Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer that is far more forgiving on hardware than its atmospheric dread suggests. The measured data for the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and AMD Radeon RX 7900M combination shows an exceptionally high-performance pairing, placing it in the 1080th position out of 2887 tested combos, which puts it comfortably in the top 37% of all systems. The game’s 2016 release date means its engine is not heavily threaded, but the sheer power of this mobile CPU and flagship GPU ensures that frame rates remain exceptionally high across all tested resolutions and presets, with the only real bottleneck appearing at the most demanding 4K Ultra settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H is a 14-core, 18-thread mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on a 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and can boost up to 4.60 GHz, which is critical for a game like Inside that relies heavily on single-thread performance for its physics and logic simulation. While the CPU has a substantial 18 MB of shared L3 cache, the game’s relatively simple geometry and 2D side-scrolling perspective mean that cache pressure is low; the primary demand is on maintaining high IPC (instructions per clock) to keep the frame pacing consistent.

Benchmark data for this CPU shows a strong single-thread showing with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1700, which is essential for ensuring that the game’s main thread does not become a limiting factor. In multi-threaded workloads, the chip scores 11875.5 in Cinebench R23, but for Inside, this extra headroom is largely irrelevant. The measured FPS data confirms this: even at 1080p Low, the system achieves 319 FPS, a figure that is only possible if the CPU can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 3521 and multithread score of 22422 place it in the 81st percentile of all CPUs, and it trades blows with desktop parts like the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (0.1% faster) and Intel Core i5-13500HX (0.6% faster), showing that this mobile chip has desktop-class single-core capability.

The 28 W TDP is a modest figure for such a high-performing part, indicating that thermal throttling is unlikely to be a significant issue in a well-designed laptop chassis, allowing the boost clock to be sustained during longer gaming sessions. The architecture’s efficiency means that the CPU is rarely the bottleneck in this pairing, even at high frame rates. For a game like Inside, which is a puzzle platformer without complex AI or large crowds, the 135H’s 14 cores are more than sufficient; the game simply does not utilize more than a handful of threads, so the performance is dictated almost entirely by the single-core boost behavior. The data shows that at 1440p High, the system still manages 136 FPS, a figure that indicates the CPU is still keeping up with the GPU’s output, as the frame rate drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent with a GPU-side scaling pattern rather than a CPU stall.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900M is the dominant component in this pairing, featuring the Navi 31 chip on a 5 nm process with a massive 57,700 million transistors. It comes equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 576.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is overkill for Inside, which is not a texture-heavy title, but it ensures that even at 4K Ultra, there is no risk of VRAM capacity or bandwidth becoming a limiting factor. The GPU’s core clocks are set at 1825 MHz base and 2090 MHz boost, and it packs 4608 shading units, 288 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, which are the raw resources that drive the high fill rates needed for the game’s cinematic lighting and shadow effects.

In terms of raw compute, the RX 7900M delivers 38.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which places it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rivals in the benchmark database include the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 (4.3% slower) and the AMD Radeon Pro VII (0.4% faster), indicating that this is a top-tier mobile GPU that sits just below the absolute flagship desktop parts. For Inside, this power translates into staggering frame rates. At 1080p Medium, the system records an average of 294 FPS, and at 1440p Medium, it still achieves 217 FPS. The GPU’s 192 ROPs are particularly important for a 2D platformer that relies on alpha-blended effects and post-processing, as they ensure that pixel throughput is never a constraint.

The most telling data point is the 4K Ultra result, where the system averages 81 FPS. This is the only setting where the GPU begins to show any sign of workload, as the frame rate drops significantly from the 136 FPS average at 4K Medium. This suggests that the Ultra preset likely enables additional shader effects or higher draw distances that stress the GPU’s compute units more heavily, but the result is still playable and smooth. The GPU’s 16 GB VRAM is a future-proofing feature, but for this specific title, even the 4K High preset at 85 FPS shows that the memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck. The card’s support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 ensures that it can handle any modern rendering API that a remaster or patch might introduce, but for the base game, the performance is limited by the engine’s ability to issue draw calls rather than the GPU’s ability to execute them.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combination run Inside at 4K resolution?*

A: Yes. The measured data shows an average of 85 FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings, 136 FPS at Medium, and 81 FPS at Ultra. Even the most demanding preset is playable.

Q: What is the best resolution for the highest possible frame rate?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 319 FPS. This is the highest measured frame rate in the dataset.

Q: How does the CPU performance compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H has an average benchmark score of 29093, which is 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and 0.6% lower than the Intel Core i5-13500HX. It is 0.5% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT.

