pacing.

The data also shows that the difference between 1440p and 4K is more pronounced than the difference between 1080p and 1440p. The pixel count increases by 1.78x from 1080p to 1440p, and by 2.25x from 1440p to 4K. The FPS drops are roughly proportional, confirming that the GTX 1080 Ti's fill rate and shading power are the limiting factors. The CPU, with its 6.00 GHz boost clock and 24 cores, is not a constraint in this title. The i9-14900K's single-thread performance, evidenced by its 2262.5 Cinebench R23 score, ensures that the game's logic thread is never starved. This is a classic GPU-bound scenario, where upgrading the GPU would yield immediate FPS gains at all resolutions, while the CPU would remain largely idle.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 317 FPS. The Medium preset averages 254 FPS, with a minimum of 216 FPS and a maximum of 292 FPS. The High preset averages 159 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 151 FPS. No minimum or maximum values are provided for the Low, High, or Ultra presets at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 228 FPS. The Medium preset averages 183 FPS, with a minimum of 155 FPS and a maximum of 210 FPS. The High preset averages 114 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 109 FPS. Again, min/max data is only available for the Medium preset.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 143 FPS. The Medium preset averages 115 FPS, with a minimum of 97 FPS and a maximum of 132 FPS. The High preset averages 72 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 68 FPS. The 4K Medium preset is the only configuration in the entire dataset where the minimum FPS falls below 100, which is still well above the 60 FPS target for console-like smoothness.

The most striking result is the 317 FPS average at 1080p Low. This is likely near the engine's maximum frame rate cap, as the GTX 1080 Ti is not typically capable of such high numbers in modern titles. The data suggests that Inside is highly optimized for low-end hardware, which is characteristic of its minimalist art style. The Medium preset at 1080p, with a 254 FPS average and a 216 FPS minimum, offers a great balance for players with 240 Hz monitors. The High and Ultra presets at 1440p, with 114 and 109 FPS averages respectively, are ideal for 120 Hz displays. At 4K, the Medium preset's 115 FPS average is the standout, as it provides high-refresh-rate 4K gameplay without requiring the Ultra preset's visual downgrade in performance. The Ultra preset at 4K, while playable at 68 FPS, is the only setting that dips below the 72 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for a premium experience. Overall, the data paints a picture of a versatile system that can adapt to any resolution, with the Medium preset emerging as the most balanced choice across the board.