Inside

Inside is a 2D puzzle-platformer originally released in 2016, and its modest visual demands make it an interesting case study for high-refresh-rate gaming. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER across three resolutions and four settings presets. The data reveals a configuration capable of extreme frame rates at lower resolutions, with performance scaling that transitions from a CPU-bound regime at 1080p to a GPU-bound regime at 4K. All figures cited are drawn from the provided measurement set.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression across resolutions clearly illustrates where the bottleneck shifts within this system. At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 155 at 1920x1080 to 111 at 2560x1440, a reduction of approximately 28%. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average falls to 70 FPS, which represents a 55% decrease from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that becomes increasingly saturated as pixel count rises, with the most significant absolute loss occurring between 1440p and 4K.

The Low preset demonstrates an even more dramatic scaling curve. At 1080p, the system achieves 310 FPS average, which drops to 223 FPS at 1440p (a 28% decline) and then to 140 FPS at 4K (a 55% decline from 1080p). The fact that the 1080p Low result exceeds 300 FPS suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high rates, but the GPU's rendering workload at higher resolutions becomes the dominant constraint.

The Medium preset provides the only complete set of minimum and maximum frame time data in the measurements. At 3840x2160, the average is 112 FPS with a minimum of 95 and a maximum of 129, indicating a relatively tight frame pacing window. At 2560x1440, the average rises to 178 FPS with a spread of 151 to 205. The 1080p Medium result reaches 248 FPS average, with a 210 to 285 range. This data suggests that the 4K frame time variance is proportionally larger compared to lower resolutions, which aligns with the GPU working closer to its limits.

The Ultra preset shows the smallest absolute frame rates, with 147 FPS at 1080p, 106 FPS at 1440p, and 67 FPS at 4K. The delta between High and Ultra at each resolution is consistent at roughly 8-9 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds a relatively uniform load increase regardless of pixel count. Overall, the scaling behavior indicates that at 1080p, the system is often limited by the game's engine or CPU throughput, while at 4K, the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB frame buffer and compute resources become the primary limiter.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 155 FPS. This is well above standard 60 Hz displays and approaches the refresh rate of many high-end 144 Hz monitors, though it falls short of the 310 FPS achieved on Low settings.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER capable of 4K gaming in Inside?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High settings, the average is 70 FPS, which is playable on a 60 Hz display. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 67 FPS, while dropping to Low yields 140 FPS, showing that the GPU has headroom if settings are reduced.

Q: How significant is the difference between Medium and High settings?

A: At 1080p, Medium produces 248 FPS average versus 155 FPS on High, a 60% improvement. At 1440p, the gap narrows to 178 FPS versus 111 FPS (also roughly 60%). At 4K, Medium reaches 112 FPS versus 70 FPS on High, maintaining a similar proportional advantage.

Q: Which resolution provides the best balance for high refresh rate displays?

A: The 1440p Medium preset delivers 178 FPS average, which comfortably exceeds 144 Hz refresh rates. This is a strong candidate for smooth gameplay, as it offers a 60% higher frame rate than 1440p High while maintaining the same resolution.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU plays a larger role at 1080p. The Low preset reaches 310 FPS, while Ultra only achieves 147 FPS. The large spread between presets at the same resolution indicates that the GPU is not saturated even at Low, leaving the CPU as a potential constraint for achieving maximum frame rates.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the measurements?

A: The only min FPS values provided are for the Medium preset: 95 FPS at 4K, 151 FPS at 1440p, and 210 FPS at 1080p. These figures indicate that even the lowest frames stay well above 60 FPS at all resolutions tested.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its 30 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory contribute to its strong synthetic performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216 and a single-core score of 5960. The processor sits in the 93rd percentile compared to all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 64640 places it within 1% of rivals like the AMD EPYC 4464P and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F.

In the context of Inside, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics updates. The game's 2D nature means that the rendering workload is relatively light, which is why the system can push past 300 FPS at 1080p Low. The 20 cores are more than sufficient for a title of this complexity, and the high single-thread performance from the 5.30 GHz boost clock is likely the more relevant factor for maintaining high frame rates.

The PassMark single-thread score of 4689 and the Cinebench R20 single-core score of 884 indicate strong per-core performance, which is critical for games that rely heavily on a single main thread. The data supports the conclusion that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at any resolution tested, as frame rates scale predictably with resolution and settings changes. Even at the highest frame rate measured (310 FPS at 1080p Low), the CPU is able to sustain the workload without becoming a limiting factor.

