Inside

The Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination delivers an exceptional experience in Inside, a side-scrolling puzzle platformer that is far more demanding than its minimalist art style suggests. This pairing ranks 31st out of 1,671 tested combos in this specific title, placing it in the top 1.9% of all configurations. The data confirms that this system is overkill for the game's core mechanics, but the raw performance headroom ensures flawless frame pacing and maximum visual fidelity at any resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark database places this specific Intel and NVIDIA pairing at rank 31 out of 1,671 tested combinations for Inside. This percentile placement indicates that the i9-14900K and RTX 4080 SUPER are not just capable but are among the elite few configurations that can push this game to its absolute limits. The CPU itself sits at the 97th percentile when compared against all other processors in the database, a position reinforced by its average benchmark score of 79,824. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic suite include the AMD EPYC 7413 (scoring 80,041, a delta of -0.3%), the Intel Core i9-14900KF (79,245, a delta of 0.7%), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF (79,240, a delta of 0.7%). These tiny percentage differences suggest that the i9-14900K is trading blows with server-class silicon and its own direct successor, making it a top-tier foundation for this build.

On the graphics side, the RTX 4080 SUPER holds the 88th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 53,610. Its nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (53,489, a delta of 0.2%), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (53,414, a delta of 0.4%), and the AMD Radeon RX 7700S (52,505, a delta of 2.1%). The fact that the 4080 SUPER leads the RX 6900 XT by a razor-thin margin in aggregate scoring, while the CPU outperforms the EPYC 7413, underscores a balance that prevents bottlenecking. For a game like Inside, which is not heavily threaded, the i9-14900K’s massive core count (24 cores, 32 threads) is less relevant than its single-core prowess, but the combination ensures that the GPU is never starved for data, allowing it to operate at full tilt.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the workhorse here, and its specifications directly explain the measured performance. The GPU is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC, packing 45,900 million transistors into a 379 mm² die. It operates at a base clock of 2295 MHz and boosts up to 2550 MHz, with memory clocked at 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective). The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus yields a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, which is critical for feeding the shading units (10,240) and texture mapping units (320) at high resolutions.

For Inside, the game’s monochromatic visuals and simple geometry might suggest low VRAM usage, but the data shows the opposite is true at high settings. The GPU’s 112 ROPs and pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s are essential for the game's post-processing effects and ambient occlusion, which are heavy on fill rate. The texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s ensures that the game’s detailed environmental textures are streamed without hitch. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are not directly utilized by this title, but they contribute to the card’s overall efficiency and driver overhead management. The FP32 performance of 52.22 TFLOPS indicates that the card can brute-force its way through any shader complexity Inside presents, which is why the frame rates remain high even when the settings are maxed out.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 428.2 FPS, while the Ultra preset still delivers 276.9 FPS. The High preset at 290.6 FPS and Medium at 397.3 FPS fill out the range. Given that the game’s visual differences between High and Ultra are subtle in this art style, the High preset is the optimal choice for 1080p, providing a 13.7 FPS advantage over Ultra while retaining most of the visual enhancements. At 2560x1440, the High preset (211.9 FPS) is again the sweet spot, offering a 13.2 FPS lead over Ultra (198.7 FPS) and a substantial margin over Medium (337.4 FPS) and Low (384 FPS).

At 3840x2160, the choice becomes more critical. The Ultra preset drops to 127.2 FPS, which is still playable but begins to approach the limits of high-refresh displays. The High preset, however, maintains 133.3 FPS, only a 6.1 FPS penalty compared to Ultra. The Medium preset (210.4 FPS) and Low (264.9 FPS) are far above any practical need. For a puzzle platformer where input latency is paramount, the High preset at 4K offers the best balance, keeping the frame rate above 130 FPS while preserving the atmospheric lighting that defines the game’s mood. The data indicates that there is no scenario where the CPU or GPU becomes a bottleneck, as even the heaviest settings never dip below the 127 FPS mark.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data, collected from actual runs, shows a consistent scaling pattern across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 428.2 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combo. Moving up the settings ladder, Medium achieves 397.3 FPS, High drops to 290.6 FPS, and Ultra settles at 276.9 FPS. This represents a 35.3% performance drop from Low to Ultra at this resolution, but the absolute numbers remain exceptionally high. The transition from High to Ultra costs 13.7 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are not fully optimized.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute values. Low yields 384 FPS, Medium 337.4 FPS, High 211.9 FPS, and Ultra 198.7 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to 13.2 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is a significant 125.5 FPS. This suggests that the High preset is where the rendering pipeline begins to engage more complex shading, but the RTX 4080 SUPER handles it without breaking a sweat. The 1440p data shows a 48.3% performance reduction from Low to Ultra, mirroring the 1080p trend.

At 3840x2160, the numbers become more stratified. Low leads with 264.9 FPS, followed by Medium at 210.4 FPS, High at 133.3 FPS, and Ultra at 127.2 FPS. The jump from Medium to High is a steep 77.1 FPS drop, which indicates that the High preset at 4K engages the GPU’s full shading load, including higher-resolution shadow maps and ambient occlusion. The difference between High and Ultra is only 6.1 FPS, making Ultra a viable option for those who prioritize absolute visual fidelity over a slight frame rate buffer. Across all resolutions, the data shows that the combo delivers playable frame rates even at the most demanding settings, with no single configuration falling below 127 FPS.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo overkill for a puzzle platformer like Inside?*

A: Yes, the data suggests it is. The RTX 4080 SUPER at 4K Ultra still achieves 127.2 FPS, which is far above the 60 FPS target for this genre. The i9-14900K’s 24 cores and 32 threads are largely unused, as the game is not heavily threaded, but the single-core performance (7,040 in Cinebench R23 single-core) ensures no frame drops.

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Inside with this hardware?*

A: Based on the measured FPS, 2560x1440 at High settings offers the best balance, delivering 211.9 FPS. This resolution provides a sharp image while maintaining a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. At 4K, the High preset at 133.3 FPS is still excellent, but the 1440p figures offer more headroom.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from Low to Ultra settings?

A: The performance loss is consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, the drop is from 428.2 FPS to 276.9 FPS, a 35.3% reduction. At 1440p, it drops from 384 FPS to 198.7 FPS, a 48.3% reduction. At 4K, it falls from 264.9 FPS to 127.2 FPS, a 52% reduction. The GPU handles the load without issues, but the relative cost of Ultra is high.

*Q: Does the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 16 GB VRAM matter for Inside?*

A: The VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor. The game’s simple textures and limited draw distance require far less than 16 GB, even at 4K. The high memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s is more relevant, ensuring that the game’s streaming assets are loaded quickly, but the VRAM size itself does not impact the measured frame rates.

Q: How does the i9-14900K compare to its nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i9-14900K scores 79,824 in the average benchmark, which is 0.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 7413 (80,041) but 0.7% higher than both the Intel Core i9-14900KF (79,245) and Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF (79,240). This places it in a virtual tie with the EPYC, though the EPYC is a server chip.

*Q: Is there any scenario where this combo drops below 60 FPS in Inside?*

A: No. The lowest measured average FPS across all tested configurations is 127.2 FPS at 4K Ultra. This is more than double the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that the combo never approaches a playability limit, regardless of resolution or settings.