Inside

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 703rd out of 3716 tested combinations for Inside, placing it in the top 19% of all systems evaluated. This is a strong position for a game that is not graphically demanding by modern standards, suggesting the combo sits comfortably above the median experience. The percentile data reinforces this: the CPU ranks in the 95th percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU sits in the 68th percentile against all GPUs, indicating that the processor is the more dominant component in this pairing. The benchmark results show a system capable of delivering extremely high frame rates across all tested settings, with the primary differentiator being the resolution and the chosen quality preset rather than any fundamental hardware limitation.

How This Combo Ranks

The 703rd rank out of 3716 combos is a notable achievement, placing this system in the upper echelon of tested configurations for Inside. This position is driven by the exceptional headroom provided by the Intel Core i9-14900K, which outperforms its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 79097 is a hair behind the Intel Core i9-14900KF at 79371 (a 0.3% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at 79574 (a 0.6% delta), yet it leads the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395, which scores 77740. The data implies that the i9-14900K is not the limiting factor in this system for Inside; instead, the RTX 3080, with its 68th percentile ranking, is more likely to dictate performance ceilings.

Looking at the GPU’s standing among its peers, the RTX 3080’s average benchmark score of 23172 is remarkably close to several seemingly disparate competitors. It trails the NVIDIA P106-100 by a mere 0.3% (23249) and sits within a 0.4% margin of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 and the AMD Radeon RX 6600M. This clustering suggests that for the synthetic workloads measured, the RTX 3080 performs at a similar level to these cards, although the real-world gaming results for Inside show a different story. The combination’s overall rank indicates that while the GPU is competent, the CPU’s raw power ensures that frame rates remain exceptionally high, making the system a top-tier performer for this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Inside reveals that the choice of settings has a dramatic impact on performance, but the system has enough headroom to handle even the most demanding presets at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 210 FPS, which is only 10 FPS lower than High (220 FPS), making Ultra the optimal choice for high-refresh-rate monitors without any meaningful penalty. The Medium preset pushes to 352 FPS, and Low reaches 430 FPS, but these higher frame rates come at the cost of visual fidelity that the game’s atmospheric puzzle design benefits from. The data suggests that Ultra at 1080p provides the best balance, as the difference between High and Ultra is negligible in terms of playability.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 151 FPS, which remains well above the 144Hz threshold for most gaming displays. High sits at 158 FPS, offering a marginal improvement, while Medium jumps to 253 FPS. For a game like Inside, where the visual tone is crucial, the Ultra preset is recommended here as well, as the 7 FPS gain from dropping to High is unlikely to be perceptible. The situation changes at 3840x2160, where Ultra drops to 95 FPS and High to 99 FPS, both of which are still playable but below the 100 FPS mark. In this case, the Medium preset, with an average of 159 FPS and a minimum of 135 FPS, offers a significantly smoother experience while retaining a high level of visual quality. The data implies that for 4K, Medium is the sweet spot, as it nearly doubles the frame rate of Ultra while maintaining a consistent minimum above 135 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K illustrates a clear pattern of GPU-bound performance at higher resolutions, with the CPU’s influence waning as pixel count increases. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 430 FPS at 1920x1080 to 317 FPS at 2560x1440, a 26% reduction, and then to 199 FPS at 3840x2160, a further 37% drop. This steep decline indicates that even at Low settings, the RTX 3080 is being pushed harder as resolution increases, while the i9-14900K has ample headroom to feed frames. The same trend holds for Medium settings, where FPS falls from 352 at 1080p to 253 at 1440p (28% drop) and then to 159 at 4K (37% drop), showing a consistent scaling pattern.

