Inside

Inside is a lightweight puzzle platformer from 2016, but the measured performance data for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT combination shows that this hardware is heavily overqualified for the task, delivering frame rates that far exceed display refresh rates at every resolution. The data indicates that the best experience is found at the highest settings, as the GPU has ample headroom to maintain high frame rates even when visual fidelity is maxed out.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results make a clear case for playing Inside at Ultra settings across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 168 FPS, which is only 5% lower than the High preset's 177 FPS but comes with the maximum visual quality the game offers. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 283 FPS, but this is beyond the refresh rate of most displays, making the extra performance irrelevant compared to the visual gains from Ultra. The data shows a similar pattern at 2560x1440, where Ultra averages 121 FPS versus 127 FPS on High—a negligible 5% performance difference that is imperceptible in actual gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 76 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay on standard 4K displays. The High preset at 4K averages 80 FPS, but the 5% performance gain does not justify sacrificing the visual polish that Ultra provides in a game with such a distinctive art style. The Medium preset at 4K averages 128 FPS, which is overkill for most displays and indicates that the GPU is not being pushed hard enough to warrant the graphical compromise. The Low preset at any resolution produces frame rates from 160 FPS at 4K to 353 FPS at 1080p, but there is no scenario in the data where this preset provides a better experience than Ultra, given that even the most demanding setting combination never drops below 76 FPS.

The measured frame-time data, where available, supports this recommendation. The Medium preset at 1080p shows a minimum of 240 FPS and a maximum of 325 FPS, for a spread of 85 FPS, while at 1440p the same preset ranges from 173 to 234 FPS, a 61 FPS spread. The Ultra preset, while not having min/max values recorded, maintains an average that is consistently high enough that the lack of variance data is not a concern. For players with high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p or 1440p, the Ultra preset is the only sensible choice, as it keeps the average above 120 FPS at both resolutions while providing the best-looking version of the game.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 22 chip, featuring 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a game like Inside that has relatively modest texture requirements. The GPU's clock speeds are listed at a base of 2150 MHz and a boost of 2600 MHz, with a game clock of 2495 MHz, and these frequencies translate into a pixel rate of 166.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 416.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 13.31 TFLOPS places this GPU in the 71st percentile of all GPUs, according to the benchmark database.

The GPU's role in Inside is primarily to push high frame rates with minimal effort, as the game's visual style uses simple geometry and flat shading techniques. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the GPU maintains an average of 76 FPS, which is a strong indicator that the card is never the bottleneck in this title. The measured performance at lower settings confirms this: at 1080p Low, the GPU produces 353 FPS, which is likely hitting a ceiling imposed by the CPU or the game engine rather than the graphics hardware itself. The 12 GB VRAM allocation is also overkill for a game released in 2016, and the memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s ensures that there are no texture streaming bottlenecks even at 4K resolution.

Compared to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the RX 6750 XT has an average benchmark score of 26011, placing it 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M395X, 0.6% ahead of the AMD FirePro W7100, 0.7% ahead of the AMD FirePro D700, and 1.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile. These deltas are small, but the RX 6750 XT consistently leads this group, and in Inside specifically, the card's performance is far above what any of these rivals would likely achieve given the data. The GPU's 40 ray tracing cores are irrelevant for this title, as Inside does not use ray-traced effects, but the DirectX 12 Ultimate support ensures compatibility with modern rendering pipelines if the game were ever updated.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is surprisingly small given the jump in pixel count. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 168 to 121, a 28% reduction. This is a larger relative drop than the 20% increase in pixel count from 1080p to 1440p, suggesting that the GPU is beginning to feel some pressure at the higher resolution, but the absolute performance remains excellent. The same resolution transition at High settings shows a drop from 177 to 127 FPS, a 28% reduction, while Medium settings drop from 283 to 203 FPS, a 28% reduction, and Low settings drop from 353 to 254 FPS, a 28% reduction.

The scaling from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 is more pronounced. At Ultra settings, the average FPS falls from 121 to 76, a 37% reduction, which is close to the 44% increase in pixel count between these resolutions. This indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at 4K Ultra, though the 76 FPS average still delivers smooth gameplay. At High settings, the drop from 127 to 80 FPS is a 37% reduction, and at Medium settings, the drop from 203 to 128 FPS is a 37% reduction. Low settings at 4K produce 160 FPS, down from 254 FPS at 1440p, a 37% reduction.

