Inside

Inside, a 2D puzzle-platformer from 2016, is not the typical stress test for flagship hardware, yet the measured frame rates for the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti combination reveal a distinctive performance profile. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly capable, with performance scaling that shifts from a CPU-bound scenario at lower resolutions to a GPU-bound one at 4K. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings, explaining the roles of the processor and graphics card in shaping the final output.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data for Inside demonstrates a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, moving from a CPU-limited state at 1080p to a GPU-limited state at 4K. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the system produces an average of 227.3 FPS, which is an exceptionally high figure that suggests the game engine is hitting a ceiling imposed by the processor rather than the graphics card. When the resolution is increased to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops to 163.8, a reduction of roughly 28% from the 1080p result. This significant drop indicates that the GPU is beginning to take on a more substantial workload, though the frame rates remain far above the refresh rates of most monitors.

The transition to 3840x2160 shows the most pronounced scaling impact, with the High settings average falling to 101.7 FPS. This is a 55% reduction from the 1440p figure and a 55% reduction from the 1080p figure, highlighting the exponential increase in pixel count that the RTX 3080 Ti must process. The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. For instance, at Low settings, the frame rate drops from 432.5 FPS at 1080p to 328.2 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 208.9 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K represents a 36% drop, which is less severe than the drop seen at High settings, suggesting that at lower graphical loads, the CPU’s influence is still significant even at 4K.

This scaling behavior provides key insight into the limiting component. At 1080p, the frame rates are so high that the game’s logic and draw calls are likely bottlenecked by the CPU’s single-thread performance, preventing the GPU from working to its full potential. As resolution climbs, the GPU’s fillrate and memory bandwidth become the primary constraints, and the FPS drops accordingly. The data indicates that the RTX 3080 Ti is not fully saturated until the 4K resolution, where the pixel throughput demands align more closely with its capabilities. The fact that the 4K High setting still manages over 100 FPS shows that this hardware combination is overkill for a game of this visual complexity, but the scaling curve itself is a textbook demonstration of how resolution dictates the balance between CPU and GPU load.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti plays an increasingly dominant role as resolution and settings are raised, with its memory subsystem and raw compute power becoming the deciding factors for performance. The GPU is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip and is fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung, featuring 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. It operates at a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, with memory running at 1188 MHz, which translates to 19 Gbps effective. This configuration provides a substantial amount of processing power, including 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs.

The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s, a figure that is critical for high-resolution rendering. The data suggests that this bandwidth is a key asset at 4K. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 95.4, the lowest measured result. This is not a sign of weakness but rather the point where the GPU's compute and memory resources are being taxed most heavily. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 34.10 TFLOPS and texture rate of 532.8 GTexel/s are more than sufficient for the game’s 2D visuals, but the sheer number of pixels at 4K still requires significant work.

The RTX 3080 Ti’s influence is most clearly seen when comparing the performance delta between resolution steps at the same settings. The drop from 1440p to 4K at Ultra settings is from 156.8 FPS to 95.4 FPS, a 39% reduction. This is a larger proportional drop than at Low settings, which only saw a 36% reduction. The reason is that at Ultra, the GPU is doing more work per pixel, and the increased resolution multiplies that workload, making the GPU the definitive bottleneck. The GPU holds a percentile rank of 83 among all GPUs and its average benchmark score is 41224, placing it near rivals like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, which scores 41441 with a deltaPct of -0.5. This proximity in synthetic benchmarks aligns with the observed real-world performance, confirming that the 3080 Ti is a top-tier card that only starts to show its limits at 4K in a game like Inside.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a formidable processor whose primary role in this game is to ensure that the GPU is never starved of data, particularly at lower resolutions. This 14th-generation processor, part of the Raptor Lake Refresh architecture, features 24 cores and 32 threads, with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. It has a 36 MB shared L3 cache and 2 MB per core L2 cache. The CPU’s performance is exceptional, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872 and a single-core score of 7040. This single-core strength is directly relevant to Inside, which, like many 2D platformers, may not scale perfectly across all 32 threads.

At 1920x1080, the CPU is the limiting factor. The measured FPS at Low settings is 432.5, and at High settings it is 227.3. These numbers are so high that the game’s main thread is likely the bottleneck, meaning the GPU is waiting for the CPU to send draw commands. The CPU’s high boost clock of 6.00 GHz is crucial here, as it minimizes the time between frames. The Geekbench single-core score of 3064 and Passmark single-thread score of 4697 further support the notion that this CPU excels at the kind of low-latency, high-frequency work required for game logic.

The CPU’s role diminishes as resolution increases, but it does not become irrelevant. Even at 4K, the CPU must maintain a high frame rate to feed the GPU, and the data shows it does so effectively. The 4K Low setting yields 208.9 FPS, which is still far above the 4K High setting of 101.7 FPS. This suggests that even at high resolutions, the CPU’s ability to process the game’s physics and interactions quickly allows the GPU to focus on rendering. The processor’s percentile rank of 97 among all CPUs places it in the top tier, and its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7413, has an average score of 80041 with a deltaPct of -0.3, showing the i9-14900K is statistically tied with a server-class chip. For this game, the i9-14900K is not a bottleneck; it is an enabler of extremely high frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high across the board. The Low setting averages 432.5 FPS, which is the highest figure in the entire dataset. Medium settings drop to 368.7 FPS, High settings to 227.3 FPS, and Ultra settings to 219.3 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal, only 8 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds visual effects that have a negligible impact on the GPU at this resolution, reinforcing the CPU-bound nature of the test.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high but show a clear step down. Low settings average 328.2 FPS, Medium settings 261 FPS, High settings 163.8 FPS, and Ultra settings 156.8 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 97 FPS, which is a significant jump, indicating that the High preset introduces a substantial increase in GPU workload. At 1440p, the GPU is starting to become the primary limiter, but the CPU’s high performance still allows for triple-digit frame rates in all settings.

At 3840x2160, the data shows the most demanding scenario. The Low setting averages 208.9 FPS, which is still exceptionally playable on a high refresh rate 4K monitor. Medium settings average 163.5 FPS, High settings average 101.7 FPS, and Ultra settings average 95.4 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at each setting is as follows: Low drops by 52%, Medium by 56%, High by 55%, and Ultra by 56%. This consistency across settings shows that the resolution is the dominant factor in performance scaling, with the percentage drop being relatively uniform, regardless of the graphical preset. The system is ranked 240 out of 1671 combos for this game, placing it in the top 15% of all tested hardware configurations, which is a strong indicator of its overall capability.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 219.3 FPS.

Q: How does the frame rate scale from 1440p to 4K at High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the average FPS is 163.8. When resolution is increased to 3840x2160 with High settings, the average FPS drops to 101.7, a reduction of 62.1 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: At 4K, the GPU is the primary limiting component. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is from 432.5 FPS to 208.9 FPS, while at Ultra settings it drops from 219.3 FPS to 95.4 FPS, showing the GPU's workload increases significantly with pixel count.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings average 432.5 FPS, while Ultra settings average 219.3 FPS. This represents a 213.2 FPS difference, indicating that the Ultra preset adds a substantial graphical load, though the frame rates remain very high.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 41224, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 has a score of 41441 with a deltaPct of -0.5, indicating the 3080 Ti is slightly behind the 3090.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded in the dataset?

A: The highest average FPS is 432.5, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.