Inside

Inside, the 2016 puzzle platformer from Playdead, presents an interesting performance profile on this hardware pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. The data indicates that this combination is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions but reveals notable CPU scaling at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 400 FPS. The measured results show a system capable of running the game at maximum settings with frame rates well above display refresh rates, making the choice of settings more about consistency than raw playability.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a classic GPU-bound workload, though the magnitude of the drop is unusually steep. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 432 FPS at 1920x1080 to 209 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 51.6% reduction in performance. This is a substantial decrease that points to the RTX 4090’s rendering pipeline being heavily taxed as pixel count quadruples. The 1440p result of 332 FPS sits almost exactly halfway between the 1080p and 4K figures, confirming a nearly linear scaling pattern with resolution.

The Medium settings row provides the most complete picture, as it includes minimum and maximum frame rate data. At 1080p, the average is 370 FPS with a minimum of 314 FPS, while at 1440p, the average drops to 266 FPS with a minimum of 226 FPS. Moving to 4K, the average falls to 167 FPS with a minimum of 142 FPS. The gap between average and minimum frame rates remains relatively consistent across resolutions, suggesting that frame pacing issues do not worsen with resolution. This consistency indicates the bottleneck is purely pixel throughput rather than any memory bandwidth or cache-related stutter.

The High and Ultra presets show similar proportional drops. High settings go from 231 FPS at 1080p to 166 FPS at 1440p and finally 104 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset mirrors this pattern: 220 FPS at 1080p, 158 FPS at 1440p, and 99 FPS at 4K. Interestingly, the difference between High and Ultra settings is small at every resolution, with only an 11 FPS gap at 1080p and a 5 FPS gap at 4K. This suggests that Ultra adds minimal visual benefit relative to its performance cost, a point that will be explored further in the settings recommendations.

The limiting component at 4K is clearly the GPU, as the Core Ultra 5 235HX’s single-thread performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4903, is more than sufficient to feed the RTX 4090 even at lower resolutions. The data shows that even at 1080p with Low settings, the CPU can push 432 FPS, which is a demanding scenario for any processor. The fact that frame rates continue to scale up to this level indicates that the CPU is not the primary constraint until extremely high frame rates are reached.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide the single-thread headroom that puzzle platformers like Inside typically rely upon. The processor’s benchmark scores place it in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 52073. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, which scores 51947 (a 0.2% delta), and the Intel Core i9-13900F at 51730 (a 0.7% delta), showing that this mobile chip trades blows with desktop parts from previous generations.

For Inside specifically, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p with Low settings, where the 432 FPS average is achieved. This frame rate is high enough that the processor’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache become relevant for maintaining consistent frame delivery. The Passmark multithread score of 40849 and single-thread score of 4683 indicate a balanced processor, but the game’s workload is likely more dependent on the latter. The Cinebench R20 single-core score of 2059 and R15 single-core score of 494 reinforce this, showing strong per-core performance that supports high frame rates without bottlenecking.

The processor’s memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface is adequate for this game’s demands. At 1080p Medium, the minimum frame rate of 314 FPS versus the average of 370 FPS shows a 15% variance, which could be attributed to occasional CPU-side hitches when loading new areas or processing physics. However, the fact that this variance does not increase at higher resolutions suggests that the CPU is consistently capable of delivering frames faster than the GPU can render them, even at 4K.

The Core Ultra 5 235HX’s 14 cores and 14 threads (no Hyper-Threading) are more than sufficient for a game of this era. Inside is not a multi-threaded showcase, and the data reflects that: the CPU’s Passmark physics score of 2550 is modest, but the game does not appear to stress this aspect heavily. The processor’s overall percentile rank of 91 places it well above the median, ensuring that it will not be a limiting factor in this title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the flagship of the Ada Lovelace generation, built on a 5 nm process with 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for 4K rendering. The GPU’s boost clock of 2520 MHz and base clock of 2235 MHz drive its 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The raw compute capability is substantial, with FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS and a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s.

The GPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 88th percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 60347. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326, 0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61896, -2.5% delta), which is surprising given the RTX 4090’s market position. However, these are synthetic benchmarks from Passmark, which may not fully represent gaming performance. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 271631 and OpenCL score of 255416 are more indicative of its compute prowess.

In Inside, the GPU’s role is dominant at 4K. The difference between Low (209 FPS) and Medium (167 FPS) settings at 4K shows that even modest visual upgrades carry a significant cost. The jump from Medium to High (104 FPS) is particularly steep, representing a 37.7% performance drop. This suggests that High settings enable effects that heavily tax the GPU’s ROPs and memory subsystem. The Ultra preset (99 FPS) is only slightly slower than High, confirming that the most demanding settings are already covered by High.

