Inside

Inside is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer that is exceptionally well-optimized, and the data for the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination reflects this. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings presets are high enough to classify this pairing as overkill for the game's demands, shifting the bottleneck analysis toward frame pacing and power efficiency rather than raw performance scarcity.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data indicates that the Ultra preset at 1440p is the optimal balance of visual fidelity and performance, delivering an average of 106 FPS. This is a significant jump from the 1080p Ultra result of 147 FPS, but both figures clear the 100 FPS threshold that high-refresh-rate displays aim for. However, the 1440p Ultra frame rate is precisely 100% of the 4K High result, suggesting that the visual upgrade from High to Ultra at 1440p is more computationally demanding than the resolution increase from 1440p to 4K at High settings.

For users prioritizing smoothness over maximum detail, the High preset at 1440p yields 111 FPS, which is only 5 FPS below the Ultra preset at the same resolution. The frame rate difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is a 4.5% drop, while the gap between Medium and High is a 37.6% drop, indicating that the High preset is the efficiency sweet spot for this GPU. At 1080p, the High preset (155 FPS) is recommended over Ultra (147 FPS) because the 5.4% performance loss from High to Ultra is unlikely to be perceptible in a slow-paced puzzle game, and the reduced GPU load will lower thermals.

The Medium preset at 4K (112 FPS) is the only viable 4K option that maintains triple-digit frame rates without compromise. It is worth remembering the Medium preset at 4K has a min FPS of 95, which means occasional dips below 100 FPS are possible, but the average of 112 FPS keeps the experience smooth. The Low preset is not recommended for any resolution because the frame rate gains over Medium are disproportionate to the visual quality loss, especially at 1440p where Low (223 FPS) only provides a 25.3% improvement over Medium (178 FPS) while drastically reducing the art style's fidelity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In the context of Inside, a game with a minimal texture footprint due to its monochromatic palette and 2D perspective, this memory configuration is more than sufficient. The GPU's 8 GB capacity is never a limiting factor in the measured data, as even the 4K Ultra preset maintains an average of 67 FPS, which is not a memory-bound result.

The GPU's clock speeds are listed as a base of 1605 MHz and a boost of 1770 MHz, with a memory clock of 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with the TU104 chip's 2560 shading units, produce a peak FP32 throughput of 9.062 TFLOPS. The benchmark results show that this compute capability is heavily underutilized by Inside, as the game's rendering workload is primarily geometry and post-processing rather than complex shader math. The PassMark G3D score of 18169 places this GPU at the 65th percentile of all GPUs, but the game's measured FPS indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER operates well below its thermal and power limits (215 W TDP) in this title.

The transition from 1080p High (155 FPS) to 4K High (70 FPS) represents a 54.8% performance drop, which aligns with the pixel count increase of 4x from 1080p to 4K. This linear scaling suggests that the GPU is the primary renderer for each frame, and the game does not exhibit any unusual memory pressure or bandwidth starvation at higher resolutions. The RTX 2070 SUPER's 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient to feed the pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s, as evidenced by the 4K Medium result of 112 FPS, which is a 60% improvement over 4K High, indicating that the GPU scales well with reduced shading complexity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process node. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz, combined with 20 MB of shared L3 cache, provide ample single-thread performance for game logic and physics. In the measured FPS data, the CPU does not appear to be a bottleneck at any resolution, as the frame rates scale consistently with GPU load reductions.

The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 25891 and single-core score of 3655 place this CPU at the 85th percentile of all CPUs, but Inside's gameplay is predominantly single-threaded due to its puzzle-platformer nature. The PassMark single-thread score of 4412 indicates strong per-core performance, which is sufficient to drive the RTX 2070 SUPER to its limits. The 4K Low preset result of 140 FPS is particularly telling: at this setting, the GPU is rendering minimal effects, yet the frame rate still reaches 140 FPS, suggesting that the CPU can handle the game's update loop at frame rates far beyond typical monitor refresh rates.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR5 dual-channel) are not stressed by this game. The data shows that the limiting factor at 4K Ultra (67 FPS) is purely the GPU's shader throughput and fill rate, not the CPU's ability to feed draw calls. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, scores nearly identically (36945 vs 36938 average), and the deltaPct values of 0 to -0.5% against rivals indicate that any of these processors would deliver identical frame rates in Inside, further confirming that the CPU is not a differentiator in this title.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K 120 FPS?

A: No. The highest 4K result is the Medium preset at 112 FPS average, but the minimum FPS for that preset is 95, meaning it cannot sustain 120 FPS. The High and Ultra presets at 4K average 70 FPS and 67 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming on this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 248 FPS average with a minimum of 210 FPS, which is the highest frame rate that maintains a significant margin above 144 Hz. The Low preset reaches 310 FPS, but the visual quality loss is not justified.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER's average benchmark score of 20282 is 1% below the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480) and 1.5% below the Intel Arc A750 (20582). However, these synthetic benchmark deltas do not translate to measurable differences in Inside, as the game is not GPU-bound at most settings.

Q: Is 8 GB of VRAM sufficient for Inside at maximum settings?

