Inside

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 delivers a surprisingly robust experience in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer. The measured data shows this combination is capable of high frame rates across most settings, though the GTX 1070’s age becomes apparent at the highest presets and resolutions. The data reveals a clear hierarchy where the CPU provides ample headroom, leaving the GPU as the primary determinant of performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of how the game scales with settings. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 110 FPS, which is already well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, the Medium preset at the same resolution produces an average of 184 FPS, with a minimum of 157 FPS and a maximum of 212 FPS. This represents a substantial 67% increase in average frame rate over Ultra. The jump from Medium to Low at 1080p is even more significant, with the average climbing to 231 FPS, but the visual fidelity loss is typically not worth the extra frames for a game like Inside.

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the standout choice. It provides a 74 FPS advantage over Ultra while maintaining a minimum frame rate of 157 FPS, which ensures no noticeable stuttering during the game’s atmospheric, physics-heavy sequences. The High preset at 1080p, with an average of 115 FPS, is also viable, but the data shows that Medium offers a 60% higher average without a proportional drop in visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again proves to be the sweet spot. The average of 133 FPS is comfortably playable, and the measured minimum of 113 FPS indicates consistent performance. The Ultra preset at this resolution drops to 79 FPS, which is still technically playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The High preset at 1440p matches the 4K Medium result at 83 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is the limiting factor when pushing higher resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the options narrow considerably. The Medium preset is the only viable choice for a smooth experience, with an average of 83 FPS and a minimum of 71 FPS. The High preset at 52 FPS and Ultra at 50 FPS are borderline, and the Low preset at 104 FPS sacrifices too much visual detail for a puzzle platformer that relies heavily on atmosphere and lighting. The data indicates that Medium at 4K is the maximum playable setting, while Medium at 1080p or 1440p offers the best overall experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, built on the Pascal architecture with a 16 nm process, is the workhorse in this pairing. Its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical asset for Inside’s detailed environments. The GPU’s base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz are modest by modern standards, but the measured FPS data shows that this hardware is still capable of delivering high frame rates in this specific title.

The GTX 1070’s 1920 shading units and 64 ROPs are directly responsible for the pixel and texture throughput that Inside demands. The GPU’s 107.7 GPixel/s pixel rate and 202.0 GTexel/s texture rate explain why the game scales so predictably across resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the GPU produces 184 FPS, but this drops to 133 FPS at 1440p and 83 FPS at 4K. This scaling pattern suggests that the GTX 1070 is fully utilized at higher resolutions, but at 1080p, the frame rates are so high that the CPU’s role becomes more prominent.

The GPU benchmark scores corroborate this performance level. The passmark G3D score of 13498 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1082 indicate that the GTX 1070 is positioned in the 47th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD FirePro W5000 with a deltaPct of -0.2% and the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M with -0.5%, are all within a 0.7% margin, showing that the GTX 1070 is a mid-pack performer in synthetic tests. However, in Inside, the actual gameplay numbers are far more favorable than the percentile ranking might suggest, indicating that this game is not particularly demanding on GPU resources.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is never a bottleneck in the measured data. Even at 4K Ultra, the game runs at 50 FPS, which would typically cause VRAM-related stuttering if the memory were insufficient. The fact that the frame rates drop smoothly from 4K Medium (83 FPS) to 4K High (52 FPS) suggests that the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth, rather than capacity, are the limiting factors at higher settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals important information about the system’s bottleneck. At Medium settings, the average frame rate falls from 184 FPS at 1080p to 133 FPS at 1440p, a 28% reduction, and then to 83 FPS at 4K, a 55% reduction from the 1440p figure. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component as resolution increases.

The pattern is consistent across all settings. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 115 FPS at 1080p to 83 FPS at 1440p and 52 FPS at 4K. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 110 FPS to 79 FPS to 50 FPS. The Low setting shows the largest absolute drop, falling from 231 FPS at 1080p to 166 FPS at 1440p and 104 FPS at 4K. This consistent scaling across all presets confirms that the GPU’s shading and memory bandwidth are the constraining factors.

Interestingly, the frame rate at 1440p High (83 FPS) is identical to the frame rate at 4K Medium (83 FPS). This suggests that the GPU is hitting a performance ceiling around this output level, regardless of whether the workload is resolution-driven or settings-driven. The implication is that the GTX 1070 can maintain a certain level of pixel throughput, and beyond that, performance degrades rapidly.

The minimum frame rate data at Medium settings provides additional insight. At 1080p, the minimum is 157 FPS, which is 85% of the average. At 1440p, the minimum is 113 FPS, also 85% of the average. At 4K, the minimum is 71 FPS, which is 86% of the average. This consistent ratio suggests that the game’s frame time variance is stable across resolutions, and the GPU is handling the workload uniformly without sudden spikes or drops.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination in Inside is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 231 FPS. The Medium preset produces an average of 184 FPS, with a minimum of 157 FPS and a maximum of 212 FPS. The High preset yields an average of 115 FPS. The Ultra preset delivers an average of 110 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 166 FPS. The Medium preset averages 133 FPS, with a minimum of 113 FPS and a maximum of 153 FPS. The High preset averages 83 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 79 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 104 FPS. The Medium preset averages 83 FPS, with a minimum of 71 FPS and a maximum of 96 FPS. The High preset averages 52 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 50 FPS.