The GPU’s 24 GB VRAM is never a limiting factor in this game, as even at 4K Ultra, the graphics memory usage would be well within its capacity. The 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and memory allocation do not cause hitches; the minimum frame rate of 142 FPS at 4K Medium versus the average of 167 FPS shows only a 15% variance, which is acceptable for a game of this type. The GPU’s thermal design power of 450 W and triple-slot cooler indicate that sustained 4K gaming is within its design envelope, though the data does not provide temperature or power consumption figures.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4090 delivers exceptional performance across all settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 432 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings reduce this to 370 FPS, with a minimum of 314 FPS and a maximum of 425 FPS. High settings yield 231 FPS, while Ultra produces 220 FPS. The relatively small gap between High and Ultra (11 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset’s additional features are not particularly demanding at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales predictably. Low settings produce 332 FPS, a 23.1% drop from 1080p. Medium settings average 266 FPS, with a minimum of 226 FPS and a maximum of 306 FPS. High settings reach 166 FPS, and Ultra falls to 158 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is only 8 FPS, reinforcing the pattern seen at 1080p. At this resolution, even the most demanding preset remains well above 144 Hz, making it suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits, though performance remains playable. Low settings still deliver 209 FPS, which is impressive for 4K. Medium settings drop to 167 FPS, with a minimum of 142 FPS and a maximum of 192 FPS. High settings yield 104 FPS, while Ultra produces 99 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 5 FPS at this resolution. The data shows that the 4K Medium preset is the sweet spot for maintaining a stable 144 FPS, while High and Ultra are better suited for 60 Hz displays.

The minimum frame rates, which are only provided for Medium settings, show a consistent pattern. At 1080p, the minimum is 314 FPS versus an average of 370 FPS (a 15.1% variance). At 1440p, the minimum is 226 FPS versus an average of 266 FPS (a 15.0% variance). At 4K, the minimum is 142 FPS versus an average of 167 FPS (a 15.0% variance). This consistency indicates that frame pacing is stable regardless of resolution, which is a positive sign for the game’s engine and the hardware combination.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this CPU/GPU combo in Inside?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 432 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 144 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, which produce an average of 167 FPS with a minimum of 142 FPS. High and Ultra settings at 4K average 104 FPS and 99 FPS, respectively, which fall below 144 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High settings in terms of performance?

A: The Ultra preset is only slightly slower than High across all resolutions. The difference is 11 FPS at 1080p, 8 FPS at 1440p, and 5 FPS at 4K, suggesting that Ultra offers marginal visual improvements for a small performance cost.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The data suggests the GPU is still the primary limiter, as the Core Ultra 5 235HX can push 432 FPS at this setting. The CPU’s single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 score of 4903) is sufficient to support these high frame rates without bottlenecking.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate at 4K Medium, and how stable is it?

A: The minimum frame rate at 4K Medium is 142 FPS, with an average of 167 FPS and a maximum of 192 FPS. The 15% variance between minimum and average indicates stable frame pacing.

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

A: The combination ranks 372 out of 2887 tested configurations, placing it in the top 12.9% of all hardware pairings for this game.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 144 Hz at 1080p or 1440p, the High preset is the recommended choice. At 1080p, High delivers 231 FPS, and at 1440p, it produces 166 FPS, both comfortably above 144 FPS. The Ultra preset offers only marginal gains in visual fidelity for a small performance hit (11 FPS at 1080p and 8 FPS at 1440p), so High provides the best balance of image quality and headroom. For those with 240 Hz monitors at 1080p, the Medium preset at 370 FPS (minimum 314 FPS) ensures the frame rate never dips below the refresh rate.

At 4K, the Medium preset is the clear winner, delivering an average of 167 FPS with a minimum of 142 FPS. This is sufficient for 144 Hz displays, though the minimum frame rate may occasionally drop below that threshold. For players prioritizing maximum visual fidelity at 4K, the High preset at 104 FPS is suitable for 60 Hz displays, while the Ultra preset at 99 FPS offers nearly identical performance with marginal visual improvements. The Low preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it sacrifices too much visual quality for frame rates that exceed the refresh rate of most displays.

The data shows that the Medium preset is the best overall choice across all resolutions, as it provides a substantial improvement over Low settings while maintaining frame rates that are more than double the refresh rate of standard 60 Hz monitors. The measured minimum frame rates for Medium (314 FPS at 1080p, 226 FPS at 1440p, and 142 FPS at 4K) demonstrate that this preset avoids the severe frame drops that can occur with more demanding settings. For this reason, Medium offers the most consistent experience, particularly at 4K where it is the only preset that can sustain 144 FPS.