Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer with modest rendering demands, yet the combination of an Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 produces a remarkable spread of frame rates across resolutions and quality presets. The measured data shows this pairing ranks 742nd out of 3,716 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 20% of all systems evaluated. This position reflects a configuration that is heavily overqualified for the game's visual workload, delivering playable to exceptional performance even at 4K Ultra, while revealing interesting scaling behavior that highlights the CPU's growing influence at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a 60 FPS experience?

A: Every measured configuration exceeds 60 FPS. The most demanding tested setting, 3840x2160 Ultra, still averages 95 FPS. For a 144 Hz display, 2560x1440 High delivers 158 FPS, while 1920x1080 Low reaches 404 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's memory configuration affect Inside's performance?

A: The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth. This is far beyond what a puzzle platformer requires, as evidenced by the 4K High preset still achieving 99 FPS, indicating no memory bottleneck at any tested setting.

Q: Is the Core Ultra 5 225 a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU becomes the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 Low, the average FPS is 404, while at 2560x1440 Low it drops to 317. The 22% performance gap is smaller than the 44% pixel count difference, implying the CPU's 10 cores and 4.90 GHz boost clock cap frame generation more at 1080p.

Q: What is the difference between High and Ultra presets?

A: At 1920x1080, High averages 220 FPS while Ultra averages 210 FPS, a 5% difference. At 2560x1440, the gap is similar: 158 FPS versus 151 FPS. At 4K, High hits 99 FPS and Ultra 95 FPS, showing Ultra imposes a consistent but modest penalty across all resolutions.

Q: Does the combo support ray tracing or other advanced features relevant to this game?

A: The RTX 3080 includes 68 RT cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, but Inside is a 2D-style puzzle platformer that does not utilize these features. The GPU's 8,704 shading units and 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 performance are the primary drivers of the measured results.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance factor into these results?

A: The Core Ultra 5 225 scores 3,655 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 4,412 in Passmark single-thread, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. This strong single-thread capability is crucial for maintaining high frame rates in a game that relies on a single main game logic thread.

How This Combo Ranks

The Core Ultra 5 225 and RTX 3080 combination achieves a rank of 742 out of 3,716 tested combos in Inside. This places the system in the 80th percentile of all configurations, indicating that while it is not a top-tier enthusiast setup, it outperforms the vast majority of tested hardware. The ranking reflects the GPU's capability more than the CPU's, as the RTX 3080 sits in the 68th percentile of all GPUs, while the Core Ultra 5 225 is in the 85th percentile of all CPUs.

Relative to other combos, this pairing is significantly stronger than its raw component percentiles suggest. The RTX 3080's nearest rivals — the NVIDIA P106-100, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, and AMD Radeon RX 6600M — all score within 0.4% of each other in average benchmark scores, but none of these GPUs would match the RTX 3080's 10 GB GDDR6X memory or 760.3 GB/s bandwidth in this game. Meanwhile, the CPU's nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and Intel Core i9-12900T, have average scores within 0.5% of the Core Ultra 5 225, confirming the processor is competitive with a wide range of mid-range and previous-generation high-end chips.

The combination's high rank is largely due to the game's low system requirements relative to the hardware's capabilities. With a 65 W TDP CPU and a 320 W TDP GPU, the system is designed for high-performance workloads, and Inside's simple 2.5D visuals present no challenge. The data shows this combo outperforms approximately 80% of all tested configurations, making it a reliable high-refresh-rate platform for this title at any resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is the dominant component in this pairing for Inside. Its Ampere architecture, built on Samsung's 8 nm process with 28,300 million transistors, provides substantial raw compute power. The GPU's 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus delivers 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for the game's texture and buffer requirements at any resolution.

Clock speeds are modest by modern standards, with a base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1710 MHz. However, the sheer number of execution units — 8,704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs — ensures that even at these clocks, the GPU can produce 164.2 GPixel/s and 465.1 GTexel/s. This translates to 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is far beyond what Inside needs.

The GPU's role is most evident in the 4K results. At 3840x2160, the average frame rate ranges from 95 FPS at Ultra to 199 FPS at Low. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 104 FPS, a 109% increase, which shows the GPU is doing meaningful work as settings scale. However, even the lowest 4K result of 95 FPS indicates the RTX 3080 is never stressed to its limits. The memory subsystem, with its 320-bit bus and high bandwidth, ensures no stuttering or frame drops, as evidenced by the 4K Medium preset's minimum FPS of 135.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the results are exceptionally high. Low settings produce 404 FPS, Medium 352 FPS, High 220 FPS, and Ultra 210 FPS. The Medium preset has the only recorded frame range at this resolution, spanning 299 to 405 FPS, indicating some variability but still maintaining well above any display refresh rate.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong. Low averages 317 FPS, Medium 253 FPS, High 158 FPS, and Ultra 151 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution shows a minimum of 215 FPS and a maximum of 291 FPS, a 76 FPS spread that suggests occasional dips but no sustained drops below playable levels. The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by 21% to 28% across settings, with Low seeing the smallest drop (404 to 317, a 21.5% decrease) and High the largest (220 to 158, a 28.2% decrease).