Q: Is the GPU more powerful than professional workstation cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900M has an average benchmark score of 97487. This is 4.3% higher than the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 (score 101872) and 6.3% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A4500 (score 91671).

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium?

A: The dataset records a minimum FPS of 184 at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, with an average of 217 FPS and a maximum of 250 FPS.

Q: Does the game run faster at 1080p Ultra than at 4K High?

A: Yes. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 180, while at 4K High, the average is 85 FPS. The lower resolution provides a 95 FPS advantage.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and AMD Radeon RX 7900M achieves a rank of 1080 out of 2887 tested combinations in Inside. This puts it in the 62.6th percentile of all systems tested, meaning it outperforms more than 62% of the other configurations in the database. However, given the raw power of the GPU (94th percentile) and the CPU (81st percentile), the overall ranking might seem modest. This is because Inside is a lightweight game, and many older or less powerful combos can still hit high frame rates at lower resolutions, compressing the performance curve at the top.

The data shows that this combo is not bottlenecked by either component in most scenarios. At 1080p Low, it achieves 319 FPS, which is likely near the engine’s internal frame rate limit, indicating that the CPU is not holding back the GPU. The ranking is driven by the fact that the game is so well-optimized that even mid-range hardware can reach 60 FPS at 1080p, so the top performers are separated by how well they handle the highest presets and resolutions. In this context, the 1080th rank is impressive because it reflects that this is a high-end system that can handle 4K Ultra at 81 FPS, a result that many of the 1807 other combos ahead of it might achieve with more expensive desktop hardware. The deltaPct values against the CPU’s rivals show that the 135H is essentially on par with the Ryzen 7 5800X, which is a desktop part, confirming that the mobile platform is not a weak link in this pairing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience. For a 60 FPS target, there is no need to compromise at any resolution; even 4K Ultra delivers 81 FPS. However, for a 144 Hz or 165 Hz display, the choices become more nuanced. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset (136 FPS) is the best balance, as it provides a 60% improvement over High (85 FPS) and is more than 40% faster than Ultra (81 FPS), while the visual difference between Medium and High in a game with this art style is minimal. The Low preset at 4K (170 FPS) is only advisable for competitive play, which is unlikely in a puzzle platformer.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset (217 FPS) is the sweet spot for high refresh rate gaming, as it allows a 240 Hz monitor to be fully utilized. The High preset (136 FPS) is sufficient for a 144 Hz display, but Medium provides a 59% increase in frame rate with a minimal visual penalty. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset (294 FPS) is the recommended choice, as it is only 25 FPS slower than Low (319 FPS) but offers better visual quality, and it is significantly faster than High (189 FPS) or Ultra (180 FPS). Given that the game is a side-scroller with a limited field of view, the difference between Medium and Ultra is often imperceptible in motion, making Medium the rational choice for maximizing smoothness without sacrificing the game’s atmospheric lighting.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates for this combination is as follows:

At 3840x2160:

• Low: Average 170 FPS. This is the fastest 4K setting, providing a baseline for the GPU’s raw fill rate capabilities.
• Medium: Average 136 FPS, with a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 157 FPS. This shows a stable frame time distribution with only a 30% variance between min and max.
• High: Average 85 FPS. This is a significant drop from Medium, indicating that the High preset introduces a more demanding shading model.
• Ultra: Average 81 FPS. The most demanding setting, only 4 FPS slower than High, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds minimal extra load over High.

At 2560x1440:

• Low: Average 271 FPS. The GPU is clearly not stressed at this resolution, with the frame rate likely limited by the CPU’s single-thread performance.
• Medium: Average 217 FPS, with a minimum of 184 FPS and a maximum of 250 FPS. This is a 37% increase over the 4K Medium result, showing good scaling.
• High: Average 136 FPS. This is identical to the 4K Medium result, indicating that the resolution scaling is offset by the settings scaling.
• Ultra: Average 129 FPS. Only 7 FPS slower than High, again showing that Ultra is not a large jump over High.

At 1920x1080:

• Low: Average 319 FPS. This is the highest recorded frame rate and is likely near the game engine’s maximum refresh rate limit.
• Medium: Average 294 FPS, with a minimum of 250 FPS and a maximum of 338 FPS. This shows a 25% variance, which is typical for a scene with variable complexity.
• High: Average 189 FPS. This is a 36% drop from Medium, suggesting that the High preset enables more complex pixel shaders.
• Ultra: Average 180 FPS. This is only 9 FPS slower than High, confirming that the Ultra preset offers diminishing returns for a significant performance cost at lower resolutions.