Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that remains surprisingly demanding at high frame rates when paired with an Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. The measured data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at 4K, but transitions into a more balanced state at lower resolutions where the CPU's 10 cores and 3.30 GHz base clock begin to matter. This combination sits at rank 55 out of 2887 tested combos, placing it in the top 2% of all systems tested for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals a clear shift in the bottleneck. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 311 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops this to 234 FPS, a 24.8% reduction. Pushing further to 4K yields 147 FPS, which is a 52.7% drop from the 1080p figure. This steep decline is typical of a title where the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become the limiting factors as pixel count increases.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. With Low settings, the system achieves 404 FPS at 1080p, 362 FPS at 1440p, and 293 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 10.4% from 1080p to 1440p, and then 19.1% from 1440p to 4K. Notably, the Low preset at 4K (293 FPS) still outperforms the High preset at 1440p (234 FPS), indicating that visual quality settings have a larger impact on frame rate than resolution alone in this title.

The Medium preset shows the most interesting scaling behavior. At 1080p it produces 373 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 334 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 235 FPS. The 4K Medium result (235 FPS) nearly matches the 1440p High result (234 FPS), suggesting that the game's rendering pipeline treats these two configurations as similarly demanding. At 4K, the gap between Low and Medium is 58 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 88 FPS, showing that the High preset introduces significantly more GPU workload.

Ultra settings show the smallest absolute drop between 1440p (222 FPS) and 4K (140 FPS), a 36.9% reduction. This is the least efficient scaling of all presets, indicating that Ultra settings add effects that scale poorly with resolution. The data suggests that at 1080p, the RTX 4090 is not fully utilized even at Ultra settings, as the 305 FPS result is likely constrained by the CPU's single-thread performance rather than the GPU's capabilities.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is the key enabler for the high 4K frame rates observed. The GPU's boost clock of 2520 MHz and 16384 shading units deliver the raw compute needed to maintain 147 FPS at 4K High settings. The 176 ROPs handle pixel output efficiently, though the measured data shows that even this flagship GPU cannot maintain 144 FPS at 4K Ultra (140 FPS average).

The VRAM capacity of 24 GB is far beyond what Inside requires, but the bandwidth figure is more relevant. The 4K Ultra result of 140 FPS suggests that texture compression and memory access patterns in this game are well-optimized for the 384-bit interface. The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is ample for this title's shader complexity, yet the 4K results show a clear ceiling imposed by the render resolution.

Comparing to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 60347, which is essentially tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326, 0% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140, 0.3% delta). The RTX 4090 sits 2.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M and 2.9% behind the AMD Radeon PRO V710. These close margins in synthetic benchmarks do not translate to the gaming results, where the RTX 4090's 24 GB memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth provide a decisive advantage in this specific title.

The GPU's 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler are indicative of its performance class, but the measured FPS data shows that the card is not thermally constrained in this workload. The 4K Medium result with a minimum of 200 FPS and maximum of 270 FPS shows a 70 FPS variance, which is the largest spread among all tested configurations. This suggests that some scenes in Inside are significantly more demanding than others, likely due to dynamic lighting effects that stress the GPU's compute units.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data clearly indicates that Medium settings at 4K provide the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 235 FPS average with a minimum of 200 FPS, this configuration maintains a comfortable margin above 144 Hz refresh rates while still providing smooth gameplay. The jump from Medium to High at 4K costs 88 FPS (235 to 147), which is a 37.4% performance penalty for what is likely a modest visual improvement in this puzzle platformer.

For users with 1440p displays, High settings at 234 FPS are the optimal choice, as they provide near-identical performance to Medium at 4K while offering improved visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 1440p (222 FPS) is only 12 FPS slower than High, making it a viable option for those who prioritize maximum visual quality. However, the diminishing returns between High and Ultra are evident: 234 to 222 FPS at 1440p, a mere 5.1% difference.

At 1080p, the situation changes completely. All presets exceed 300 FPS, with Low hitting 404 FPS and Medium reaching 373 FPS. The difference between High (311 FPS) and Ultra (305 FPS) is negligible at 6 FPS. Given the high frame rates, users with 1080p displays should select Ultra settings to fully utilize the GPU headroom, as the 305 FPS average still provides a massive buffer above any display refresh rate.

The worst settings choice in the measured data is 4K Ultra at 140 FPS. While this is still playable on many displays, it represents a 40.4% drop from 4K High (147 FPS) and a 68.1% drop from 4K Medium (235 FPS). The data suggests that Ultra settings introduce effects that are disproportionately expensive at 4K resolution, making this preset a poor trade-off for the visual gains.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear hierarchy across presets. Low settings produce 404 FPS average, Medium produces 373 FPS with a minimum of 317 FPS and maximum of 429 FPS, High produces 311 FPS, and Ultra produces 305 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 31 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 62 FPS. This indicates that the High preset introduces significant rendering changes, likely related to shadow quality and post-processing effects.

