Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer with modest visual demands, and the measured results for the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 reflect a combination that is heavily overqualified for the title. The data shows a system capable of pushing frame rates far beyond standard display refresh rates at every tested setting, making the primary challenge not achieving playability but rather selecting a preset that balances visual fidelity against unnecessary performance overhead.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark rows provide four settings presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—across three resolutions. For players targeting the smoothest possible experience on a high-refresh-rate display, the Low preset at 1080p delivers the highest measured average of 307 FPS. However, this frame rate far exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors, rendering the extra headroom functionally invisible. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 283 FPS on average, a marginal 7.8% reduction from Low, while offering noticeably improved visual quality through intermediate effects and texture filtering. Given that the difference between 307 and 283 FPS is unlikely to be perceptible outside of competitive esports contexts, Medium at 1080p represents the most efficient use of the hardware, providing a substantial frame rate buffer while avoiding the visual starkness of Low.

At 1440p, the Medium preset maintains an average of 254 FPS with a minimum of 216 FPS, keeping the experience comfortably above 200 FPS even in demanding moments. The High preset at this resolution drops to 174 FPS average, which remains excellent but begins to approach the threshold where some high-refresh displays (240Hz) would show occasional dips below maximum refresh. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 165 FPS, a 35% reduction from Medium, with no minimum frame rate data recorded. For 4K displays, the High preset offers 109 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 104 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K provides 175 FPS average with a 148 FPS minimum, which is the best balance for 4K users who want both high detail and a large frame rate cushion.

The data suggests that Medium is the optimal preset across all resolutions. At 1080p, it captures nearly all of the performance headroom of Low while improving visuals. At 1440p and 4K, it provides the highest frame rates among the visually acceptable presets, with the 4K Medium row being the only 4K configuration with recorded minimum and maximum frame rates, indicating a stable performance envelope. Ultra presets offer diminishing returns: the jump from High to Ultra at 1080p reduces the average from 236 to 230 FPS, a mere 2.5% penalty, but at 1440p and 4K the Ultra presets are the lowest performers in their respective resolution groups, suggesting that the additional graphical effects incur a proportionally larger cost at higher pixel counts.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why Inside presents no challenge. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. For a puzzle platformer of this era, such memory resources are vastly excessive—the game's textures and geometry can fit comfortably in a fraction of that capacity. The GPU's clock speeds are listed with a base of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz, and these frequencies, combined with the massive 21760 shading units, allow the card to process the game's simple scene geometry at rates that far exceed what the CPU can feed it in lower-resolution scenarios.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position. Its Passmark G3D score of 39650 places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, scores 79605, a delta of 0.3%, meaning the RTX 5090 performs essentially on par with that data-center card in synthetic tests. The RTX 5090's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 376728 indicate strong API-level performance, though for Inside, the simpler DirectX 11 path (Passmark score of 341) is more relevant, and even that score is far above what the game requires.

In the context of Inside's measured FPS, the GPU is never the bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rates across all settings (230-307 FPS) suggest that the CPU is the limiting factor, as the GPU could theoretically render far more frames given its compute capabilities. At 4K, the picture shifts slightly, but even the Ultra preset at 104 FPS demonstrates that the GPU has ample headroom. The GPU's VRAM is never taxed, and its clock behavior is likely stable throughout, though the data does not provide per-frame clock measurements.

Resolution Scaling

The impact of resolution on frame rates reveals where the system's balance lies. Moving from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, the average FPS at each preset declines in a predictable pattern. For the High preset, the progression is 236 FPS at 1080p, 174 FPS at 1440p, and 109 FPS at 4K. This represents a 26% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 54% drop from 1080p to 4K—a total scaling factor of roughly 2.16x from 1080p to 4K, which aligns closely with the 2.25x pixel count increase (1,920x1,080 = 2.07M pixels versus 3,840x2,160 = 8.29M pixels).

For the Medium preset, the scaling is 283 FPS at 1080p, 254 FPS at 1440p, and 175 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is only 10%, while the 1080p-to-4K drop is 38%. This non-linear scaling suggests that at 1080p Medium, the CPU is severely limiting the frame rate, while at 4K Medium, the GPU becomes more engaged, though still not fully saturated. The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 307 FPS at 1080p, 275 FPS at 1440p, and 218 FPS at 4K, with the 4K figure still representing a 29% drop from 1080p.

The Ultra preset exhibits the largest relative resolution penalty: 230 FPS at 1080p, 165 FPS at 1440p, and 104 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop of 28% and the 1080p-to-4K drop of 55% indicate that Ultra settings introduce effects that scale super-linearly with pixel count, likely due to increased shading complexity. The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the limiting component is the CPU, as evidenced by the relatively small frame rate differences between presets at these resolutions (e.g., 1080p Low at 307 FPS versus 1080p Ultra at 230 FPS, a 25% spread). At 4K, the GPU becomes more influential, as shown by the wider spread between Low (218 FPS) and Ultra (104 FPS), a 52% difference, which suggests the GPU's pixel throughput is finally being taxed meaningfully.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate measured in this configuration?

A: The highest average frame rate is 307 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: Which 4K preset provides the highest minimum frame rate?