The 1080p Medium result of 184 FPS is the most impressive figure in the dataset, as it shows that the system has substantial headroom for a game running at high refresh rates. The difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is only 5 FPS (115 vs 110), which is negligible and suggests that the Ultra preset offers no meaningful visual benefit over High for this hardware. At 1440p, the gap between High and Ultra widens slightly to 4 FPS (83 vs 79), and at 4K, the gap narrows to 2 FPS (52 vs 50). This convergence at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is saturated and the settings have diminishing returns.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in Inside?*

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 with the Medium preset provides an excellent experience with an average of 133 FPS and a minimum of 113 FPS. This resolution offers a balance between visual fidelity and performance, as the 4K Medium preset drops to 83 FPS, while 1080p Medium exceeds 180 FPS but offers less visual detail.

Q: Can this system handle the Ultra preset at 1080p?

A: Yes, the measured data shows an average of 110 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Ultra preset. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, the High preset at 115 FPS offers nearly identical performance with only a 5 FPS difference, suggesting that Ultra provides minimal benefit.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1070 has an average benchmark score of 9780, which places it in the 47th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD FirePro W5000, scores 9803 with a deltaPct of -0.2%. The NVIDIA Quadro M2000M scores 9832 with -0.5%, while the NVIDIA Tesla M10 scores 9724 with +0.6%. These differences are all within 0.7%, indicating very similar synthetic performance.

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

A: The resolution scaling data indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor. The frame rate drops by 55% from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings, which is a classic sign of GPU saturation. The CPU, with a 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs, has significant headroom that is not fully utilized.

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

A: The minimum frame rate at 3840x2160 with the Medium preset is 71 FPS, with an average of 83 FPS. This is fully playable and provides a smooth experience, as the minimum does not drop below the 60 FPS threshold.

*Q: How does the GTX 1070’s memory configuration affect Inside performance?*

A: The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The consistent frame rates across resolutions suggest that this bandwidth is sufficient for Inside, as there are no sudden drops that would indicate memory-related stuttering.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor built on the Arrow Lake architecture with a 3 nm process. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide substantial single-thread performance, which is crucial for a game like Inside that relies on physics and puzzle mechanics. The CPU’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core ensure that game data is readily accessible.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 245 demonstrates its strength. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32924 and single-core score of 4648 indicate strong performance across both multi-threaded and single-threaded workloads. The Passmark single-thread score of 4394 further confirms the CPU’s capability in tasks that require high clock speeds.

The CPU’s 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48995, places it in the top tier of processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G with a deltaPct of -0.4% and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 with -0.5%, showing that the Core Ultra 5 245 is competitive with high-end chips. The Intel Core i5-14600K trails by 0.8%, while the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H leads by 0.6%.

In Inside, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The measured FPS data suggests that the Core Ultra 5 245 is never the bottleneck, as frame rates scale smoothly with GPU load. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 231 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s maximum output for this game, but this is far above any playable threshold. The CPU’s 14 cores and 14 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks and the game’s processing demands.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and support for DDR5 memory are additional assets. While Inside is not a memory-intensive game, the high bandwidth ensures that data transfers between the CPU and GPU do not introduce latency. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 64EU is present but irrelevant for this discrete GPU configuration, as the GTX 1070 handles all rendering duties.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination ranks 2370 out of 2887 tested combos in Inside. This places the system in the 18th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning that 82% of tested combos achieve higher performance in this game. This rank is heavily influenced by the GTX 1070, which is an older GPU with a 47th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The CPU’s high ranking (90th percentile) is offset by the GPU’s mid-pack position, resulting in a combined rank that suggests the system is capable but not at the top tier. The data shows that this combo can achieve 110 FPS at 1080p Ultra and 83 FPS at 4K Medium, which are respectable figures, but many other tested combos with newer GPUs likely achieve higher frame rates.

The combination’s rank in Inside is likely lower than its rank in more CPU-intensive games, as this puzzle platformer is not particularly demanding on processor resources. The GTX 1070’s 47th percentile GPU ranking is the primary constraint. The nearest rival GPUs, such as the AMD FirePro W5000, are all workstation or older cards, indicating that the GTX 1070 is at the lower end of the consumer GPU spectrum in 2025.

Despite the rank, the actual gameplay experience is positive. The measured FPS data shows that the system can achieve high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with medium to high settings, and even at 4K with medium settings. The rank of 2370 out of 2887 reflects the hardware’s age, but the performance in Inside specifically is more than adequate for a smooth, immersive experience. The data suggests that for this particular game, the combo is well-balanced, with the CPU providing enough power to keep the GPU fed at all settings and resolutions.