A: Yes. The 4K Ultra preset runs at 67 FPS without any indication of texture thrashing or memory-related stuttering. The game's art style uses a limited color palette and simple textures, so the 8 GB GDDR6 buffer is never fully utilized.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from Medium to Ultra at 1440p?

A: The 1440p Medium preset averages 178 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 106 FPS. This represents a 40.4% performance reduction, which is the largest percentage drop between consecutive settings at any resolution.

Q: Does the CPU's 10-core configuration provide any benefit in this game?

A: No. Inside is a lightweight puzzle platformer that primarily uses one or two threads. The CPU's multicore capabilities (Cinebench R23 multicore score of 25891) are irrelevant; the single-core score of 3655 is what matters, and it is more than adequate.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling across resolutions, with the CPU maintaining a consistent headroom. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the frame rate drops from 155 FPS to 111 FPS, a 28.4% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at High settings, the frame rate drops from 111 FPS to 70 FPS, a 36.9% reduction. The larger percentage drop at higher resolutions confirms that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the limiting component, as the pixel count increase from 1440p to 4K (2.25x) is more demanding than the increase from 1080p to 1440p (1.78x).

The Low preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 310 FPS at 1080p, 223 FPS at 1440p, and 140 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28.1%, and from 1440p to 4K is 37.2%, which closely mirrors the High preset scaling. This consistency suggests that the game's rendering pipeline scales linearly with resolution when shader complexity is low, and the GPU's fill rate is the dominant factor. At the Medium preset, the scaling is slightly different: 248 FPS at 1080p, 178 FPS at 1440p (28.2% drop), and 112 FPS at 4K (37.1% drop). The Ultra preset follows the same pattern with 147 FPS, 106 FPS, and 67 FPS respectively.

The 4K to 1080p frame rate ratio at each setting is approximately 2.2x to 2.3x, which is less than the 4x pixel count difference. This non-linear scaling indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s) and pixel rate (113.3 GPixel/s) are more than sufficient for 1080p, and the GPU is not fully saturated until 4K. The data suggests that at 1080p, the frame rate is partially limited by the game's engine frame pacing or CPU draw call submission, but the CPU's strong single-thread performance (PassMark single-thread score of 4412) prevents this from becoming a visible stutter.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the full range of presets is playable with significant headroom for high-refresh-rate displays. The Low preset achieves 310 FPS average, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. The Medium preset drops to 248 FPS with a minimum of 210 FPS and maximum of 285 FPS, providing a consistent 200+ FPS experience. The High preset averages 155 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 147 FPS, with both falling within the range of 120-165 Hz G-Sync monitors. The delta between Low and Medium is 20% (310 to 248 FPS), while the delta between High and Ultra is only 5.2% (155 to 147 FPS).

At 1440p, the performance remains exceptionally high. The Low preset averages 223 FPS, which is a 28.1% drop from 1080p Low. The Medium preset averages 178 FPS with a minimum of 151 FPS and maximum of 205 FPS, making it the most balanced preset for 1440p 144 Hz displays. The High preset averages 111 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 106 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 1440p is 4.5%, which is slightly larger than the 5.2% gap at 1080p, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional effects (likely volumetric lighting or shadows) scale with resolution. The Medium preset at 1440p is 60.4% faster than the High preset, which is the largest single-setting performance gap in the dataset.

At 4K, the GPU begins to show its limitations, but the results are still playable. The Low preset averages 140 FPS, which is a 37.2% drop from 1440p Low. The Medium preset averages 112 FPS with a minimum of 95 FPS and maximum of 129 FPS, providing a playable experience that occasionally dips below 100 FPS. The High preset drops to 70 FPS average, and the Ultra preset averages 67 FPS. The 4K High to 4K Ultra delta is 4.3%, which is the smallest percentage difference between any two adjacent settings at any resolution. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily pixel-bound that the difference between High and Ultra settings becomes negligible.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1587th out of 2887 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the 45th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking is surprisingly low given the high frame rates measured, which indicates that many of the 2887 tested combos include more powerful GPUs that achieve even higher frame rates in this lightweight title. The rank of 1587 suggests that this combo is in the middle of the pack, not because it struggles to run the game, but because Inside is so easy to run that even mid-range GPUs can hit triple-digit frame rates.

The CPU's rank of 85th percentile and the GPU's rank of 65th percentile individually suggest a balanced pairing, but the combo rank of 1587/2887 (54.9% from the bottom) reveals that the GPU is the limiting factor for higher rankings. The data shows that the combo's 4K Ultra result of 67 FPS is the weakest measured metric, and any combo with a more powerful GPU would rank higher. However, the combo's 1080p Low result of 310 FPS is near the top of what any system can achieve, indicating that the CPU does not hold back the GPU at lower resolutions.

The nearest rival comparisons are instructive. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, has an average score that is 0% different (36945 vs 36938), meaning it would perform identically in this game. The GPU's nearest rivals, the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M and Intel Arc B570, have scores that are 1% and 1.3% lower respectively, which would translate to a negligible difference in Inside. This indicates that the combo's ranking is primarily determined by the GPU's absolute performance tier, not by the specific CPU or GPU model chosen, and that the 1587th rank is a reflection of the RTX 2070 SUPER's mid-range status in 2025, not a deficiency in the pairing.