The 2560x1440 results follow a similar pattern but with reduced absolute values. Low settings achieve 362 FPS, Medium achieves 334 FPS with a minimum of 284 FPS and maximum of 384 FPS, High achieves 234 FPS, and Ultra achieves 222 FPS. The Medium to High drop at 1440p is 100 FPS, which is the largest single-preset jump in the entire dataset. This suggests that High settings at 1440p engage a level of anisotropic filtering or ambient occlusion that is particularly expensive at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results compress significantly. Low settings produce 293 FPS, Medium produces 235 FPS with a minimum of 200 FPS and maximum of 270 FPS, High produces 147 FPS, and Ultra produces 140 FPS. The Medium to High drop at 4K is 88 FPS, and the High to Ultra drop is only 7 FPS. This final 7 FPS difference indicates that Ultra settings at 4K are only marginally more demanding than High, suggesting that the game's Ultra preset does not scale its most expensive features with resolution.

The Medium preset's minimum and maximum values are the only complete data points across all resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 317 to 429 FPS (112 FPS spread); at 1440p, it is 284 to 384 FPS (100 FPS spread); and at 4K, it is 200 to 270 FPS (70 FPS spread). This narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes more consistently loaded as pixel count increases, reducing the impact of scene complexity variations.

FAQ

Q: Can this system maintain 144 FPS at 4K with all settings maxed?

A: No. The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 produces an average of 140 FPS, which is below the 144 FPS threshold. The High preset at 4K achieves 147 FPS, which just clears the threshold.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between consecutive settings?

A: The 1440p Medium to High transition shows the largest drop, going from 334 FPS to 234 FPS, a 100 FPS reduction. This is a 29.9% performance penalty.

Q: How much faster is Low compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: Low settings at 1920x1080 produce 404 FPS, while Ultra produces 305 FPS. Low is 99 FPS faster, which is a 32.5% improvement over Ultra.

Q: Does the 24 GB VRAM on the RTX 4090 make any difference in this game?

A: The 24 GB capacity is not a limiting factor in Inside, as even the most demanding 4K Ultra configuration does not show memory-related stuttering. The 1.01 TB/s bandwidth is more relevant to the high frame rates observed.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the entire dataset?

A: The 4K Medium preset has a minimum of 200 FPS, which is the lowest minimum value across all measured configurations. All other presets at 4K do not have reported minimum values.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for Inside?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and RTX 4090 combination ranks 55th out of 2887 tested combos, placing it in the top 1.9% of all systems.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor from the Arrow Lake-S architecture with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25891 and single-core score of 3655 place it at the 85th percentile against all CPUs. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide the data locality needed for game logic, though Inside is not a CPU-intensive title.

The CPU's role becomes apparent when examining the 1080p results. At Low settings, the system achieves 404 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's frame rate ceiling for this game. The fact that 1080p Ultra (305 FPS) is only 99 FPS slower than 1080p Low (404 FPS) suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU at these frame rates, but the GPU's workload at Ultra settings reduces the frame rate. The 1080p Medium minimum of 317 FPS indicates that the CPU can maintain a consistent frame delivery even during demanding scenes.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 5 225 has an average benchmark score of 36938, which is essentially identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36945, 0% delta). It sits 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37018) and 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093). The Intel Core i9-12900T leads this group with a score of 37112, putting the Core Ultra 5 225 0.5% behind. These sub-1% differences indicate that CPU choice has minimal impact on this game's performance.

The processor's 65 W TDP and 3 nm process node from TSMC enable high sustained boost clocks without thermal throttling, which is important for maintaining the 4.90 GHz boost in gaming scenarios. The DDR5 dual-channel memory interface provides 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the game's asset streaming requirements. The CPU's 10 cores are more than adequate for a puzzle platformer, and the single-core performance of 3655 in Cinebench R23 is the more relevant metric for this title's thread utilization.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a combo rank of 55 out of 2887 tested combinations for Inside. This places the system in the 98.1st percentile of all tested combos, meaning only 54 other system configurations perform better in this game. Given that Inside is a 2016 title with modest system requirements, this high ranking is primarily driven by the RTX 4090's raw rendering power rather than the CPU's contribution.

The GPU's 88th percentile ranking against all GPUs (based on average benchmark score) is the primary factor in this combo's success. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking is secondary, as the game's performance at higher resolutions is almost entirely GPU-limited. The combination works well because the Core Ultra 5 225 provides enough single-thread performance to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4090 at lower resolutions, while the GPU dominates at 4K.

The rank of 55 suggests that there are a handful of combos that achieve higher frame rates in Inside, likely featuring even faster CPUs with higher boost clocks. However, the measured data shows that at 4K, the GPU is the limiting factor, so any CPU with comparable single-thread performance would produce similar results. The 1080p results show some CPU dependence, with the 404 FPS Low setting representing a practical ceiling that even the fastest CPUs would struggle to exceed.

This combo's position in the top 2% of all tested systems confirms that it delivers an exceptional experience in Inside across all resolutions and settings. The only configuration that falls below 144 FPS is 4K Ultra (140 FPS), which is a minor shortfall that can be addressed by dropping to High settings (147 FPS) or Medium settings (235 FPS). For a game of this genre, the system provides a significant performance buffer that ensures smooth gameplay in all but the most demanding scenarios.