Inside

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT presents a compelling study in bottleneck dynamics for Inside. This 2D puzzle-platformer is not graphically demanding by modern standards, yet the measured frame rates reveal a clear and consistent performance ceiling governed by the CPU at lower resolutions, with the GPU taking over as the primary constraint at 4K. The data provides a nearly perfect textbook example of how a balanced system shifts its limiting component based on workload intensity.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking observation from the measured data is the dramatic scaling of frame rates as resolution increases, which directly maps to where the system bottleneck lies. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the system produces an average of 137 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 drops this to 99 FPS, a 28% reduction. Finally, at 3840x2160, the average falls to 62 FPS, which is a 55% reduction from the 1080p result. This pattern is remarkably consistent across all settings presets.

This scaling behavior is the signature of a system transitioning from a CPU-limited state to a GPU-limited one. At 1080p, the RX 5700 XT has enough headroom to render frames faster than the CPU can feed it, so the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 becomes the limiting factor. The performance difference between Low and High settings at 1080p is only 138 FPS (275 vs 137), which indicates that even at High settings, the GPU is not being fully utilized. However, the gap between Low and High settings widens dramatically at 4K, where the Low preset hits 124 FPS and the High preset drops to 62 FPS. This doubling of performance from High to Low at 4K proves that the GPU is now the bottleneck, as reducing its workload directly translates to a proportional increase in frame rate.

The 1440p results sit squarely in the middle of this transition. At this resolution, the system is more balanced. The High preset achieves 99 FPS, which is identical to the 4K Medium result of 99 FPS. This suggests that at 1440p High, the system is finding an equilibrium point where both the CPU and GPU are contributing to the performance ceiling. The gap between Low (198 FPS) and High (99 FPS) at 1440p is exactly 2x, which is a strong indicator that the GPU is beginning to become the primary constraint, as halving the GPU workload doubles the frame rate.

For a game like Inside, which is not a fast-paced competitive shooter, the 4K results are particularly revealing. The 62 FPS average at 4K High is perfectly playable for the genre, but the jump to 99 FPS at 4K Medium shows that a single settings tier reduction yields a 60% performance increase. This indicates that the RX 5700 XT's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's textures, but the GPU's raw compute power (9.754 TFLOPS FP32) becomes the limiting factor at this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data offers a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience in Inside. The most significant finding is the massive performance gap between the Medium and High presets. At every resolution, the Medium preset delivers a substantial frame rate advantage over High. At 1080p, Medium averages 220 FPS compared to High's 137 FPS, a 60% improvement. At 1440p, Medium hits 158 FPS versus High's 99 FPS, a 60% improvement as well. Even at 4K, Medium averages 99 FPS versus High's 62 FPS, again a 60% improvement.

This consistent 60% delta suggests that the High preset introduces a specific rendering feature that is disproportionately expensive on the RX 5700 XT. The Ultra preset, on the other hand, offers only a marginal FPS reduction compared to High. At 1080p, Ultra averages 131 FPS versus High's 137 FPS, a mere 4% difference. At 4K, Ultra averages 59 FPS versus High's 62 FPS, a similarly small 5% drop.

The optimal settings choice depends entirely on the target resolution. For 1080p and 1440p displays, the Medium preset is the clear winner for most users. The 220 FPS and 158 FPS averages, respectively, are far beyond what is necessary for a game like Inside, which does not require high refresh rates for competitive advantage. The only data available with minimum FPS values is for the Medium preset, which shows a minimum of 187 FPS at 1080p and 134 FPS at 1440p. These minimums are still exceptionally high, guaranteeing a smooth experience with no perceptible stutter.

For 4K, the choice is more nuanced. The Low preset achieves 124 FPS, which is excellent, but it may compromise the visual atmosphere that Inside relies on. The Medium preset at 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS is the sweet spot. It provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while maintaining a higher level of visual fidelity than Low. The High and Ultra presets, at 62 FPS and 59 FPS respectively, are playable but leave no headroom for demanding scenes. Given that the Medium preset's minimum FPS of 84 at 4K is still well above the 60 FPS threshold, it is the recommended choice for 4K users seeking a balance between visual quality and performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture. Its performance profile, as measured by synthetic benchmarks, places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48995. This is a high-end desktop chip, and the benchmark results show it is nearly identical in performance to its nearest rivals. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G scores 49196, a 0.4% difference, while the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 scores 49228, a 0.5% difference. This places the Core Ultra 5 245 in a very tight performance band with these competitors.

In the context of Inside, the CPU's role is not to provide raw multi-core muscle but rather to maintain a high single-threaded throughput. The game's physics and logic are likely handled by a few primary threads. The Core Ultra 5 245's single-core performance is strong, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648. This is the metric that most likely determines the CPU's ability to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

The benchmark results suggest that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this game at any resolution. The fact that frame rates scale so dramatically with resolution is proof that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would see a plateau in frame rates as resolution increases. Instead, we see a steady decline, which means the CPU has extra capacity that remains unused at higher resolutions. The 14 cores and 14 threads are far more than Inside requires; the game is likely using only a fraction of the available threads.

