Inside

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 delivers exceptional performance in Inside, a 2D puzzle platformer that is far more demanding on raw frame throughput than its minimalist art style suggests. This combination produces triple-digit frame rates at every resolution and setting tier tested, with the data showing a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at 4K but transitions to a more balanced profile as resolution drops. The benchmark results place this configuration in the 80th percentile of all tested combos, a strong showing for a desktop pairing built around current-generation silicon.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear shift in system bottleneck behavior. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 435.4 FPS, a figure that is almost certainly constrained by CPU thread scheduling and draw-call overhead rather than the GPU. Moving to 1440p Low drops performance to 308.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 29%, while 4K Low yields 194.3 FPS, another 37% decline from the 1440p result. This steep scaling curve at Low settings indicates that the RX 9070 has substantial headroom at lower resolutions, and the Core Ultra 7 265K’s 20 cores and 20 threads are feeding frames fast enough to keep the GPU busy.

The pattern changes dramatically at Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 207.1 FPS; at 1440p Ultra it drops to 148.7 FPS; at 4K Ultra it falls further to 93.9 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is about 28%, nearly identical to the Low-setting scaling, but the 4K-to-1440p drop at Ultra is 37%, matching the Low-setting trajectory. This consistency suggests that Inside’s rendering load scales almost linearly with pixel count, and the RX 9070’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth are sufficient to avoid memory-related stutters even at 4K Ultra.

The most telling data point is the gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, the difference is 228.3 FPS (435.4 vs 207.1), a massive swing that highlights how much of the GPU’s compute capacity is being reserved for visual effects like volumetric lighting and post-processing. At 4K, the same Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 100.4 FPS, which means the GPU is the limiting factor at that resolution regardless of settings. The data clearly indicates that for 4K gaming with this title, the RX 9070 is the primary constraint, while at 1080p the CPU’s ability to issue draw calls becomes the ceiling.

FAQ

*Q: What is the maximum average frame rate this combo achieves in Inside?*

A: The highest recorded average is 435.4 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the absolute ceiling for this pairing in the tested configurations.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 93.9 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay but below the 100+ FPS figures seen at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the Core Ultra 7 265K or the RX 9070 the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the system hits 435.4 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s frame-delivery limit given that the RX 9070’s 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 compute could theoretically push more pixels in a lighter scene. The CPU’s 3.90 GHz base and 5.50 GHz boost clocks are the relevant factors here.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings produce 250.5 FPS while High settings yield 156.1 FPS. The delta of 94.4 FPS represents the cost of the additional graphical features enabled by the High preset.

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested CPU-GPU pairings for Inside?*

A: The combination ranks 333rd out of 1671 tested combos, placing it in the top 20% of all configurations. This is a strong result for a desktop platform using DDR5 memory.

Q: Does the RX 9070’s 16 GB memory capacity affect 4K performance?

A: The data shows no memory-related performance cliff at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 93.9 FPS is consistent with the scaling pattern from lower resolutions, and the 644.6 GB/s memory bandwidth appears sufficient for this title’s texture and buffer demands.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process at TSMC. Its base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, which is critical for a game like Inside that relies heavily on physics calculations and scripted sequences. The CPU’s benchmark results support this: it scores 7,060 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 50,009 in multi-core, placing it in the 97th percentile of all CPUs.

In Inside, the CPU’s role becomes most apparent at 1080p Low, where the frame rate reaches 435.4 FPS. This is well above what most displays can show, but the data suggests the CPU is still the limiting factor at that resolution and setting. The 20 cores do not all get utilized by a 2D platformer, but the high boost clock ensures that the few threads that are active can issue rendering commands quickly. The processor’s 30 MB of shared L3 cache also helps keep frequently accessed game data close to the cores, reducing memory latency.

The CPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals is tight. The Core Ultra 7 265KF scores 79,240 in average benchmark score, just 0.2% higher than the 265K’s 79,102. The Intel Core i9-14900KF is also only 0.2% ahead, while the Core i9-14900K is 0.9% behind. The AMD EPYC 7413 trails by 1.2%. These margins are negligible in real-world gaming, and the 265K’s 125 W TDP makes it a power-efficient choice for sustained frame delivery. The CPU’s integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 execution units is irrelevant for this discrete GPU configuration, but it confirms the processor is a modern, fully-featured desktop part.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 1,671 CPU-GPU combinations tested in Inside, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and AMD Radeon RX 9070 achieves a rank of 333. This places it in the 80th percentile of all configurations, meaning roughly 20% of tested combos deliver higher frame rates. Given that the RX 9070 sits in the 79th percentile of all GPUs and the 265K in the 97th percentile of all CPUs, the combo’s overall rank is slightly below what the CPU percentile alone would suggest, indicating that the GPU is the more significant limiter in this title.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in benchmark score are the NVIDIA A2 (0.2% lower), the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (0.3% higher), the AMD Radeon HD 7970 (0.7% higher), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 (0.8% higher). These are not gaming-focused competitors, which underscores that the RX 9070’s 25,381 Passmark G3D score is strong but not elite. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6,290 confirms the GPU’s DirectX 12 Ultimate capabilities, which Inside does not heavily exploit due to its simpler rendering pipeline.

The rank of 333 out of 1,671 is impressive for a platform that costs more than entry-level alternatives, but the data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in most scenarios. At 4K Ultra, the 93.9 FPS result is likely close to what any modern CPU would achieve with the RX 9070, as the GPU’s pixel throughput becomes the wall. At 1080p Low, the 435.4 FPS result demonstrates that the CPU can keep up with the GPU’s output, but the rank would likely improve with a higher-end GPU such as a flagship RDNA 4 or Ada Lovelace part.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 435.4 FPS, Medium yields 346.2 FPS, High drops to 215.8 FPS, and Ultra settles at 207.1 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 20.5% reduction, while the step from Medium to High is a 37.7% reduction. The High-to-Ultra gap is only 4.0%, suggesting that Ultra adds minimal overhead over High at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales predictably. Low settings produce 308.8 FPS, Medium yields 250.5 FPS, High drops to 156.1 FPS, and Ultra settles at 148.7 FPS. The Low-to-Medium gap is 18.9%, the Medium-to-High gap is 37.7%, and the High-to-Ultra gap is 4.7%. The pattern is nearly identical to 1080p, confirming that the GPU is handling the resolution increase without any unexpected penalties.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain playable but the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low settings produce 194.3 FPS, Medium yields 158.6 FPS, High drops to 101.1 FPS, and Ultra settles at 93.9 FPS. The Low-to-Medium gap is 18.4%, the Medium-to-High gap is 36.2%, and the High-to-Ultra gap is 7.1%. The 4K Ultra result of 93.9 FPS is still well above the 60 FPS target for most displays, but the data shows that the RX 9070’s 128 ROPs and 322.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are being fully exercised at this resolution.

Across all resolutions, the Medium-to-High transition is the most costly in percentage terms, indicating that the High preset enables effects that disproportionately impact fill rate. The Low-to-Medium and High-to-Ultra transitions are comparatively modest, suggesting that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for maximizing frame rate while retaining visual fidelity. The data consistently shows that this combo can deliver smooth, high-refresh-rate gameplay in Inside at any resolution, with 4K Ultra being the only configuration that dips below 100 FPS.