Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer built on a 2.5D side-scrolling engine, and the benchmark data for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 reveals a system that is decisively GPU-bound at higher resolutions and settings, yet exceptionally capable of exploiting high refresh rates at 1080p. The data shows a clear hierarchy where the CPU’s strong single-thread performance is rarely the bottleneck, leaving the GPU to dictate the final frame rate. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS rows to determine the optimal settings, the role of each component, and how this combination stacks up against the broader test pool.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of which preset offers the best experience, and the answer depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 129 FPS, which is a substantial drop from the 206 FPS seen at Medium but still far above the 122 FPS at Ultra. The jump from Medium to High costs 77 FPS (from 206 to 129), a massive performance hit that suggests High is not a balanced choice for this combo at 1080p. Instead, the Medium preset at 1080p, with an average of 206 FPS and a minimum of 175 FPS, offers the best experience for high-refresh-rate displays, as it maintains a rock-solid frame time while providing a visual upgrade over Low (257 FPS). The Medium preset’s minimum FPS of 175 is still higher than the High preset’s average, making it the clear winner for smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the situation shifts. The Medium preset averages 148 FPS with a minimum of 126 FPS, which is an excellent result for a 144Hz monitor. The High preset at 1440p drops to 92 FPS, which is still playable but misses the high-refresh-rate mark. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 88 FPS, and while that is a minor drop from High, the visual fidelity gain is likely minimal. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p is the optimal balance for this resolution, as it keeps the average well above 120 FPS and the minimum above 120 FPS, ensuring a consistent experience without the steep performance penalty of High.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only viable option for a smooth experience, averaging 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS. The High preset at 4K averages 58 FPS, which dips into the territory where frame pacing becomes noticeable, and Ultra averages just 55 FPS. The Low preset at 4K averages 116 FPS, but this sacrifices too much visual quality for a puzzle platformer where art direction matters. Therefore, the data strongly indicates that Medium is the recommended preset across all resolutions, as it provides the best compromise between visual fidelity and frame rate, with the 4K Medium result being particularly impressive for a GPU in this class. The only exception is 1080p, where users with a 240Hz monitor might prefer Low (257 FPS) over Medium (206 FPS), but for the vast majority, Medium is the sweet spot.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor from the Arrow Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. Its benchmark results show a significant strength in single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4394. This is crucial for Inside, as puzzle platformers often have a single primary game thread that drives physics and logic, even if the rendering is parallelized. The CPU’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce latency, and the data suggests this is more than enough for the game’s demands.

The CPU’s role in this combo is largely about avoiding a bottleneck. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 257 FPS, which is a high ceiling that indicates the CPU is not limiting the GPU at lower settings. Even at 1080p Medium (206 FPS) and High (129 FPS), the frame rates are high enough that the CPU’s 5.10 GHz boost clock is likely the primary enabler. Comparing to rivals, the Core Ultra 5 245’s average benchmark score of 48995 places it just 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600K (48618), and 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228). This indicates that the CPU’s performance is competitive with mainstream desktop parts, but in this game, the single-thread scores matter more than raw multi-thread.

The data implies that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor at 1080p, but as resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the primary constraint. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 55, which is a 79% decrease from the 1080p Ultra result of 122 FPS. This dramatic drop is not a CPU limitation, as the CPU’s single-thread score is constant; rather, it is a sign that the rendering workload is overwhelming the GPU. The CPU’s 14 cores and 14 threads are sufficient for this game, and the benchmark data shows no evidence of a CPU bottleneck at any resolution, as the FPS scaling from 1080p to 1440p is proportional to the pixel count increase, which points to GPU-bound behavior.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve 60 FPS or higher?

A: The data shows that all three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, and 4K) can achieve an average of 60 FPS or higher, but only at certain settings. At 4K, the Medium preset averages 93 FPS, while High averages 58 FPS and Ultra averages 55 FPS. For a guaranteed 60 FPS, the 4K Medium preset is the only option, while 1440p and 1080p have multiple presets above 60 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU’s single-thread performance affect the frame rate?

A: The CPU’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648 and Passmark single-thread score of 4394 contribute to the high frame rates seen at 1080p Low (257 FPS) and Medium (206 FPS). Since Inside is not heavily multi-threaded, the CPU’s boost clock of 5.10 GHz helps avoid bottlenecks, but the data shows the GPU becomes the limiter at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the RX 6600 a good match for a 144Hz monitor?

A: At 1080p, the Medium preset averages 206 FPS, which is well above 144 FPS, and the minimum FPS of 175 also exceeds 144. At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 148 FPS with a minimum of 126 FPS, which is close to 144 FPS but not always above it. Therefore, the combo is excellent for 144Hz at 1080p, but only adequate at 1440p.

Q: What is the difference between the High and Ultra presets at 4K?

A: The High preset at 4K averages 58 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 55 FPS, a difference of only 3 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset adds a minimal visual load over High, but both are below the 60 FPS threshold, making Medium (93 FPS) the more practical choice.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 2223 out of 2887 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the lower-middle tier. This rank is likely due to the GPU’s mid-range standing, as the CPU’s percentile (90th vs. all CPUs) is much higher than the GPU’s percentile (63rd vs. all GPUs).

Q: Does the CPU’s multi-thread performance matter for this game?