The data suggests that the CPU is the limiting component at lower resolutions, particularly at 1080p where the frame rates exceed 350 FPS on Low settings. The CPU's performance ceiling appears to be around 353 FPS, as this is the highest recorded average across all settings and resolutions. As resolution increases, the GPU becomes more relevant, but even at 4K Ultra, the combination maintains a playable frame rate. The scaling pattern shows that this system is well-balanced for Inside, with no single component creating a severe bottleneck until the most demanding configuration is reached, and even then, the performance is acceptable for the game's genre, where precise timing matters more than high frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best setting preset for playing Inside at 1440p with this hardware?

A: The Ultra preset is the optimal choice at 2560x1440, delivering an average of 121 FPS. The High preset only offers a 5% performance increase to 127 FPS, which is imperceptible, while the Medium preset at 203 FPS provides no visual benefit for the higher frame rate.

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

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 76, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play. The High preset reaches 80 FPS, and the Medium preset achieves 128 FPS, so there is substantial headroom even at 4K.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: At 1080p, the CPU appears to be the limiting factor, as the maximum average FPS is 353 on Low settings. As resolution increases to 4K, the GPU becomes more significant, but even at 4K Ultra, the GPU maintains 76 FPS, so neither component is severely strained.

Q: How does the RX 6750 XT compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 6750 XT has an average benchmark score of 26011, which is 0.5% higher than the AMD Radeon R9 M395X, 0.6% higher than the AMD FirePro W7100, 0.7% higher than the AMD FirePro D700, and 1.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile.

Q: What is the frame time variance at Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 Medium, the average FPS is 283 with a minimum of 240 and a maximum of 325. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average is 203 with a minimum of 173 and a maximum of 234. At 3840x2160 Medium, the average is 128 with a minimum of 109 and a maximum of 147.

Q: Is the 12 GB VRAM on the RX 6750 XT necessary for this game?

A: The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory is far more than Inside requires, as the game was released in 2016 with modest texture sizes. The memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s ensures no texture streaming bottlenecks, but the VRAM capacity is not a factor in performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, based on the Arrow Lake architecture built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. This processor sits in the 90th percentile of all CPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 48995.

In Inside, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with enough draw calls and physics updates to maintain high frame rates. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches an average of 353 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's practical limit for this game. The processor's single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 at 4648 points, is strong enough to handle the game's logic efficiently. The multi-core score of 32924 in Cinebench R23 indicates that the CPU has substantial headroom for any background tasks or streaming workloads while gaming.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, which has an average score of 49196 and is 0.4% higher, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 with a score of 49228, which is 0.5% higher. The Intel Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48698, which is 0.6% lower, and the Intel Core i5-14600K scores 48618, which is 0.8% lower. These close deltas indicate that the Ultra 5 245 is competitive with these processors, and in a game like Inside, the differences are irrelevant because the frame rates are already so high. The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads are more than sufficient for a game that likely uses only a few threads, and the 5.10 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded performance is not a limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 353 on Low, 283 on Medium, 177 on High, and 168 on Ultra. The Medium preset has a recorded minimum of 240 FPS and a maximum of 325 FPS, showing a consistent frame delivery with no significant dips. The difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is only 9 FPS, which is a 5% reduction for the maximum visual quality. The Low preset's 353 FPS is the highest recorded average in the entire dataset, indicating that this is the performance ceiling for the CPU-GPU combination.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 254 on Low, 203 on Medium, 127 on High, and 121 on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 173 FPS and a maximum of 234 FPS, with the spread being 61 FPS. The High and Ultra presets are separated by only 6 FPS, again a 5% difference, making Ultra the clear recommendation for 1440p gaming. The Low preset at 254 FPS is still far above any display's refresh rate, so the visual compromise is unnecessary.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are 160 on Low, 128 on Medium, 80 on High, and 76 on Ultra. The Medium preset has a minimum of 109 FPS and a maximum of 147 FPS, indicating that even at 4K, the frame delivery is smooth and consistent. The High preset at 80 FPS and Ultra at 76 FPS are within 5% of each other, making Ultra the preferred choice for 4K displays. The Low preset at 160 FPS shows that the GPU still has significant headroom at 4K, but the visual quality loss is not justified when Ultra maintains a playable frame rate.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: the jump from Low to Medium provides a substantial FPS reduction of approximately 20%, while the jump from High to Ultra provides only a 5% reduction. This indicates that the Ultra preset is the most efficient in terms of visual quality per frame, and the data strongly supports its use as the default setting for this game on this hardware. The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is overkill for Inside, but it delivers a flawless experience at any resolution or setting.