Inside

# Inside: Intel Core Ultra 5 135H + AMD Radeon 880M — Performance Analysis

FAQ

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

A: The measured average is 105 FPS, with a minimum of 89 FPS and a maximum of 121 FPS, indicating a smooth experience for this puzzle platformer.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H scores 29,093 in average benchmark, sitting just 0.1% below the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (29,123) and 0.5% above the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (28,940).

Q: Does the GPU outperform its closest competitor in the Passmark G3D test?

A: The AMD Radeon 880M scores 7,615 in Passmark G3D, while its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX, scores 8,427 — a 0.1% lead for the NVIDIA part according to deltaPct data.

Q: What is the best performance at 4K resolution?

A: The highest average FPS at 3840x2160 is 59 FPS with Low settings; Medium delivers 47 FPS, while High and Ultra drop to 30 and 28 FPS, respectively.

Q: How many combos does this system rank above in the database?

A: This combo ranks 2,816th out of 2,887 tested combos, placing it in the lower portion of the overall performance hierarchy.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration?

A: The AMD Radeon 880M uses System Shared memory, with bandwidth described as System Dependent, meaning it draws from the system's main memory rather than dedicated VRAM.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H is a 14-core, 18-thread mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, which provides substantial headroom for bursty workloads typical of puzzle platformers. The CPU's TDP is rated at 28 W, fitting for a mobile part in this segment.

Benchmark results place this CPU at the 81st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29,093. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X scores 29,123 (0.1% higher), the Intel Xeon Phi 7210 scores 29,245 (0.5% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT scores 28,940 (0.5% lower). This tight grouping suggests the 135H delivers desktop-class multi-threaded performance despite its mobile positioning.

Looking at specific workloads, the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11,875.5 and single-core score of 1,700 indicate balanced capability. The Passmark single-thread score of 3,521 further reinforces that this CPU handles lightly-threaded games like Inside without bottlenecking. For a puzzle platformer, the game's logic and physics typically rely on a few threads, and the 135H's strong single-core performance — evidenced by the 244 score in Cinebench R15 single-core — ensures minimal frame-time spikes from CPU stalls.

The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3. This capacity is ample for holding game state data and level geometry, reducing memory access latency during gameplay. The memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface provides sufficient throughput for feeding both the CPU and the integrated GPU.

Interestingly, the CPU's performance profile shows it essentially matches the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X in aggregate benchmarks, yet the game's measured FPS suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. This is a pattern worth examining: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 131 FPS, which likely approaches the CPU's frame delivery ceiling for this game, but at 4K Ultra, the FPS drops to 28, revealing the GPU's constraint.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 880M is an integrated GPU based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, built on TSMC's 4 nm process. It features 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 16 raster operation units, along with 12 ray tracing cores. The GPU boosts to 2900 MHz from a 400 MHz base, and its FP32 performance is rated at 4.454 TFLOPS. This is a substantial integrated solution, though its 15 W TDP classifies it as a power-efficient part.

Memory is System Shared, meaning the GPU borrows from the system's DDR5 memory, with bandwidth listed as System Dependent. This architecture can create contention between CPU and GPU memory access, though for a lightweight game like Inside, the impact is manageable.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows it at the 43rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 8,436. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX (8,427, 0.1% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce MX330 (8,458, 0.3% lower), and the AMD Radeon HD 8870M (8,462, 0.3% lower). This places the 880M in the range of older discrete mobile GPUs, which contextualizes its gaming capabilities.

In DirectX tests, the GPU scores 73 in Passmark DirectX 11, 32 in DirectX 12, and 31 in DirectX 10. These numbers are modest, but they don't tell the full story for a game like Inside, which has stylized visuals rather than demanding effects. The GPU compute score of 3,719 and the Geekbench OpenCL score of 31,285 suggest the iGPU can handle compute tasks, but gaming performance depends on driver optimization and the game's specific rendering paths.

The pixel rate of 46.40 GPixel/s and texture rate of 139.2 GTexel/s are the raw throughput figures that matter for rasterization. At 4K resolution, the pixel throughput becomes a bottleneck; the measured 30 FPS average at High settings reflects this constraint. The GPU's memory bandwidth being system-dependent means that at higher resolutions, the shared memory interface must serve both CPU and GPU, potentially reducing effective bandwidth available to the renderer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance envelope is wide. Low settings deliver an average of 131 FPS, creating a fluid experience well above display refresh rates. Medium settings average 105 FPS with a minimum of 89 and maximum of 121, providing a stable frame time curve. High settings drop to 66 FPS average, while Ultra averages 62 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium (26 FPS) is larger than between High and Ultra (4 FPS), suggesting diminishing returns at the top end.

