Inside

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is an overwhelming performer in Inside, a 2016 Puzzle Platformer. The benchmark data shows this combination is capable of delivering exceptionally high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, making it more than sufficient for this title's demands. The measured results indicate that the primary challenge for users will not be achieving playable performance, but rather deciding how to best leverage the substantial headroom available, particularly at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy across the four tested quality presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves an average of 398.7 FPS, while Ultra still delivers a very high 188.8 FPS. The jump from Ultra to Low represents a doubling of performance, but even the most demanding preset provides a frame rate far beyond the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The data indicates that for users with standard 60Hz or 144Hz displays, the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation, as it maintains an average of 188.8 FPS at 1080p and 134.6 FPS at 1440p, ensuring a fully smooth experience with maximum visual fidelity.

For those with high-refresh-rate panels (240Hz or higher), the High preset offers a compelling balance. At 1080p, High achieves 198.5 FPS, which is still a very high frame rate, while providing a more stable experience than the Ultra preset’s 188.8 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is relatively small in this title, making High a sensible choice for competitive or high-refresh-rate play. The Medium preset, delivering 320.9 FPS at 1080p, is a viable option for esports-style play where every frame counts, but the visual compromise is likely unnecessary for a game like Inside given the already high performance of the High preset. The Low preset, with its 398.7 FPS at 1080p, is best reserved for maximizing frame rates on extremely high-refresh-rate displays, as the visual downgrade is significant compared to the minimal gains in smoothness over Medium.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts to the High preset. The data shows that High at 3840x2160 yields an average of 91.8 FPS, which is a very playable and smooth experience for a puzzle platformer. The Ultra preset drops to 83.9 FPS, which is still playable but offers diminishing returns in visual quality for the performance cost. The Medium preset at 4K provides 143.6 FPS, but the visual difference between Medium and High is often more noticeable at higher resolutions, making High the superior choice for a balance of quality and performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, built on the Ampere architecture, plays a central role in the performance observed. Its 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s, which is more than adequate for the textures and effects in Inside. The GPU’s 6144 shading units and 192 TMUs contribute to its ability to push high pixel rates, with a texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s. The boost clock of 1770 MHz allows the card to sustain high throughput, which is evident in the substantial frame rate differences between resolutions.

The data shows a clear scaling pattern that points to the GPU being the primary limiter at higher resolutions. When moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 198.5 to 141.1, a reduction of 57.4 FPS. The further drop to 91.8 FPS at 4K indicates that the GPU is working progressively harder to fill the increasing number of pixels. This is typical behavior for a game where the visual load is heavily dependent on resolution. The RTX 3070 Ti’s performance here is strong, but it is clearly the component that dictates the ceiling at 4K, whereas the CPU has more headroom to spare.

The GPU’s position relative to its peers, as indicated by its 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs, reinforces its capability. Its average benchmark score of 30849 places it very close to the AMD Radeon RX 6700, which has a deltaPct of -0.8, and the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, which is 0.3% ahead. This suggests that while not a top-tier card, it is a solidly mid-to-high-end performer that is more than capable for this specific game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 512th out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the top 30% of all configurations in the database. While this might seem modest given the high individual component scores, it is important to consider the context. The game is not particularly demanding, so a wide range of hardware can achieve high frame rates, making the ranking less about raw capability and more about the specific headroom available at the highest settings and resolutions. A rank of 512 with 1671 total combos means that 1159 other configurations are slower, indicating that this setup offers performance that is better than the majority of tested systems in this title.

The CPU itself is a top-tier part, ranking in the 97th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 79824 is very close to the AMD EPYC 7413, which is only 0.3% ahead. It is also effectively tied with the Intel Core i9-14900KF and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF, with deltaPct values of 0.7% and 0.7%, respectively. This indicates that the i9-14900K is not the limiting factor in this combo. The GPU, ranking in the 74th percentile, is more likely to be the constraint. The combo’s overall rank is therefore a reflection of the GPU’s mid-to-high-end standing rather than a deficiency in the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across all combinations of resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high across the board. The Low preset leads with 398.7 FPS, followed by Medium at 320.9 FPS, High at 198.5 FPS, and Ultra at 188.8 FPS. Even the most demanding setting at 1080p provides a frame rate that is nearly three times the refresh rate of a standard 60Hz monitor, demonstrating massive headroom.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains very strong, though the scaling is evident. The Low preset averages 284.7 FPS, while Medium drops to 228.3 FPS. High and Ultra follow at 141.1 FPS and 134.6 FPS, respectively. This resolution is the sweet spot for this combo, as even the Ultra preset maintains a frame rate that is ideal for high-refresh-rate gaming, comfortably exceeding 120 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to feel the strain of the pixel count. The Low preset still manages a very playable 182 FPS, and Medium provides 143.6 FPS. However, the High and Ultra presets drop to 91.8 FPS and 83.9 FPS, respectively. These numbers are still perfectly smooth for a game like Inside, but they are a noticeable step down from the lower resolutions and clearly indicate that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is a key indicator of system balance. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 198.5 at 1080p to 141.1 at 1440p, a 28.9% decrease. The further drop to 91.8 FPS at 4K represents a 53.7% decrease from the 1080p figure. This pattern is consistent across all settings. For instance, at Ultra, the frame rate falls from 188.8 FPS at 1080p to 134.6 FPS at 1440p and then to 83.9 FPS at 4K.

This scaling behavior suggests that the system is CPU-bound at lower resolutions and becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution increases. At 1080p, the powerful Intel Core i9-14900K is able to feed frames to the GPU faster than it can render them, which is why the differences between Low and Ultra are significant (398.7 vs 188.8 FPS). As the resolution increases, the GPU’s fill rate becomes the limiting factor. The relatively linear drop in performance from 1440p to 4K, where the pixel count quadruples but frame rates do not drop by four times, indicates that the GPU is the dominant constraint at these higher resolutions. The data confirms that this combo is incredibly well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p gaming, and it remains fully capable of delivering a smooth 4K experience at High settings, with the CPU providing ample headroom for any future GPU upgrade.