Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that, on paper, should not stress modern hardware. Yet, the measured data for the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile combination reveals a fascinating performance curve that scales dramatically with settings and resolution. The benchmark results indicate that this is a system capable of delivering everything from ultra-high refresh rates at 1080p to a smooth 4K experience, but the path between those points is not perfectly linear, presenting a series of trade-offs worth investigating.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data offers a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 314 FPS, while the Medium preset is close behind at 290 FPS. The High preset drops to 193 FPS, and the Ultra preset yields 184 FPS. Given that the game is a puzzle platformer, the primary goal is a flawless, tear-free experience, and both Low and Medium at 1080p far exceed what any standard display can show. The data suggests that the Medium preset is the optimal choice at this resolution, as it provides a negligible performance cost (24 FPS less than Low) while presumably offering a significantly better visual experience. The jump from Medium to High is steep (a 97 FPS drop), indicating that High introduces a substantial rendering load that may not be worth the visual gain when the Medium preset already delivers 290 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern holds. Low and Medium presets deliver 278 FPS and 222 FPS respectively, which are both exceptional figures. High and Ultra drop to 139 FPS and 132 FPS. Here, the Medium preset remains the sweet spot for competitive or high-refresh-rate play, but High begins to look viable for those prioritizing image quality over sheer frame rate. The 139 FPS average at High is still very fluid and would be an excellent experience on a 120Hz or 144Hz monitor. The Ultra preset's 132 FPS is only marginally lower, suggesting that at 1440p, the gap between High and Ultra has narrowed, making Ultra a tempting option for maxing out the game's visuals without sacrificing a high frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the entire character of the benchmark changes. The Low preset delivers 175 FPS, which is still a phenomenal result for 4K. Medium follows at 140 FPS, and High drops to 87 FPS. Ultra is the most demanding, yielding an average of 83 FPS. The best experience at 4K is a balancing act. The Medium preset, with an average of 140 FPS and a minimum of 119 FPS, provides a flawless, high-refresh-rate 4K experience. The Low preset's 175 FPS is even faster but may compromise visual fidelity. High and Ultra, while playable, dip below the 100 FPS mark, which some users might find less ideal on high-refresh displays. The data points to the Medium preset as the definitive recommendation for 4K, as it is the only preset that combines a high average frame rate with a very high minimum frame rate, ensuring consistent smoothness.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile is the undisputed workhorse in this configuration for this game. The data clearly shows that the GPU's capabilities are the primary driver of the performance differences between presets. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. This is a massive amount of memory bandwidth, which is likely a key reason why even the Low preset at 4K can achieve 175 FPS; the GPU is not starved for data. The 12 GB frame buffer is also more than sufficient for a game like Inside, even at 4K with Ultra settings, so there is no indication of memory capacity being a limiting factor.

The GPU's clock speeds are interesting, with a base of 847 MHz and a boost of 1447 MHz. The relatively wide gap between these clocks suggests that the GPU has significant thermal and power headroom to dynamically adjust its frequency based on the load. In lighter scenes, it can likely boost to its maximum, while in more complex scenes, it may settle lower. With 5888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units, the RTX 5070 Ti Mobile has the raw computational power to drive the game's visuals. The data shows that the Ultra preset is only about 6% slower than High at 4K (83 FPS vs 87 FPS), which is a surprisingly small penalty. This suggests that the Ultra preset's additional visual effects are not particularly taxing on this GPU, and the performance ceiling at 4K Ultra is still well within the playable range.

The GPU's compute capabilities, while powerful, seem almost overkill for this title. The benchmark results show a passmark G3D score of 24004, highlighting its overall strength. The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is more indicative of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p High, the CPU likely plays a larger role, but as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck. The fact that the RTX 5070 Ti Mobile can maintain an average of 83 FPS at 4K Ultra reflects its performance, placing it in the 80th percentile of all GPUs. This indicates that for the vast majority of games, this GPU will provide a high-end experience, and for a lighter title like Inside, it delivers an exceptional one.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions provides a clear picture of how the system scales with rendering load. At the High preset, the frame rate drops from 193 FPS at 1080p to 139 FPS at 1440p and further to 87 FPS at 4K. This is a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario. The performance hit from 1080p to 1440p is a 28% decrease, which is roughly in line with the increase in pixel count. The drop from 1440p to 4K is even more pronounced, a 37% decrease, which corresponds to the even larger jump in pixel count (from 3.7 million to 8.3 million pixels). This scaling shows that the RTX 5070 Ti Mobile is working progressively harder as resolution increases, and its performance scales predictably with the rendering workload.

The Low preset shows a different scaling pattern. It achieves 314 FPS at 1080p, 278 FPS at 1440p, and 175 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 11%, which is much less than the pixel count increase would suggest. This implies that at the Low preset, the bottleneck is not purely the GPU's pixel processing power. At these very high frame rates, the CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, may be starting to limit the frame rate. The drop from 1440p to 4K is a more significant 37%, indicating that at 4K, the GPU's pixel fill rate becomes the limiting factor once again. This suggests a point of equilibrium where the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU up to a certain frame rate, but beyond that, the GPU's rendering capabilities take over.