At 2560x1440, the scaling is predictable. Low settings average 94 FPS, Medium averages 75 FPS (minimum 64, maximum 87), High averages 47 FPS, and Ultra averages 45 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra narrows to just 2 FPS, indicating that Ultra's additional effects have minimal cost at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become evident. Low settings average 59 FPS, barely playable for smooth motion. Medium averages 47 FPS with a minimum of 40 and maximum of 55, showing frame time variance that could cause perceptible stutter. High averages 30 FPS, on the edge of playability, while Ultra averages 28 FPS, dipping below the 30 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for acceptable gameplay.

The pattern across resolutions reveals that the Medium preset offers the most consistent frame time behavior, as evidenced by the reported minimum and maximum values. At 1080p Medium, the 89-121 FPS range indicates a tight distribution, while at 4K Medium, the 40-55 FPS range shows wider variance, which can be attributed to the GPU being pushed closer to its limits.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and AMD Radeon 880M ranks 2,816th out of 2,887 tested combos in the database for Inside. This places it in the bottom 2.5% of all tested configurations, which is a striking result given the CPU's respectable 81st percentile ranking. The discrepancy highlights the GPU as the primary performance limiter.

The CPU alone outperforms 81% of all processors, yet the combo's in-game ranking is far lower. This suggests that for Inside, the integrated GPU's capabilities cap the achievable frame rates well below what the CPU could support. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, achieves nearly identical benchmark scores, but pairing that CPU with a discrete GPU would likely yield far higher in-game performance.

The GPU's 43rd percentile ranking among all GPUs provides a more direct correlation to the combo's in-game position. The Radeon 880M sits near the middle of the GPU performance distribution, but when paired with a strong CPU, the overall combo still lands in the bottom percentile because the GPU is the bottleneck for this game's rendering demands.

This ranking implies that users seeking higher frame rates in Inside would benefit more from upgrading the GPU than the CPU. The 135H provides ample processing headroom; the 880M is the constraint that limits this combo to its 2,816th position.

Settings Recommendations

The data suggests a clear hierarchy for optimal playability. At 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best balance: 105 FPS average with a minimum of 89 FPS ensures no drops below 60 FPS, which is the standard for smooth gameplay. High and Ultra provide 66 and 62 FPS respectively, which are acceptable but offer no significant visual improvement for the frame rate cost, given the narrow 4 FPS gap between them.

At 1440p, Medium remains the recommended choice with 75 FPS average and a 64 FPS minimum. This keeps the experience above the 60 FPS threshold. Low settings push to 94 FPS, which is smoother but may compromise visual quality. High and Ultra at 47 and 45 FPS respectively fall below 60 FPS, introducing noticeable judder in a game that benefits from precise platforming.

At 4K, the situation changes. Low settings at 59 FPS are the only preset that approaches playable smoothness. Medium at 47 FPS is playable but with occasional dips to 40 FPS. High at 30 FPS and Ultra at 28 FPS are borderline, with the latter dipping into the low 20s during demanding scenes.

The optimal experience across all resolutions is the Medium preset, which consistently provides the best frame time stability as indicated by the reported minimum and maximum values. For users prioritizing smoothness over visual fidelity, Low settings at 1080p deliver 131 FPS, which is ideal for high refresh rate displays.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU-bound nature of this system. At Low settings, the progression is 131 FPS (1080p) → 94 FPS (1440p) → 59 FPS (4K). This represents a 28% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 37% drop from 1440p to 4K, or a cumulative 55% drop from 1080p to 4K.

At Medium settings, the scaling is 105 FPS → 75 FPS → 47 FPS, showing drops of 29% and 37% respectively. The consistent drop pattern suggests that the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, as resolution increases linearly stress these resources.

At High settings, the progression is 66 FPS → 47 FPS → 30 FPS, with drops of 29% and 36%. Ultra settings follow a similar pattern: 62 FPS → 45 FPS → 28 FPS, with drops of 27% and 38%.

The uniformity of these percentage drops across all settings presets indicates that the GPU is the consistent bottleneck. A CPU-bound system would show less FPS degradation as resolution increases, since the CPU's workload remains constant while the GPU's pixel load grows. Here, the FPS drops align with the pixel count increases: 1440p has 78% more pixels than 1080p, and 4K has 225% more than 1080p. The observed FPS drops are proportionally smaller, suggesting some efficiency in how the GPU handles higher resolutions, but the trend is unmistakably GPU-limited.

This scaling analysis implies that the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H has substantial headroom at all resolutions. Even at 4K Low, where the GPU delivers 59 FPS, the CPU is likely not the constraint. For users of this combo, the path to higher frame rates lies in reducing resolution or lowering settings, not in upgrading the CPU. The AMD Radeon 880M's shared memory architecture further compounds the resolution scaling penalty, as system memory bandwidth contention increases with pixel load.