A: The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and Passmark multi-thread score of 38706 are strong, but the game’s results show that single-thread performance is more critical. The FPS scaling with resolution indicates a GPU bottleneck, not a CPU one, so the 14 threads are more than sufficient.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 ranks 2223 out of 2887 tested combinations in Inside, which places it in the 23rd percentile of all combos. This rank is somewhat surprising given the CPU’s excellent benchmark standing, but it reflects the GPU’s more modest position. The RX 6600’s average benchmark score of 19036 puts it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19030, 0.0% delta) and the GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (19049, -0.1% delta), which are both older or mobile parts. This indicates that the GPU is a mid-range performer, and in a game like Inside, which is not graphically demanding, the GPU’s limitations become apparent at higher resolutions.

The CPU’s ranking is much stronger, with a 90th percentile standing among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 48995. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196, -0.4% delta) and the Intel Core i5-14600K (48618, 0.8% delta), showing that it sits in a competitive performance bracket. The disconnect between the CPU’s high ranking and the combo’s low ranking suggests that the system is unbalanced for this game, with the GPU dragging down the overall performance. However, the data shows that at 1080p, the combo can still deliver high frame rates, so the rank is not a reflection of poor absolute performance, but rather a comparison against combos with stronger GPUs. The rank of 2223 out of 2887 means there are 664 combos that perform worse, which puts this system in the lower third of tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the Medium preset, the average FPS drops from 206 at 1080p to 148 at 1440p (a 28% decrease) and then to 93 at 4K (a 37% decrease from 1440p). This scaling is consistent with a GPU-bound workload, as the pixel count increases by 1.78x from 1080p to 1440p and by 2.25x from 1440p to 4K, but the FPS drops are less than proportional, indicating that the GPU is not the only factor. The High preset shows a similar trend: 129 FPS at 1080p, 92 FPS at 1440p (a 29% drop), and 58 FPS at 4K (a 37% drop from 1440p). This consistent ~30% drop from 1080p to 1440p across settings suggests that the GPU is the primary limiter, as the CPU’s performance is constant.

The Low preset shows the most dramatic scaling, with 257 FPS at 1080p, 185 FPS at 1440p (a 28% drop), and 116 FPS at 4K (a 37% drop from 1440p). This is interesting because Low settings reduce the GPU workload, and the fact that the FPS still drops by the same percentage indicates that the GPU is still the bottleneck, even at the lowest settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain flat or drop less as resolution increases. The data strongly implies that the limiting component is the GPU, as the total FPS reduction from 1080p to 4K is 55% at Medium (206 to 93 FPS), 55% at High (129 to 58 FPS), and 55% at Low (257 to 116 FPS). This uniform scaling confirms that the RX 6600’s 8 GB of VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are the main constraints, not the CPU’s processing power.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 257 FPS, which is an exceptional result for high-refresh-rate gaming. The Medium preset averages 206 FPS, with a minimum of 175 FPS and a maximum of 237 FPS, showing excellent frame pacing. The High preset drops to 129 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 122 FPS, which is only a 5% difference from High, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds minimal visual benefit for a small performance cost. The data shows that at 1080p, the combo is capable of exceeding 200 FPS on Medium, making it ideal for 240Hz displays.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. The Low preset averages 185 FPS, which is still very high. The Medium preset averages 148 FPS, with a minimum of 126 FPS and a maximum of 170 FPS, which is a solid result for 144Hz displays. The High preset averages 92 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 88 FPS, showing that the gap between High and Ultra narrows at higher resolutions. The data indicates that 1440p Medium is the sweet spot, as it maintains a minimum FPS above 120, while High and Ultra dip below 100 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limitations become evident. The Low preset averages 116 FPS, which is still playable, but the Medium preset averages 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS. The High preset drops to 58 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 55 FPS. The data shows that 4K Medium is the only preset that provides a consistently smooth experience above 60 FPS, while High and Ultra are borderline at 55-58 FPS. This breakdown highlights that the RX 6600 is capable of 4K gaming, but only with significant settings compromises.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, featuring 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. Its boost clock is 2491 MHz, and it has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. The GPU’s benchmark results show a Passmark G3D score of 15096, which places it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19036. The data shows that this GPU is the primary limiting factor in Inside, especially at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s role is evident in the FPS scaling, as the uniform percentage drops across resolutions indicate a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p Medium, the GPU can push 206 FPS, but at 4K Medium, it drops to 93 FPS, despite the CPU having ample headroom. The GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM is not a concern for this game, as Inside is not a VRAM-heavy title, but the 128-bit memory bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely the constraints at 4K. The GPU’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19030, 0.0% delta) and the GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (19049, -0.1% delta), which are either older or lower-power parts, indicating that the RX 6600 is a solid mid-range option.

The GPU’s performance at 1080p is impressive, but the data suggests that it is not sufficient for 4K at the highest settings, as the Ultra preset averages just 55 FPS. The fact that the High and Ultra presets at 4K are within 3 FPS of each other (58 and 55 FPS, respectively) suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard limit, likely due to pixel fill rate or memory bandwidth. The GPU’s pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, these rates become the bottleneck. Overall, the RX 6600 is a capable GPU for this game at 1080p and 1440p, but its mid-range positioning means it requires Medium settings at 4K to maintain playable frame rates.