The Medium preset offers the most complete data, including min and max FPS. At 1080p, it averages 290 FPS with a min of 246 and a max of 333. At 1440p, the average is 222 FPS with a min of 189 and a max of 256. At 4K, the average is 140 FPS with a min of 119 and a max of 161. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is a 23% drop, and from 1440p to 4K is a 37% drop. This pattern is much more consistent, showing that the Medium preset is more uniformly GPU-bound. The min FPS at 4K (119 FPS) is still very high, indicating a stable performance profile without significant stutters. The data suggests that for a smooth experience, the Medium preset is the most reliable, as it provides a high frame rate with a tight range between min and max, ensuring the game feels consistently fluid.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo can achieve in Inside?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 314, which is achieved at the 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: Is the RTX 5070 Ti Mobile powerful enough to run Inside at 4K with high refresh rates?

A: Yes, the data shows that at 3840x2160 with the Medium preset, the system achieves an average of 140 FPS with a minimum of 119 FPS. This indicates a very smooth and high-refresh-rate 4K experience is possible.

Q: How does the Ultra preset performance compare to the High preset at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 139 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 132 FPS. The Ultra preset is only about 5% slower, making it a viable option for maximum visual quality at that resolution.

Q: Which component is more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The performance scaling suggests the CPU may be a limiting factor at these high frame rates. The drop from 1080p Low (314 FPS) to 1440p Low (278 FPS) is only 11%, which is less than the pixel count increase, hinting that the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H might be nearing its limit in feeding the GPU at such extreme frame rates.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded for this system in Inside?

A: The lowest average FPS recorded is 83, which occurs at the 3840x2160 resolution with the Ultra settings preset.

Q: Does the game's performance vary significantly between the High and Ultra presets at 4K?

A: The difference is small. At 3840x2160, the High preset averages 87 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 83 FPS. This is a negligible 4 FPS difference, suggesting the Ultra preset is efficiently optimized.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is a 16-core, 22-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz, and its 24 MB of shared L3 cache provides ample space for game data. While this is a powerful mobile CPU, the benchmark data suggests its role in Inside is secondary to the GPU, except in specific scenarios. The CPU's performance is highlighted by its Cinebench R23 scores of 15028 multi-core and 1743 single-core, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. This indicates it has substantial processing power.

The interesting evidence for the CPU's role comes from the 1080p Low and Medium results. The jump from Low (314 FPS) to Medium (290 FPS) is only 24 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High (193 FPS) is a massive 97 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that at the lower presets, the CPU is capable of processing the game's logic and draw calls fast enough to keep up with the GPU, but the frame rate is being capped by the CPU's single-thread performance. The game, being a puzzle platformer, likely has significant single-threaded logic that must be processed each frame. The Core Ultra 7 155H's single-core performance, while excellent, appears to be the limiting factor when the GPU is not heavily taxed.

This hypothesis is supported by the 1440p and 4K data. At 1440p Low, the FPS drops to 278, and at 4K Low, it drops to 175. The GPU is now taking on more of the rendering load, and the system becomes more balanced. The CPU's multi-threading capabilities become relevant in ensuring a stable frame time, preventing stutters, even if it is not the primary driver of the maximum frame rate. The data implies that the Core Ultra 7 155H is more than adequate for this game, and its performance will not be a detriment at standard resolutions and settings. However, for those seeking the absolute maximum frame rate above 300 FPS, the CPU is the component that sets the ceiling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measurements provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows:

• Low: Average FPS of 314.
• Medium: Average FPS of 290, with a minimum of 246 and a maximum of 333.
• High: Average FPS of 193.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 184.

At 2560x1440, the results are as follows:

• Low: Average FPS of 278.
• Medium: Average FPS of 222, with a minimum of 189 and a maximum of 256.
• High: Average FPS of 139.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 132.

At 3840x2160, the results are as follows:

• Low: Average FPS of 175.
• Medium: Average FPS of 140, with a minimum of 119 and a maximum of 161.
• High: Average FPS of 87.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 83.

These numbers show a consistent trend: the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and quality across all resolutions, with the most complete data set including min and max FPS. The High and Ultra presets are close in performance, particularly at higher resolutions, but come at a significant cost compared to Medium. The Low preset is the fastest but may not offer the intended visual experience.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile is ranked 1389 out of 3716 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the top 37% of all systems tested for this game. This is a solid ranking, but it might seem modest given the high-end nature of the GPU. The reason for this ranking becomes clear when considering the CPU. While the RTX 5070 Ti Mobile is an exceptionally powerful GPU (80th percentile), the Core Ultra 7 155H is a high-end mobile CPU (83rd percentile), but it is not the absolute best available. Many of the 3716 combos will include desktop-class CPUs, which have significantly higher single-threaded performance than any mobile chip.

This ranking suggests that while this system provides a fantastic gaming experience for Inside, it is not the absolute top-tier configuration. The data indicates that the GPU has more to give, especially at lower resolutions and settings, but the CPU's performance ceiling prevents the system from achieving the very highest frame rates that a more powerful desktop processor could unlock. The combo rank of 1389 out of 3716 proves the system's overall strength, but it also highlights the CPU as the component that holds this combo back from competing with the elite desktop systems in the database. For a laptop, this is an incredibly powerful combination, but in the grand scheme of all tested configurations, it sits in the upper-middle tier, with its performance ultimately being a balance of two very capable, but not class-leading, components.