The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth are ample for this game's requirements. The PassMark multithread score of 38706 and the single-thread score of 4394 demonstrate a well-rounded processor. The data shows that the Core Ultra 5 245 provides a comfortable performance cushion, ensuring that it will not be the component holding back frame rates in Inside. The system's performance ceiling at 1080p is likely determined by the game's engine itself, rather than the CPU, given that the CPU's theoretical performance is far higher than what the observed frame rates suggest.

FAQ

*Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 or the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT the bottleneck in Inside?*

A: The bottleneck shifts depending on resolution. At 1920x1080 and 2560x1440, the CPU is the limiting factor, as evidenced by the relatively small performance delta between Low and High settings. At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the primary constraint, demonstrated by the large frame rate penalty for using High settings over Low (62 FPS vs 124 FPS).

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset is the optimal choice. It delivers an average of 158 FPS with a minimum of 134 FPS, which is far beyond the refresh rate of most 1440p monitors. The High preset drops to 99 FPS, and while still playable, the Medium preset offers a significant 60% performance advantage.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Inside?*

A: Yes, it can handle 4K, but with caveats. At High settings, the average FPS is 62, which is playable. However, the Medium preset provides a much better experience with an average of 99 FPS and a minimum of 84 FPS. The Ultra preset is not recommended, as it drops to 59 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 5700 XT compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The data does not provide direct comparisons for Inside specifically. However, the GPU's average benchmark score of 16361 is within 0.9% of its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (16504). This suggests that the RX 5700 XT is a mid-pack performer, ranking in the 59th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: Does the CPU's 14-core configuration help in this game?

A: No. Inside is not a heavily multi-threaded game. The CPU's high single-core performance, as indicated by its Cinebench R23 score of 4648, is far more important. The 14 cores are not a limiting factor, but they are also not a source of advantage for this specific title.

Q: What is the most significant performance drop-off between settings presets?

A: The most significant drop is between Medium and High. This transition costs 60% of the frame rate at every resolution tested. The difference between High and Ultra is negligible, costing only 4-5% of performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture and is a mature, end-of-life product. Its performance in synthetic benchmarks places it in the 59th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 16361. This puts it in a curious position relative to its rivals. It scores nearly identically to the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16351, 0.1% difference) and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (16408, -0.3% difference). This indicates that the RX 5700 XT's raw compute capability is still competitive, despite its age.

In Inside, the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth proves to be sufficient even at 4K. The game's textures do not seem to exceed this memory capacity, as we do not observe any anomalous frame rate drops that would indicate memory swapping. The GPU's 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs are the key components that determine its fill rate, which is rated at 121.9 GPixel/s.

The GPU's clock speeds are a critical factor in its performance. The boost clock of 1905 MHz is the maximum speed the card can achieve under load. The performance data shows that the GPU is heavily utilized at 4K, and its clock speed is likely the primary variable that determines the final frame rate. The measured FPS at 4K High (62 FPS) and 4K Ultra (59 FPS) are very close, which suggests that the GPU is hitting a thermal or power limit that prevents it from boosting higher.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 9.754 TFLOPS is the theoretical peak, and the game's rendering workload directly scales with this metric. The fact that 4K Low achieves 124 FPS and 4K High achieves 62 FPS shows a near-perfect linear scaling, confirming that the GPU's shader throughput is the limiting factor at this resolution. The GPU is the clear bottleneck at 4K, and its performance is what users should focus on when optimizing settings for that resolution. The data indicates that the RX 5700 XT is a capable 4K GPU for this specific title, provided the settings are not maxed out.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact measured average frame rates for each resolution and settings combination.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS | Minimum FPS | Maximum FPS |

| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |

| 3840x2160 | High | 62 | N/A | N/A |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 124 | N/A | N/A |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 99 | 84 | 114 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 59 | N/A | N/A |

| 2560x1440 | High | 99 | N/A | N/A |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 198 | N/A | N/A |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 158 | 134 | 182 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 94 | N/A | N/A |

| 1920x1080 | High | 137 | N/A | N/A |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 275 | N/A | N/A |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 220 | 187 | 253 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 131 | N/A | N/A |

The 1080p results demonstrate the CPU-bound nature of the system at this resolution. The Low preset achieves 275 FPS, and the Ultra preset achieves 131 FPS. The difference between these two extremes is only 144 FPS, which is a 2.1x spread. This is minor compared to the 4K spread, where the Low preset achieves 124 FPS and the Ultra preset achieves 59 FPS, a 2.1x spread as well. However, the absolute values are much lower at 4K, confirming the GPU bottleneck.

The 1440p results are the most balanced. The High preset at 99 FPS matches the 4K Medium preset at 99 FPS, which is an interesting data point. This suggests that the system is achieving a similar performance level when the workload is balanced between the CPU and GPU. The Medium preset at 1440p (158 FPS) is the only setting at this resolution that provides both an average and a minimum FPS value, with a minimum of 134 FPS, indicating a stable performance profile.

The 4K results show the GPU's limitations. The High and Ultra presets are nearly identical in performance (62 FPS vs 59 FPS), suggesting that the GPU is saturated and additional graphical features do not cost much performance. The Medium preset offers a significant improvement to 99 FPS, making it the recommended setting for 4K. The Low preset at 124 FPS is the fastest, but it likely sacrifices the game's visual atmosphere. The overall combination rank for this system in Inside is 2117 out of 2887, placing it in the lower-middle portion of all tested configurations, which aligns with the GPU's mid-pack percentile ranking.