Interestingly, the CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database are server-class EPYC processors, which have similar average scores but are designed for entirely different workloads. This highlights that the Core Ultra 7 265 is a high-performance desktop part that exceeds the requirements of Inside by a wide margin. The 65 W TDP and 3 nm process node also suggest efficient operation, though power consumption is not directly measured in the game's frame rate data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset averages 310 FPS, which is the maximum recorded in the entire dataset. Medium produces 248 FPS with a minimum of 210 and a maximum of 285, showing a tight frame window. High settings yield 155 FPS, while Ultra drops to 147 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is substantial, with Ultra delivering less than half the frame rate of Low.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low averages 223 FPS, Medium averages 178 FPS (with a 151-205 range), High averages 111 FPS, and Ultra averages 106 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 151 FPS is notable, as it remains above the 144 Hz threshold for most high-refresh monitors. The difference between High and Ultra at this resolution is only 5 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns from the Ultra preset's additional effects.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 2070 SUPER begins to show its age relative to newer GPUs. Low averages 140 FPS, Medium averages 112 FPS (with a 95-129 range), High averages 70 FPS, and Ultra averages 67 FPS. The 4K Medium result is interesting, as it provides a playable experience above 60 FPS with only a 28% reduction from 1080p Medium, whereas High and Ultra experience larger percentage drops due to the GPU's memory bandwidth and fill rate limits.

The only min and max FPS values available are for the Medium preset, which allows for frame pacing analysis. At 1080p, the frame time variance is approximately 14% (210 to 285 FPS). At 1440p, the variance is about 18% (151 to 205 FPS). At 4K, the variance increases to roughly 18% as well (95 to 129 FPS). This consistency suggests that the Medium preset maintains stable performance across resolutions, with the 4K result being the most likely to exhibit occasional stutters near the 95 FPS minimum.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU104 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, with base and boost clocks of 1605 MHz and 1770 MHz respectively. Its FP32 performance is rated at 9.062 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6.

In the benchmark database, the RTX 2070 SUPER scores 18169 in PassMark G3D and 7557 in PassMark GPU Compute, placing it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score are the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, the RTX 3070 Mobile, and the Intel Arc B570, all within 1.5% of its score. This positions it as a mid-to-high-range GPU from the previous generation, though it is now end-of-life with a successor in the GeForce 30 series.

For Inside, the GPU's role becomes increasingly important as resolution rises. At 1080p, the GPU is often underutilized, as evidenced by the fact that dropping from Ultra to Low more than doubles the frame rate. This indicates that the game's pixel shader workload is light enough for the CPU to become the limiting factor. However, at 4K, the GPU's 8 GB memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to maintain high frame rates, but the compute units are working near capacity.

The 4K results show a clear GPU limitation: at High settings, the average is 70 FPS, and at Ultra it drops to 67 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is hitting a performance ceiling. The fact that Low settings at 4K achieve 140 FPS indicates that the GPU has headroom if visual quality is sacrificed, but the gap between Low and Medium (140 to 112 FPS) is larger than the gap between Medium and High (112 to 70 FPS), implying that certain rendering features in the High preset are particularly demanding.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 248 FPS, which is nearly double the High preset's 155 FPS while still providing enhanced visuals over Low. The minimum frame rate of 210 FPS ensures that even the most demanding scenes stay well above 144 Hz, making this ideal for competitive or fast-paced play.

At 1440p, the Medium preset's 178 FPS average is the standout choice for high-refresh displays. It maintains a 151 FPS minimum, which still exceeds the 144 Hz threshold, and the visual upgrade over Low is substantial. The High preset at 1440p drops to 111 FPS, which is below 144 Hz and may introduce noticeable frame pacing issues on such monitors. Therefore, Medium is recommended for 1440p users seeking smoothness.

For 4K, the Medium preset is the only option that consistently exceeds 60 FPS, with an average of 112 FPS and a minimum of 95 FPS. This makes it the recommended preset for 4K displays, as High and Ultra both fall to around 70 FPS, which is playable but leaves little headroom for frame drops. The Low preset at 4K achieves 140 FPS, but the visual sacrifice is unnecessary given that Medium provides a better experience for most users.

If a user prioritizes maximum visual fidelity and owns a 60 Hz display, the Ultra preset at 1080p (147 FPS) or 1440p (106 FPS) is acceptable, but the frame rate is not high enough to justify the settings on high-refresh monitors. The data consistently shows that Medium is the sweet spot for this GPU-CPU combination, offering frame rates that are 60% higher than High while maintaining a stable frame time distribution as evidenced by the min/max values.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1587 out of 2887 tested combinations for Inside, placing it in the 45th percentile of all configurations. This ranking is modest given the CPU's high percentile (93rd) and the GPU's mid-range position (65th), which reflects the game's light GPU demands and the fact that many other combinations with newer or higher-end GPUs can achieve similar or better frame rates.

The rank indicates that this combo is not among the top performers for Inside, likely because the RTX 2070 SUPER is a previous-generation GPU that has been surpassed by more recent offerings. However, the measured frame rates are excellent in absolute terms, with 4K Medium exceeding 100 FPS and 1080p Low reaching 310 FPS. The ranking should be interpreted in the context of a large database where many combos include newer GPUs with significantly higher raw performance.

The CPU's strong benchmark scores suggest that it is not a limiting factor in this pairing, and the GPU is the primary determinant of the combo's rank. Given that the RTX 2070 SUPER's nearest rivals include the Intel Arc B570 and the RTX 3070 Mobile, the combo's performance is consistent with GPUs in its class. For users with this hardware, the data shows that performance is well above playable thresholds at all settings, even if the combo does not top the charts.