A: The Medium preset at 3840x2160 is the only 4K configuration with a recorded minimum frame rate, at 148 FPS, with an average of 175 FPS and a maximum of 201 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 79842, which is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB's score of 79605, and 0.6% higher than the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB's 79396.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, as the frame rate spread between Low (307 FPS) and Ultra (230 FPS) is only 25%, suggesting the GPU is not fully utilized even at the highest settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 174 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 165 FPS, a difference of 9 FPS or approximately 5.2% lower performance for Ultra.

Q: How many total combinations were tested for this game?

A: The combo rank of 645 out of 2,887 total tested combinations places this system in the top 22% of all tested hardware pairings for Inside.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a rank of 645 out of 2,887 tested combinations for Inside, placing it in the upper quartile of all tested systems. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the GPU's extreme capabilities, but it reflects the fact that Inside is a lightweight title where even mid-range hardware can achieve high frame rates, meaning the ranking is more a function of CPU performance and system configuration than GPU raw power.

The RTX 5090's percentile of 92 versus all GPUs indicates that it sits near the top of the GPU hierarchy, but the game's low requirements mean that many combinations with less powerful GPUs can achieve similar or better frame rates due to superior CPU performance or better system tuning. The CPU's percentile of 79 versus all CPUs is respectable but not elite, and in a game where the CPU often becomes the bottleneck at high frame rates, this limits the combo's ceiling. The rank of 645 suggests that roughly 22% of tested combinations outperform this one in Inside, likely those with faster desktop CPUs that can feed the GPU even more frames at 1080p and 1440p.

The delta between this combo and the top-ranked systems is not quantifiable from the provided data, but the measured FPS figures—particularly the 307 FPS maximum at 1080p Low—show that the system is still delivering exceptional performance for the vast majority of users. For a puzzle platformer, the difference between 307 FPS and 400 FPS is purely academic, as both exceed any consumer display's refresh rate. The ranking should be interpreted as evidence that the CPU is the weak link in this pairing for Inside, not that the system is in any way inadequate for the game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a mobile processor with 14 cores and 18 threads, featuring a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. Its architecture is Meteor Lake on a 7 nm process, with a 18 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU has a TDP of 28 W, indicating a power-efficient design intended for laptops, which is a crucial factor in its performance ceiling for gaming. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12804.5 and single-core score of 1647.5 show that it is a capable but not top-tier processor, with its average benchmark score of 27507 placing it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs.

The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800, has an average score of 27535, a delta of -0.1%, meaning the two processors are statistically tied in synthetic benchmarks. The Intel Core i5-12600K and AMD Ryzen 7 5700X both score 27578, a delta of -0.3% relative to the Ultra 5 125H, again indicating near-identical performance. The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355G scores 27382, a delta of 0.5% lower. These rivals are all desktop processors, which highlights that the Ultra 5 125H's mobile design does not significantly compromise its raw compute in synthetic tests, though sustained gaming performance may differ due to thermal constraints not reflected in these scores.

In Inside, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics, and draw call submission. The game's simple puzzle mechanics do not demand extensive multi-threading, so the CPU's single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core of 1647.5) is more relevant. At 1080p, the frame rates plateau around 307 FPS on Low, suggesting that the CPU's single-thread speed is the limiting factor—the GPU could render more frames, but the CPU cannot issue commands fast enough. The boost clock of 4.50 GHz provides adequate headroom for the game's logic, but the 28 W TDP likely prevents the CPU from maintaining maximum boost clocks indefinitely, which could explain the lack of frame rates above 307 FPS even at Low settings where GPU load is minimal.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 307 FPS, the highest of any configuration. The Medium preset averages 283 FPS with a minimum of 241 and maximum of 326 FPS, providing the most complete performance data at this resolution. The High preset averages 236 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 230 FPS, showing a narrow spread of only 77 FPS between the lowest and highest quality settings. This tight grouping indicates that the CPU is the primary bottleneck at 1080p, as increasing graphical load from Low to Ultra only reduces performance by 25% despite the GPU having enormous untapped capacity.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 275 FPS, while Medium averages 254 FPS with a minimum of 216 and maximum of 292 FPS. The High preset drops to 174 FPS, and Ultra to 165 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 110 FPS, or 40%, which is wider than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU begins to play a more significant role as pixel count increases. The Medium preset's minimum of 216 FPS still guarantees a smooth experience on any current display, while the High and Ultra presets, though lower, remain well above 144 Hz.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 218 FPS, Medium averages 175 FPS with a minimum of 148 and maximum of 201 FPS, High averages 109 FPS, and Ultra averages 104 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 114 FPS, or 52%, indicating that the GPU is now the limiting component. Even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains an average above 100 FPS, which is exceptional for a mobile CPU paired with a desktop-class GPU. The Medium preset's minimum of 148 FPS ensures that even the most demanding scenes never drop below the 144 Hz threshold, making it the recommended choice for 4K gaming. The data consistently shows that this combination delivers playable-to-excellent frame rates at every resolution and setting, with the only caveat being that the CPU's mobile design prevents it from reaching the stratospheric frame rates possible with a desktop processor.