At 3840x2160, the results show the GPU beginning to work harder. Low averages 199 FPS, Medium 159 FPS, High 99 FPS, and Ultra 95 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 135 FPS and a maximum of 183 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 104 FPS, compared to 194 FPS at 1080p. This shrinking gap indicates that as resolution increases, the CPU's frame generation ceiling becomes less relevant, and the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the primary constraint.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225, with 10 cores and 10 threads, is a capable processor for Inside, though its role is secondary to the GPU in most scenarios. The CPU's base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz provide ample single-thread performance, which is critical for a game that primarily relies on one main thread for game logic and physics.

The processor's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 per core ensure that frequently accessed game data is held close to the execution units, reducing memory latency. The 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth from dual-channel DDR5 support further helps maintain smooth frame delivery. In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 25,891 multi-core and 3,655 single-core, while Passmark shows 30,459 multi-thread and 4,412 single-thread scores)Skip this section's analysis of the CPU's role in the game's performance, as the data shows the CPU is not a bottleneck at 4K but becomes increasingly relevant at lower resolutions.

The evidence for CPU involvement appears in the scaling between 1080p and 1440p. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 404 to 317 when resolution increases by 44%. If the GPU were the sole limiting factor, the frame rate would drop proportionally with pixel count, but the 21.5% drop is far less than 44%. This indicates the CPU is generating frames faster than the GPU can render them at 1080p, capping performance. At 4K Low, the FPS is 199, which is 50.7% lower than 1080p Low, showing the GPU is now the bottleneck. The CPU's Passmark physics score of 2,342 and data compression score of 302,811 suggest it handles the game's physics and decompression tasks without issue, but its 10 threads (without hyper-threading) are not a limitation for this title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for Inside depend on the target refresh rate and resolution. For a 4K display at 60 Hz, the High preset at 99 FPS provides a comfortable margin above the refresh rate, while Ultra at 95 FPS is also viable. The Medium preset at 4K, with its 159 FPS average and 135 FPS minimum, is the best choice for 4K 144 Hz displays, as it maintains a minimum above 120 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 158 FPS is ideal for 144 Hz monitors, offering a 47% increase over Ultra's 151 FPS at nearly identical visual quality. For 240 Hz displays, the Medium preset at 253 FPS is the only option that exceeds 240 FPS, though its 215 FPS minimum means occasional dips below the refresh rate. The Low preset at 317 FPS provides headroom for 300 Hz displays but sacrifices visual fidelity.

At 1920x1080, the High preset at 220 FPS is the balanced choice for 144 Hz and 240 Hz displays, providing 210 FPS at Ultra for those who prioritize image quality. The Medium preset at 352 FPS is recommended for 360 Hz displays, though its 299 FPS minimum falls short of 360 Hz. The Low preset at 404 FPS is the only setting that consistently exceeds 400 FPS, making it the choice for competitive play on high-refresh monitors)Skip this sentence. The data indicates that High is the best overall preset, delivering 95% of Ultra's performance at 1080p with a 4.5% FPS increase, while at 4K it provides a 4.2% increase over Ultra. For most users, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom, as it maintains a minimum FPS above 135 at 4K and above 215 at 1440p.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling behavior from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear shift in the bottleneck component. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 404 at 1080p to 317 at 1440p (a 21.5% decrease) and then to 199 at 4K (a 50.7% decrease from 1080p). The pixel count increases by 44% from 1080p to 1440p, but the FPS drop is only 21.5%, indicating the CPU is limiting performance at 1080p. From 1440p to 4K, the pixel count increases by 125%, and the FPS drops by 37.2%, which is closer to pixel scaling but still not proportional, suggesting a mix of CPU and GPU limits.

At High settings, the scaling is more consistent. 1080p yields 220 FPS, 1440p yields 158 FPS (a 28.2% drop), and 4K yields 99 FPS (a 55% drop from 1080p). The 28.2% drop from 1080p to 1440p is still less than the 44% pixel increase, indicating CPU involvement, but the 37.3% drop from 1440p to 4K is much closer to the 125% pixel increase, showing the GPU becomes the dominant limiter at higher resolutions.

At Ultra settings, the pattern is similar: 210 FPS at 1080p, 151 FPS at 1440p (28.1% drop), and 95 FPS at 4K (54.8% drop from 1080p). This consistency across presets suggests that the CPU's frame generation limit is around 400 FPS at Low, 350 FPS at Medium, 220 FPS at High, and 210 FPS at Ultra, regardless of resolution. The GPU then takes over as the limiter once pixel count exceeds the CPU's ability to feed it. The data shows that the combo is CPU-limited at 1080p and 1440p for Low and Medium settings, while at 4K, all settings are GPU-limited, as evidenced by the 95-199 FPS range being well below the CPU's ceiling.