For High and Ultra settings, the scaling is less aggressive but still significant. High settings drop from 220 FPS at 1080p to 158 FPS at 1440p (28% reduction) and then to 99 FPS at 4K (37% reduction). Ultra follows a similar path, going from 210 FPS to 151 FPS (28% drop) and then to 95 FPS (37% drop). The consistent percentage drops across all settings suggest that the limiting component at 4K is the GPU’s rendering throughput, as the CPU’s performance ceiling is far above the measured frame rates. At 1080p, the system is likely CPU-bound at Low settings, where 430 FPS approaches the limits of what the i9-14900K can push, but at 4K, the RTX 3080’s 760.3 GB/s memory bandwidth and 29.77 TFLOPS compute become the primary bottlenecks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system’s capabilities across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system achieves its highest frame rates: Low settings average 430 FPS, Medium averages 352 FPS with a minimum of 299 FPS and a maximum of 405 FPS, High averages 220 FPS, and Ultra averages 210 FPS. These numbers indicate that even at the most demanding preset, the system far exceeds the refresh rate of standard 1080p monitors, making it an ideal choice for competitive or high-refresh-rate play. The variance between Medium’s minimum and maximum (299-405 FPS) shows a spread of 106 FPS, suggesting some scenes are more taxing, but the average remains extremely high.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain impressive: Low averages 317 FPS, Medium averages 253 FPS with a minimum of 215 FPS and a maximum of 291 FPS, High averages 158 FPS, and Ultra averages 151 FPS. The drop from 1080p is noticeable but not drastic, with the system still capable of exceeding 150 FPS at Ultra settings. The Medium preset’s minimum of 215 FPS ensures a smooth experience even in the most demanding scenes. At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more moderate: Low averages 199 FPS, Medium averages 159 FPS with a minimum of 135 FPS and a maximum of 183 FPS, High averages 99 FPS, and Ultra averages 95 FPS. The 4K results show that while the system can handle Ultra at playable frame rates, the Medium preset offers the best balance of smoothness and visual quality, with a minimum FPS that stays above 135.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 plays a critical role in this system’s Inside performance, particularly at higher resolutions where its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are fully utilized. The GPU’s 8704 shading units and 272 TMUs work in tandem to render the game’s distinctive monochromatic art style, and the benchmark results show that it is more than capable of handling the title’s demands. The card’s boost clock of 1710 MHz, up from a base of 1440 MHz, provides the necessary headroom for sustained performance, as evidenced by the stable frame rates across all settings. The memory clock of 1188 MHz, offering 19 Gbps effective, ensures that texture-heavy scenes do not cause frame drops.

The RTX 3080’s 68th percentile ranking against all GPUs places it in a solid mid-to-high tier, but its performance in Inside is notably strong. The GPU’s compute capabilities, including 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores, are largely irrelevant for this game, which is not ray-traced, but the raw rasterization power is sufficient to push 4K frame rates above 95 FPS at Ultra settings. The card’s proximity to rivals like the NVIDIA P106-100 and AMD Radeon RX 6600M in synthetic benchmarks is misleading, as the real-world gaming data shows the RTX 3080 delivering far higher frame rates in Inside. This discrepancy highlights that synthetic benchmarks do not always translate directly to gaming performance, especially in a title with modest graphical demands. The GPU’s 10 GB VRAM is more than adequate for Inside, with no indication of memory constraints even at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

*Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU and GPU combination for Inside?*

A: The combo ranks 703rd out of 3716 tested combinations, placing it in the top 19% of all systems.

Q: Which settings preset provides the best experience at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset averages 159 FPS with a minimum of 135 FPS, making it the best choice for smoothness, as Ultra and High both average below 100 FPS.

Q: How much does performance drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 220 FPS at 1920x1080 to 99 FPS at 3840x2160, a 55% reduction.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p resolution?

A: At 1080p Low settings, the system reaches 430 FPS, suggesting the CPU is nearing its limit, as the GPU has more headroom at lower resolutions.

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

A: At 2560x1440, High averages 158 FPS while Ultra averages 151 FPS, a difference of only 7 FPS, making Ultra the preferable choice.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's synthetic benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RTX 3080 scores 23172, which is 0.3% lower than the NVIDIA P106-100's score of 23249.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is the powerhouse in this pairing, with 24 cores and 32 threads that provide immense parallel processing capability. Its 6.00 GHz boost clock and 3.20 GHz base clock ensure that single-threaded performance is exceptional, which is crucial for a game like Inside that may not utilize all cores. The CPU’s 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, allowing for smooth frame pacing even at high frame rates. The benchmark data shows the i9-14900K achieving a Geekbench single-core score of 2655 and a multi-core score of 21697, placing it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, which explains why it is rarely the bottleneck in this system.

The CPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals demonstrates its dominance. It trails the Intel Core i9-14900KF by only 0.3% in average benchmark score, which is expected given the latter’s slightly higher clock potential without integrated graphics. The AMD EPYC 7413, a server-class chip, is 1.2% ahead, but the i9-14900K’s higher boost clock makes it more suitable for gaming. The CPU’s PassMark multi-thread score of 58674 and single-thread score of 4697 indicate it can handle both the game logic and the operating system overhead without breaking a sweat. In Inside, the CPU’s role is to maintain high minimum frame rates, which is evident from the Medium preset data showing a minimum of 299 FPS at 1080p and 215 FPS at 1440p, ensuring no stutters even in complex scenes.

The CPU’s 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory give it flexibility, but its performance in this game is defined by its clock speed and core count. The data suggests that at 1080p, the i9-14900K is the primary driver of the 430 FPS Low preset result, as the GPU is underutilized. As resolution increases, the CPU’s advantage becomes less pronounced, but it still provides the headroom needed for the RTX 3080 to operate at its full potential. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5 and single-core score of 2262.5 further confirm that this CPU is among the best available, making it a perfect match for a high-end GPU like the RTX 3080 in a game that favors high frame rates.